The Lenovo Way: Managing a Diverse Global Company for Optimal Performance

CHAPTER 1

Going Global

When Lenovo announced its acquisition of American icon IBM PC (IBM’s personal computer division) in 2005, most people predicted the merger would fail. Few could imagine that a business would be able to absorb another business that was three times its size, least of all one that had its headquarters on the other side of the world. Even some of us inside Lenovo had our moments of doubt.

But, over the course of 30 years, we have transformed ourselves from a tiny Chinese company based in a sparsely furnished guard shack on the outskirts of Beijing into a truly global corporation, with 54,000 employees who speak more than 40 languages and live in more than 50 countries. We are not simply a Chinese company, nor are we a typical ...