Ask an American to name the top five PC brands, and you’ll hear a lot of this:
Dell, HP, Apple, IBM.
Dell, IBM, Mac.
Hewlett-Packard, Dell. Gateway is still making computers?
And then you won’t hear much Lenovo. In 2005, Lenovo burst onto the global stage when it bought the PC operations of IBM, then the world’s third biggest PC maker. Five years later, it's in fourth position globally, but it doesn’t even rank in the top tier of US or Western European sales.
So, what went wrong? Well, it’s a combination of factors, say analysts: a failure to create a global brand awareness, a lack of innovation and, many industry watchers say, the cultural issues linked to the merger of a blueblood American corporate icon with a home-grown Chinese powerhouse.
The highest profile casualty was American CEO Bill Amelio, ousted at the end of the year 2009 after three years in Lenovo. The global financial crisis didn't help either. Lenovo’s two key drivers of growth - corporate clients and China sales -had both slumped during the slowdown. And while competitors have hit it big with innovation, like Apple’s iPad or the Eee PC netbook from ASUS, Lenovo is still waiting for its own game changer.
I think Lenovo understands the, that it needs to shift from being a follower to being a leader. It's trying everything it can.
But on the plus side, Lenovo is a hit at home with a dominating 33% of the PC market, and with Western consumers keeping their hands firmly in their pockets in this tough economic times, China is the place to be.
It’s increasingly hard to talk about a winner globally that is not winning in China, and vice versa, so just because the sheer weight of the Chinese market now with its massive emerging middle class.
Lenovo may have sought international success in the past, but right now that strategy is less important than the company’s Chinese roots.
Andrew Stevens, cnn, Hong Kong.
