Many foreign companies have run into a pile of trouble in China over the past few months. The Chinese government has been investigating the likes of
And companies like Microsoft and Qualcomm are also experiencing notable difficulty collecting royalties on intellectual property from Chinese customers, a number of whom believe that these payment obligations, accepted around the world, should not apply to them.
Against this recalcitrant portrait of an economy of government agencies and local companies hunkered down in defiance of international norms, one company —
Founded in 1984 by a group of professors from the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and originally named Legend, Lenovo has always tried to do the right thing. In the early 2000s, well before the company acquired the PC operations of
Today, Lenovo is the number-one PC company in the world, having surpassed
Yet despite its emphasis on new markets, Lenovo continues to innovate in PCs, bringing new life to a tired product market. Some of that innovation comes from the old IBM PC crew, many of whom are still with the company and based in Raleigh, NC. The ThinkPad notebook has long been a standard in many corporations, and the ThinkPad team keeps the traditional design up to date with new features. But another whole flow of design contribution comes from the Chinese side, particularly in the consumer lineup.
Lenovo’s latest Yoga product introductions demonstrate how the company is shedding light on the digital frontier. The Yoga 3 Pro, a 13.3” convertible Ultrabook (
The Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, a slate with a cylinder along the side, also incorporates clever design choices. The cylinder, introduced in the first edition, originally had two purposes: to provide room for a larger battery and a grip for the user to hold onto. In this latest version, the cylinder takes on two additional roles: to hold a built-in pico projector to pop video or pictures onto any nearby wall and to house an 8-watt 2.1 audio system, including a 5-watt subwoofer. Even with a QHD (2560x1440) 13.3” display, the unit still gets 15 hours of battery life (some credit for this longevity goes to the unit’s power-sipping Intel Atom processor).
These are just a few examples, but Lenovo is able to pay for the intellectual property it uses, innovate on top of that, and charge enough for its innovations to make money while still remaining competitive and growing market share. Part of the secret of profitability is the company’s backend operations, which represent the best of Chinese supply chain efficiency.
And no Lenovo narrative would be complete without a reference to the company’s marketing. Initially primitive, it rose from simplistic Chinese origins to today’s full-on worldwide campaign, much of which has been led by David Roman, the marketing guru whom Lenovo poached from HP after his wildly successful “Hands” campaign there. The Lenovo equivalent is called the “Do” campaign, which features active people using computers. In addition, Lenovo has hired Ashton Kutcher, who played Steve Jobs in the movie Jobs, to act as both product design adviser and pitchman and has built a series of advertisements around him.
Finally, any explanation of how this all came about has to take into account the guiding spirit overseeing this rise from obscure Chinese PC company to worldwide colossus: Yang Yuanqing. Yang, one of the founders, for years after buying IBM’s PC division put his faith in American managers, first Steve Ward of IBM and then Bill Amelio of
The company’s international assets include former
So, at a time when many Chinese companies are looking more and more parochial to the international community, Lenovo is making clear strides toward becoming a highly successful multinational firm that plays hard — but plays fair.
