Company Analysis | Lenovo Group

Lenovo group limited also named as Lenovo is Chinese multinational technology company which is incorporated in Hong Kong while having its global headquarters in Beijing and operational in Morrisville with operational center in Singapore. The firstly approved name of Lenovo was Chinese Academy of Sciences 5 Computer Technology Research Institute New Technology Development Company. Organizational structure basically reveals the rules and regulations of a company along with how the power isutilized in order to meet the organizational goals and objectives.

Organizational Development
Group Assignment
Lenovo Company Analysis

Table of Contents
1. Organizational Profile.........................................................................................................1
2. Background.........................................................................................................................1
3. Structure..............................................................................................................................2
4. Products/service Portfolio...................................................................................................2
5. Market Competition............................................................................................................5
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1. Organizational Profile
Lenovo group limited also named as Lenovo is Chinese multinational technology company
which is incorporated in Hong Kong while having its global headquarters in Beijing and
operational in Morrisville with operational center in Singapore. Lenovo started in 1984 with
10 engineers in Beijing where totally 11 people were part of initial staff of Lenovo. All the
founders of Lenovo were members of institute of computing technology of Chinese academy
of sciences. The startup capital of Lenovo was 200,000 yuan which was approved by Zeng
Maochao. The firstly approved name of Lenovo was Chinese Academy of Sciences
Computer Technology Research Institute New Technology Development Company. Its
organizational structure was approved as of 1985 after Chinese New Year where it included
technology, engineering, administrative and office department. Company was rebuilt while
doing computer quality checks and failed during testing of digital watch as well. It started
manufacturing marketing its products under its brand name as of May 1990.
2. Background
In May 1988, Lenovo set its first enrollment ad on the front page of China Youth News. Such
advertisements were very uncommon in China at the time. Out of 500 respondents, 280 were
chosen to take a composed employment exam. 120 of these were interviewed face to face.
Although interviewers at first just had power to recruit 16 individuals, 58 were given offers.
The new staff included 18 individuals with advanced educations, 37 with undergraduate
degrees, and three understudies with no college level training. Their average age was 26.
Yang Yuanqing, the current executive and CEO of Lenovo, was among them. Liu Chuanzhi
got authorization to shape an auxiliary in Hong Kong and to move there with five other
workers. Liu's dad, effectively in Hong Kong, facilitated his child's desire through coaching
and facilitating advances. Liu moved to Hong Kong in 1988. To set aside cash during this
period, Liu and his coworkers walked as opposed to taking public transportation.
To keep up appearances, they leased lodgings for gatherings. A portion of organization's
initial triumphs incorporated the KT8920 centralized server PC. It likewise built up a circuit
board that permitted IBM-viable PCs to handle Chinese characters. Lenovo (referred at the
time as Legend) turned out to be traded on an open market after a 1994 Hong Kong Initial
public offering that raised almost US$ 30 million. Preceding IPO, numerous experts were
hopeful about Lenovo. On its first day of exchanging, company's stock value hit a high of
HK$ 2.07 and shut at HK$2.00. Continues from the contribution were utilized to finance
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sales workplaces in Europe, North America and Australia, to extend and improve creation
and examination and development, and to build working capital. By 1996, Lenovo was the
market chief in China and started selling its own PC. By 1998 it held 43% of the homegrown
PC market share in China, selling around 1,000,000 PCs. Lenovo delivered its Tianxi ( 天天)
PC in 1998. Intended to make it simple for unpracticed Chinese consumers to use PCs and
access the web, one of its most significant highlights was a catch that quickly connected users
to the web and opened the Web program. It was co-marked with China Telecom what's more,
it was packaged with one year of Internet administration.
In June 2011, Lenovo reported that it intended to secure control of Medion, a German
gadgets manufacturing company. Lenovo said the procurement would twofold a lot of the
German PC market, making it the third-biggest merchant by deals (after Acer what's more,
Hewlett-Packard). The arrangement, which shut in the second from last quarter of the same
year, was guaranteed by The New York Times as the first where a Chinese organization
gained a well-known German organization. This securing will give Lenovo 14% of the
German PC market. Gerd Brachmann, administrator of Medion, agreed to sell 66% of his
60% stake in the organization. He will be paid in real money for 80% of the shares and will
get 20% in Lenovo stock. That would give him around one percent of Lenovo.
3. Structure
Organizational structure basically reveals the rules and regulations of a company along with
how the power is utilized in order to meet the organizational goals and objectives. The
Lenovo goes for utilizing a centralized structure where the overall power is with the top
management and there is very tight control of the top management over all of the departments
within the company rather than people doing things on their own. Whenever there is need to
bring something new or any such thing the top management decides what to do and then
passes the order to the lower departments to get the work done as per their orders. Everybody
working within Lenovo is well aware of who is the boss and all the work is done accordingly.
4. Products/service Portfolio
Lenovo is a Chinese multinational company founded on 1st November 1984 having
headquarters in Beijing which not just manufactures computers but also tablets, smartphones,
