How Lenovo Is Leveraging the Brand from East to West

Knowledge@Wharton speeks with Lenovo's senior vice president and chief marketing officer about what it takes to merge an Eastern business with a Western one.

By No Analyst or Consultant

September 21, 2005 — CSO —

In May 2005, when Lenovo Group completed a $1.75 billion purchase of IBM's personal computing division, the China-based manufacturer leapfrogged its way to become the No. 3 computer maker in the world, second only to Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Along with rights to the venerable IBM name and logo, Lenovo got Deepak Advani, a Wharton graduate who was serving as vice president of marketing for the old regime. Michael Useem, director of Wharton's Center for Leadership and Change Management, and Wharton marketing professor John Zhang spoke with Advaniwho is now Lenovo's senior vice president and chief marketing officerabout what it takes to merge an Eastern business with a Western one.

Useem: Following Lenovo's acquisition of the IBM PC line, could you talk about the kind of leadership you need to exercise under the new Chinese ownership?

Advani: When you look at the IBM PC division, remember that the "I" stands for international. The last three jobs I had were all worldwide in scope, so the ability to work with individuals from different cultural backgrounds was really a requirement of IBM. In the leadership positions I held there, my teams were located around the worldin Latin America, Asia, Europe and in the United States.

One of the key leadership attributes necessary to do well at IBM was to find ways to turn diversity into a competitive advantage. That happens when you are very respectful of different individuals and the way they think, because at the end of the day everyone has developed a point of view that has been influenced by the various experiences they have had and the cultures within which they operate.... Very often there isn't a black-or-white, right-or-wrong answer. If you can put aside your biases and look at others ... from an objective perspective, then all of a sudden you start to realize that what they are saying makes so much sense to them.

Also, there are cultural differences. Some cultures are much more vocal, aggressive and outgoing, and others are more reserved. Keeping that at the forefront of your consciousness often helps, since very often you have to draw ideas out of certain people. So at the end of the day at IBM, one of the things I [learned] was to be respectful and to understand different people's points of view.

[With respect to the Lenovo transaction], one of the most fulfilling experiences with the team that I have worked with over the course of the last six months has involved getting to know some of my colleagues. They are very smart, very young, very driven and very good team players. The working relationships have been outstanding on both sides. There's a burning desire to make this succeed.

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