Make Lenovo a global brand
(People's daily online)
Updated: 2006-06-19 17:01 Yong Tang: Where did you work before IBM?
Advani: I worked in a company called NTR after my graduation. It is a very
global company too. Everyday you dealt with people from different nationalities
and different cultures. What I learnt early on in my career is that there is
real power in diversity because the customers you are selling to are diverse. If
you can't understand what their needs are and how they think and the importance
of cultural differences, you will never be successful on a global scale. So I
often try to tap into the power of diversity. On my teams there are always
people from different nationalities and different cultures. Some of them are
more aggressive and would talk a lot while some are more reserved and they would
think more and talk after thinking. In some cultures you talk and think later.
As long as you can get ideas out of different people from different cultures,
you can then do a better job serving your customers who happen to be
heterogeneous.
Yong Tang: When did you know that IBM PC would be merged with Lenovo?
Advani: I was very intimately involved with Lenovo transaction. When I became
the head of strategy and marketing for IBM PC business, I quickly realized that
as the IBM strategy changed the PC business would not be critical and central.
The best way for the IBM PC business to continue to grow would be out of IBM.
There were multiple ideas we were exploring. We announced the intent to merge
with Lenovo in December 2004.
Yong Tang: How did you feel at that time?
Advani: My initial feeling was that I liked to work at IBM since IBM is a
great company. When I engaged more and more with Lenovo executives, I heard of
the Lenovo story of how it started in 1984 with 25,000 dollars. It was hard not
to fall in love with the company. One day when I was in the airport in the west
coast of the United States I unexpectedly ran into Yuanqing Yang and other
Lenovo senior executives. They were coming for a meeting. My immediate emotion
was that I was very happy to see them. I quickly called my wife and said I
really like working at Lenovo. Working at a company there are two things
important. The first is the company's story and its strategy. I felt aligned to
that. The second is that you have to feel very good like being in a family.
Lenovo is a young energetic and fresh company. You have to respect that and you
have to get excited about that.
Yong Tang: What is the biggest difference in terms of corporate culture
between Lenovo and IBM?
Advani:I think the biggest difference is the speed of execution. Lenovo is
very fast moving. At IBM PC division, you are 10 billion dollar revenue in a 90
billion company. IBM has a very strong corporate marketing organization. If I
want to do something for PC I have to talk to corporate people through a
complicated process, which is necessary for big companies. When I came to Lenovo
which is much smaller with 13 billion dollars of revenue. PC is the primary
focus of the company. So we can move very quickly.
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