About Lenovo
While the Lenovo brand came into existence only in 2004, the company has a much longer history. In 1984, Legend Holdings was formed with 25,000 RMB in a guard house in China. The company was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988 and would grow to be the largest PC company in China. Legend Holdings changed its name to Lenovo in 2004 and, in 2005, acquired the former Personal Computer Division of IBM, the company that invented the PC industry in 1981.
Today, Lenovo is a US$21 billion personal technology company and the world’s second-largest PC vendor. We have more than 26,000 employees in more than 60 countries serving customers in more than 160 countries. A global Fortune 500 company, we have headquarters in Beijing, China and Morrisville, North Carolina, U.S.; major research centers in Yokohama, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Morrisville; and we have manufacturing around the world from Greensboro, North Carolina and Monterrey, Mexico to India, China and Brazil.
We create and build exceptionally engineered personal technology, but we are much more than a tech company. We are defining a new way of doing things as a next generation global company. We have our core strength in China, rapid growth in emerging markets and a unique global footprint. Lenovo builds on its dominant position in China to grow globally. The expansion from East to West— introducing our newest products in China and then spreading across the globe— is a new way of viewing the world, one we believe will be the way of the future.
That means we are years ahead of the game in terms of understanding what it will take to win 5 or even 10 years from now. That focus on the future is based on a strong history of success that is driving results today.
We have momentum. Long the leader in China with more than 30 percent market share in PCs, Lenovo is growing rapidly and winning market share in all parts of the world. Lenovo has realized strong, balanced growth while achieving a number of major breakthroughs. Achieving optimal balance in all that we do is Lenovo’s operating philosophy. This mindset encompasses every aspect of Lenovo’s business, from balancing leadership with consensus-building, to valuing both short- and long-term thinking. As a result, we have created a balanced business model and strategy that take maximum advantage of profit and investment across both core and new businesses.
Lenovo has consistently outgrown the worldwide PC market in unit shipments and gained market share across all geographies, products and customer segments, making it the fastest growing of the four major PC companies in the world for two years running.
- We are the number one PC company in China and now in Japan.
- We are the number one PC company in the world for large business and the public sector.
- We have been the fastest growing major consumer PC brand on the planet in the past year.
- We make the fastest booting notebook in the world. It’s a ThinkPad—and in 18 years, 60 million of them have been sold.
- We make a smart phone in China and every day our app store there delivers more than 25,000 downloads.
- We have launched a family of tablets targeting both the consumer and commercial markets internationally.
- We’re growing in triple digits in the all-in-one market worldwide, funding an application developers’ movement in China, and growing our retail presence from Germany to Japan.
Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. The company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services for customers who want technology that does more— because people have a lot more to do. Our product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones.
We have a long-term goal of becoming the leading personal technology company in the world. We aspire to achieve this goal by leading in three key areas:
- Personal Computers: Lead in PCs and be respected for our product innovation and quality.
- Convergence: Lead the industry with an ecosystem of devices, services, applications and content for people to seamlessly connect to people and Web content.
- Culture: Become recognized as one of the best, most trusted and most well-respected companies to work for and do business with.
And we want to do it the right way— the Lenovo Way— with our own perspective, our own global point of view and our own commitment to building technology for people who view technology as a tool to accomplish great things.
Our Values
At Lenovo we view our culture as a critical asset as important as an effective business model. We call our culture the Lenovo Way, and at its most basic, that culture is reflected in the statement: We do what we say and own what we do.
Our values serve as the foundation of our company and define who we are and how we work. Principal among them are:
- Serving Customers
- Trust and Integrity
- Teamwork Across Cultures
- Innovation and Entrepreneurial Spirit
Our Heritage
Lenovo came about as the result of the merger of two of the most storied companies in technology and business: Legend Holdings in China and IBM’s Personal Computing Division in the United States. The merger was heralded as a watershed event in global business with the potential for integrating two disparate cultures, languages, processes and markets.
As a result, Lenovo embodies the unique market possibilities in combining the best of East and West -- joining North American and China-based technology players in the creation of a unified global PC leader with growing market positions in developed and emerging markets alike. With more than $16 billion in annual revenue, Lenovo’s market strength spans not only market geographies but also the world’s consumer and business PC markets.
A Worldwide Leader
Lenovo is one of the world’s largest makers of personal computers and makes the world's most innovative PCs, including the renowned ThinkPad® notebook as well as products carrying the ThinkCentre®, ThinkStation®, ThinkServer®, IdeaCentre® and IdeaPad® sub-brands.
Today, Lenovo is a global corporation with significant operations on six continents and operating in more than 60 countries and selling products in 160. Everyone at Lenovo takes great pride in our ability to attract top talent from diverse backgrounds and from around the world. We view our differences and diversity as a source of strength in building a collaborative culture that helps us achieve our goals.
We have no world headquarters and, instead, have put in place a distributed management structure that places operational hubs in centers of excellence around the world integrating this talented, diverse group into a cohesive Next Generation company.
Our multicultural management team is free to convene wherever and whenever it makes the most sense. Lenovo has operations hubs in Beijing, Raleigh, NC, and Paris, a marketing hub in Bangalore, India, and major research centers in Yokohama, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
The company employs more than 23,000 people worldwide, including 1,700 designers, scientists and engineers, representing a broad collection of nationalities and languages but at the same time working with one unified language and vision: to build the world’s most exceptionally engineered personal computers.
