Lenovo
was previously known as Legend. The formation of Legend Holdings, its parent company,
was unusual. China wanted to create a company that would bring the advantages
of IT to Chinese people. In 1984, when the market reforms in China were starting
to take effect, the country's leaders called for the conversion of research and
development results into products that could be marketed.
Excited
about this invitation, 11 scientists from Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), who
were interested in converting the research into products, founded Legend Holdings
along with the Chinese government. In spite of being a state-owned enterprise,
Legend Holdings was structured as a private enterprise from the beginning. Top
level managers run this company as a private enterprise. It was founded with a
capital of 200,000 Yuan (US$24,164). Right from its formation it has tackled many
challenges to become the world's third largest PC maker. And it still has to encounter
even great challenges to become the world's largest PC maker.
In
globalizing, the first challenge a company faces is lack of experience. Legend
tackled this challenge by creating alliances with various leading PC makers in
the world. Among the factors contributing to the success of Legend was the learning
and experience it gained while working with foreign companies. This is evident
from the words of Founder Chairman Liu Chaunzhi, who said, ".We learned from
foreign companies while gaining an understanding of China's computer market. Our
earliest and best teacher was Hewlett-Packard. It was as HP's distributor that
we learned rather thoroughly, how to organize sales channels and how to market."
"One of the reasons Legend is successful is that it has a lot of experience
working with foreign companies like HP," said Finance Chief Mary Ma. It
started off as a distributor and built up distribution networks ahead of marketing
its own goods. Alliances helped Legend understand the market of China and learn
management lessons from the leaders.
|