servers, electronic storage devices, IT software, smart TVs and much more (Katherine, 2005).
The product mix of Lenovo is:
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i. Personal computers
ii. Tablet computers
iii. Smartphone
iv. Workstations
v. Servers
vi. Electronic storage devices
vii. IT management software
viii. Smart televisions
ix. Peripherals
x. Printers
Within the line of laptops Lenovo provides ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, ThinkServer,
ThinkStation, ThinkVision displays, IdeaPad, IdeaCentre and Legion.
ThinkPad
ThinkPad is business focused laptop line which involves the boxy black design which was
designed keeping in mind the Japanese bento being originally a product of IBM and are being
developed and sold by Lenovo since 2005. The ThinkPad were used in space being only
laptops which were certified to be used in international space station.
ThinkCentre
The ThinkCentre are business focused desktop laptops which were introduced by IBM in
2003 and are being manufactured and sold by Lenovo from 2005 till today. These computers
involve mid-range to high-end processors while having options of graphic cards, and
monitors in multi colors. There were different budget line laptops in the ThinkCentre laptops
which included M55e, A50, and M72. These were also named as thin clients.
ThinkServer
The ThinkServer was started by Lenovo from TS100 under the agreement with IBM where
single socket servers were to be produced by Lenovo and dual socket to be manufactured by
IBM under its xSeries. Along with that the server provided a support package which was
there to help the small businesses by providing them with different software tools which help
them in server management and reduced the dependence on hiring somebody to support them
in IT related matters.
ThinkStation
ThinkStation are basically workstation of Lenovo which were designed for fulfilling the high-
end computing needs. ThinkStation started back in 2008 by Lenovo with ThinkStation S10.
ThinkVision Displays
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The ThinkVision display included the high-end monitors which share common designs and
language with other devices of Think lines. The ThinkVision Pro2840m was introduced by
Lenovo in 2014 with 4k display and later introduced a touch enabled device.
Later in 2016 it announced two displays with usb-c and display port connectivity.
ThinkVision X24 Pro monitor had thin-bezel display with IPS LCD panel.
IdeaPad
IdeaPad are customer focused laptops which were introduced by Lenovo in 2008 and were
the first one which were not inherited from IBM as they were developed under research of
Lenovo itself. They are totally different from ThinkPad. The yoga series were totally
different and not compatible with Linux Operating System.
IdeaCentre
IdeaCentre are all in one machine which includes processor and monitor in one single unit
which were uniquely designed for their customers. First IdeaCentre laptop was IdeaCentre
K210 which was introduced in 2008. IdeaCentre is having the design features quite similar to
the IdeaPad line of laptops by Lenovo. One of the main features of IdeaCentre K210 was
Veriface facial recognition. In 2011 Lenovo introduced its IdeaCentre laptops including
A320, B520, B320, and C205 while in 2012 it introduced its powerful laptops IdeaCentre
A720 which was running on Windows 8 with 27-inch touchscreen while having TV tuner
along with HDMI serving as a home theater PC or a multimedia hub. In 2013 the Lenovo
introduced an IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC which was 27-inch touchscreen having facility to
lay flat for usage of multiple people at same time. Along with that it worked as laptop when
set upright due to windows 8.
Legion
For high power gaming Lenovo introduced the legion series where first one was launched at
CES 2017 including Legion Y520 & Legion Y720. In 2017 legion Y920 was launched which
was a high power and high-performance laptop. It was having Intel’s seventh generation
quad-core i7 specification with 7820HK and Nvidia GTX 1070 discrete graphics.in 2018
Lenovo launched new three laptops including Y530, Y730, and Y7000 and later in 2020 its
legion 3, 5 and 7 with great specification were released.
Smartphones
Within 2013 Lenovo was producing laptops which were only working on android operating
system of google, but there were rumors of Lenovo coming up with laptops which will be
operating on windows 8 but its vice president stated that if there will be demand in market
Lenovo will launch such mobile. In order to replace Samsung gadgets in hands of customers
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Lenovo used aggressive strategy by spending $793.5 million dollars in Wuhan on a plant
which helped in producing 30-40 million of smartphones within one year for its customers
around the world due to which it gained great sales in china in 2012. The focus of Lenovo
was on being the best player in market rather than being a second player. In 2013 it started
with selling of smartphones in US as well. It also acquired the Motorola Mobiles as of 2014
and becomes 3rd largest laptop producer in world in 2014 but due to lack of better marketing
and not moving with changing demand Lenovo was unable to become the top seller in
smartphones.
Smart televisions
Lenovo entered the smart television market as of 2012 with first smart television named as
LeTV which was introduced due to transformation of world towards smart things. Later on,
Lenovo came up with partnership with Sharp in order to produce smart televisions and
introduced S9 smart TV later on.
Wearables
Within wearables Lenovo has introduced number of smart bands having 7 days battery life
having optical heart rate monitor and can be used for tracking distance and time spent while
running and all the calories burned.
5. Market Competition
Lenovo is one the well-known brand in the business market of laptops with various multiple
variations in laptops available around the globe. The main competitors of Lenovo in market
includes Hewlett Packard which is one of biggest personal computer manufacturer all around
the around the world with massive brand equity and presence in the market. Likewise the
other competitors includes Dell, Apple, Asus, Acer, Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, Toshiba, and
LG. the market share and overall growth of Lenovo versus its competitors is as shown in
figure 1 below:
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Figure 1: Lenovo & its Competitors
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