LENOVO\'S CORPORATE CULTURE: A KEY
ISSUE AS IT ABSORBS IBM
Can a company molded in the tradition of socialist(社会主义) state-owned enterprises(公司), and which still holds twice-daily exercise seions(聚会,集会) and company sing-alongs, transform itself into a global computer powerhouse(集团,组织)?
With its purchase last week of IBM Corp.\'s PC busine, China\'s Lenovo Group Ltd.is betting(敢断定，敢说，断言) that it can.
\"We\'re strong on desktops(台式机).They\'re strong on notebooks and high-end(高档) corporate customers(顾客),\" Lenovo CEO and President Yang Yuanqing said in an interview(访问).\"If we can leverage(促使…改变,杠杆效应) this, we\'ll be world leaders.\"
Many analysts see the deal, which will make Lenovo the world\'s third-largest personal computer maker, as a risky but neceary gamble(冒险,投机) for a company struggling on its home turf(国内市场) yet seeking(试图,探寻) to become a truly international company.
Low worldwide awarene of the Lenovo brand, combined with the stereotypical(常规) view of Chinese-made goods as low in price and
quality, have hampered its attempts at entering overseas markets.
The deal gives Lenovo the right to use the IBM brand for five years, but Yang said it may consider co-branding(联合品牌) after 18 months.That would let Lenovo raise its global profile(形象) and aociate itself with one of the most respected brands in the world.
The merged(合并的) company will combine Lenovo\'s staff of 10,000 employees, almost all in Beijing, with the IBM PC division\'s staff of 10,000 _ about one-fifth in North Carolina, nearly one-half in China and the rest scattered （分散的）around the world.
One of the most formidable难以克服[对付]的obstacles will be integrating the corporate cultures.
\"The cultural challenges are going to be big.(Lenovo is) traditional, in the state-owned enterprise style,\" said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based consulting firm.\"Lenovo hasn\'t had a particularly succeful track record of partnerships（合伙） with foreign companies.\"
Lenovo went to Silicon（硅） Valley in 2002 to recruit （招聘）middle
managers.A handful of U.S.-educated Chinese were hired, most of them taking huge pay cuts（减薪） for the excitement of working for a Chinese company with worldwide ambitions.
But about a year later, almost all of them had quit, said a U.S.-educated Chinese man who worked at Lenovo for a little more than a year until early this year.He insisted on anonymity名字不公开because he is working at another multinational跨国的 high-tech firm in Beijing.
The former employee described its culture as so Chinese, and so strange, that most employees who had been educated abroad soon left.
Twice a day, the sound system broadcasts throughout the company\'s headquarters总部 in northwestern Beijing a song formally known as the Number Six Broadcast Exercises, a set of gentle stretches and knee-bends that any child who has grown up in communist China has learned.Participation is voluntary but highly encouraged.
\"It\'s weird when foreigners come to visit and everyone is standing in the aisles and by their cubes doing exercises,\" the former employee said.
Another quirky custom was to encourage people who are late to meetings, especially internal meetings, to stand behind their chair for the
first minute, as an attempt to humiliate them into being punctual严守时刻的; 准时的; 正点的in the future.
Lenovo also has a company song that is played in the building every morning at 8 a.m.and is sung by workers at the start of company-wide meetings.
Employees\' time is strictly monitored监督.Card keys allow the company to keep track of when employees are in the building.Time spent outside the building during work hours must be accounted for, and if no reasonable explanation 解释is given, a deduction may be made from an employee\'s paycheck.
The strict discipline is likely an initiative创始 of Lenovo chairman and co-founder Liu Chuanzi, who has a military军人的background.
Yang agreed that corporate culture is a key iue for the combined company.
\"We regard cultural integration as the key factor of our eventual succe,\" he said.\"In China, Lenovo is one of the few companies that can easily connect with the West in terms of technology management and culture.Even so, we still feel there will be big cultural conflicts and
challenges.\"
Yang said he expects the combined company to be profitable within the first year, even though IBM\'s PC busine has been unprofitable for several years, suffering a $258 million lo last year.He offered no specifics about how he plans to turn around the money-losing busine, other than saying the merger would allow Lenovo to benefit from economies of scale.
He also said it would not go the way of Dell, whose direct sales model has proved a winner in China and the rest of the world.Rather, it would continue to build on its vast chain of distributors 经销商；分销商 and retail outlets零售店，网点.
In the end, it might not matter if Lenovo can find the right busine model.Because it is such a highly symbolic deal, the Chinese government will simply not allow it to fail.
\"It\'s one of those flagship旗舰 deals,\" said Clark.\"The government will do what it can to make it succeed.\"
Questions for discuion:
1.What are the main difficulties of cultivating培养 a new corporate
culture for Lenovo?
2.Why are there some cultural conflicts冲突 when Lenovo acquired IBM PC busine?
3.How can Lenovo try to solve the cultural conflicts when facing two different corporate cultures? Could you specify说明 some useful solutions?
4.Are you confident about Lenovo’s PC busine in the competitive market? If so, please specify some advantages poees by Lenovo in developing its PC world market?
