Trust and the Global Powerhouse

At HBR we often theorize about what it means to be a truly global company. In practice, few embody the ideal better than Lenovo, the PC manufacturer headquartered in Beijing and in Morrisville, North Carolina (part of the state’s Research Triangle). Directing the company’s global positioning is Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo’s chairman and CEO. Nearly a decade ago YY, as he is known, moved with his family from Beijing to North Carolina. I met with him recently at the Prestonwood Country Club, where he was presiding over a Lenovo gathering that seemed one part strategy, one part cheerleading. Yang, who is 49, spoke with me about the thrill of becoming the world’s top PC producer and the challenges of being dominant in a sector that’s likely to decline globally. (See the HBR Interview.) As it deals with shifts in the market, Lenovo plans to stick with the global formula it adopted years ago. One distinctive element: a nearly exclusive reliance on local managerial talent, which “builds a culture of trust,” Yang told me. In fact, he says, of Lenovo’s 54,000 employees worldwide, only about 50 are expats. Lenovo became a global player in 2005, when it acquired IBM’s PC division. It has grown considerably since then through a range of popular products and further acquisitions, including the purchases this year of IBM’s low-end server business and Google’s Motorola Mobility unit. Winning in the post-PC world (or the “PC-plus” world, as Lenovo puts it) won’t be easy. But Yang seems to relish taking on the likes of Apple and Samsung. And other companies, he says, can learn from Lenovo’s example: “We have a diverse team and culture.” Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief

Trust and the Global Powerhouse

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