Lenovo reorganizes into four business groups

Lenovo, one of the world’s top PC makers, decided to reorganize itself to better respond to market situation and needs. Starting from the 1^st of April, Lenovo will have four business groups addressing completely different market segments.

“Today, Lenovo is in one of the most important and exciting phases in our history,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and chief executive of Lenovo. “We are the number 1 PC company in the world.  We are number 3 in Smart Connected Devices (PC, tablet, smartphone).  And we just announced the intent to make an acquisition that will make us a significant competitor in the enterprise space.”

The main reasons behind major reorg of the company is perfectly known: the acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business unit and growing importance of ultra-mobile products lines, such as smartphones and tablets. The new organizations dedicated to select product lines will better serve their markets, but may lose some synergy that exists today.

Lenovo has established four new, distinct business groups, effective April 1, 2014:

• PC Business Group (including Lenovo and Think brands), led by Gianfranco Lanci, who currently leads Lenovo EMEA.  The business unit will continue to sell PCs and ensure that they offer value to both traditional users of Think-branded machines as well as offer modern functionality.
• Mobile Business Group (smartphone, tablet, smart TV), led by Liu Jun, who currently leads the Lenovo Business Group (consumer and mobile products).  This group is focused on making Lenovo a profitable global player in the smartphone and tablet markets and developing the company's smart TV business.
• Enterprise (including servers and storage), will be led by Gerry Smith, who currently leads Lenovo’s Americas Group.  The goal of this group is to aggressively build a new, fast-growing profit engine in enterprise, where we already have a solid foundation.  Pending regulatory approvals, the business represented by the recently announced acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business would be integrated into Mr. Smith’s organization.
• Ecosystem and Cloud Services (including both Android and Windows opportunities), led by George He, senior vice president, Lenovo, who currently serves as Chief Technology Officer.  The goal of this group is to continue building Lenovo's China ecosystem and drive a strategy for monetization and ecosystem expansion.

The new organization replaces the company’s current structure, which has two business groups: Lenovo Business Group (including consumer PC and mobile), and Think Business Group (consisting of commercial PCs and enterprise). Geographic sales organizations remain basically the same.

KitGuru Says: While it is good to see Lenovo growing as a company, it is a little sad to see the legendary Think-brand business being absorbed by a commodity PC business. Over time, this may result into change of Think’s focus even more towards affordable PCs for everyone. 

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