Our Tuesday morning visit to Lenovo included a tour of the factory and product display with Daniel and a comprehensive presentation by Leo on the company background, operations, strategy and future. Lenovos' commitment to the founding values of trust and integrity and core attributes of innovation, high quality and reliability, and service excellence were clearly evident in everything we saw and heard.
In the factory we saw a very clean and efficient operation that included separate labs for preloading software, problem resolution and one for staff to take breaks by using the products, for example to play games or listen to music. This innovation provides both OH&S benefits and also feedback to improve products. In the warehouse we saw the fully automated components management operation that reduced the staff overhead from 160+ staff to 4 in a separate control room; providing efficiency, safety and security benefits. Software integration benefits include paying suppliers only when the components are picked for product assembly. Although they weren't in operation we saw the 2 production lines (for standard and customised products) and Daniel also explained the rigorous product testing procedures and the 'grapes' method of reporting staff performance (differentiating levels of error rates).
In the product display room we were all very impressed with the range of products that Lenovo have designed to meet different customer needs, laptops co-branded with Coca-Cola and Disney and the stylish 2008 Olympic Torch. We were particularly taken with some of the 'Ideas' range for personal use. For example, the desktop with a front dial for varying processing power to meet different requirements and preserve energy and the robust, almost indestructible laptop for military use were particularly impressive. The favourites were the A5 size red personal laptop and the thin, lightweight Thinkpad X300 that has all the extra 'stuff' on board.
I cannot do justice to Leo Curtis' outstanding presentation that included the company history, philosophies, global operations, strategies and future directions in just one paragraph. Leo explained the humble beginnings of Legend and the commitment to bringing computing to the Chinese people by developing the Chinese character insertion card, through to listing on the stock exchange, becoming the market leader in China and the Asia Pacific region and purchasing the IBM personal computing business. He illustrated with stories how the company foundations of trust and integrity are entrenched in history, rather than being just words or ideals. Similarly, through examples of community sensitive product development and pricing we gained a real sense of corporate social responsibility in action. Leo's description of strategies for 'World Sourcing' and “Act local, think local, be global” marketing, together with the truly diverse and internationally located executive team showed Lenovo as a globally oriented organisation. The development of 90% and soon 100% eco-friendly PCs, exciting new product developments and innovative practices to generate ideas and feedback up to the executive managers through staff at all levels were other aspects of the Lenovo business that were impressive.
Although Lenovo is currently ranked number four in the personal computing market and not as well known as other brands outside China, we are certain that they will be a force to be reckoned with in the future, particularly after the 2008 Beijing Olympics lifts their brand awareness worldwide and provides the platform for them to build a strong global brand.