Two Roads to Creating a PC Powerhouse
In 1981 , IBM launched its Personal Computing Division which literally invented personal computing with such innovations as the first laptop computer, the precursor to the ThinkPad notebook, synonymous with innovation and quality.
In 1984 , Legend Holdings was founded in China with just 11 computer scientists and $25,000 in cash, with the idea of delivering information technology more rapidly to consumers and businesses in China.
In 2003 , Legend began marketing its products under the Lenovo brand, melding the "Le" from Legend with "novo," the Latin word for "new." It officially changed its company name from Legend to Lenovo a year later.
In 2005 , Lenovo Group’s acquisition of IBM’s PC division essentially combined the market strength of Lenovo in China and elsewhere in Asia among consumers with IBM’s leadership position in Europe and North America among business PC users.
In 2007 , Lenovo launches the IdeaPad line of consumer-branded PC products and drops the use of the IBM logo on all its products two years ahead of schedule.
In 2008 , Lenovo completed its entry into the server market with the launch of the ThinkServer™ portfolio, designed to deliver a better server experience for small and medium business customers.
Innovation: A Core Value
Lenovo owns the greatest track record for innovation in the PC industry and remains committed to innovation in its products and technology. Innovation is how Lenovo achieves competitive differentiation and drives new market opportunities, such as mobile internet, digital home and cloud computing.
Lenovo’s innovation strategy is based on a two-tiered approach to solving real-world customer problems:
- Focus the majority of development on ideas that can be brought to market within 24 months
- Invest longer term in research targeting “game changing” big plays
Lenovo operates seven research and development centers and more than 46 world-class labs, including major research centers in Yokohama, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, NC. The company employs more than 1,700 engineers, researchers and scientists and has received more than 100 major design awards. Lenovo’s R&D centers have produced some of the world's most important advances in PC technology, ranging from the original "bento box" PC notebook design in 1992 to the 2008 launch of the innovative ThinkPad X300 "Kodachi," heralded as one of the world's lightest, thinnest and most innovative full-featured notebook PCs ever. Lenovo's commitment to innovation introduces more industry firsts and technology that sets the bar for business users as well as consumers, including:
- The LePhone smartphone that delivers fantastic style, small size and a unique interface targeting the high-growth China mobile convergence market
- The ThinkPad Edge, providing ThinkPad quality and functionality to the sophisticated small business market
The ultimate goal of Lenovo's R&D team is to improve the overall experience of PC ownership, while driving down the cost of ownership. The company is rich in talent, with teams that have won hundreds of technology and design awards – including more than 2,000 patents – and introduced many industry firsts:
- TrackPoint pointing device (“the little red button”)
- ThinkPad design - one of the industry’s most silent PCs
- VeriFace : Lenovo’s face recognition technology that creates a digital map that becomes the system’s password.
- Dual-screen mobile workstation: combining unique design with complex engineering to meet the needs of high-demand computing environments.
Our Commitment to Corporate Citizenship (CSR)
Lenovo is committed to being a responsible and active corporate citizen, consistently working to improve its business while contributing to the betterment of our local communities, the environment and society overall. Lenovo practices corporate citizenship in many ways:
- Product quality and safety: Lenovo is focused on the safety of our products throughout their entire lifecycle, from manufacturing, transportation and installation to use, service and recycling or disposal.
- Safe and Healthy Workplaces: Lenovo prides itself on creating a world class experience for its at facilities across the planet – from our headquarters and sales offices to our R&D labs to the manufacturing floor. In addition to meeting the legal requirements of the countries in which we do business, we ensure our employees have safe equipment and facilities; offer competitive compensation packages; and support stringent voluntary workplace safety standards.
- The Highest Ethical Standards: Lenovo is committed to the highest standards of integrity and responsibility, including respecting and protecting intellectual property. We provide guidance to every employee on a wide range of issues concerning ethical business practices, securities trading, health and safety, and compliance with government regulations.
- Concern for the environment: Lenovo is committed to environmental responsibility in all aspects of its business, from product design and supplier selection to manufacturing, facilities management, transportation and logistics and product lifecycle management, including recycling and reuse.
- Donating time and resources to philanthropy: Lenovo and its employees are committed to helping those less fortunate and, when disaster strikes, to lend a helping hand to those who can no longer provide for themselves. Soon after the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province in May, 2008, nearly 4,000 Lenovo employees made financial donations for disaster relief while hundreds more lined up to donate blood. In addition, Lenovo has committed 1% of its pre-tax income to programs and initiatives that serve society to address issues in areas of great need, no matter where those areas or issues happen to be.
Our Competitive Spirit
Lenovo’s thirst for excellence extends from our products to our sponsorships. The global spotlight shone brightly on the Lenovo brand during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where the company leveraged its role as a global partner of the International Olympic Committee and presenting sponsor of the Olympic Torch Relay.
What's more, Lenovo demonstrated its technical strengths in delivering a flawless performance that met the unprecedented demand of the Beijing Games. A network of 30,000 pieces of equipment, including desktop and notebook computers, touch-screen devices and printers supported by more than 600 Lenovo engineers.
Building on the success of its sponsorships of the Beijing Olympic Games, Lenovo performed a similar role in providing technology and support for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.