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

CHAPTER 8

Sharpen Global Leadership Skills

        Lenovo Principle 7: Commit on a personal level for true cultural integration.

Yolanda’s second meeting with Liu Chuanzhi, via conference call, did not go so well. Since he was the main sponsor of our diversity and culture work, being able to communicate with Chairman Liu was key to our success, but that conversation—done in the morning Beijing time and late in the evening Austin, Texas, time—had been full of awkward pauses as ideas were exchanged through a translator and all the nuances of body language, facial expressions, and eye contact were lost. It was at that point, in the summer of 2009, that Yolanda realized that she needed to relocate to Beijing full-time.

Despite the outside perception ...