Global 

Strategy at Lenovo

Q1: WHAT IS STRATEGY? HOW DOES LENOVO USE STRATEGY TO SUCEED IN THE 
GLOBAL MARKETPLACE? WHAT STRATEGIES DOES LENOVO EMPLOY TO MAXIMIZE ITS 
EFFICIENCY AND FLEXIBILITY? WHAT DOES LENOVO DO TO FOSTER ORGANIZATIONAL 
LEARNING?

Strategy can be defined as a planned set of actions that 
managers employ to make best use of the firm’s resources in order to gain a competitive 
advantage on the market.
Three important key strategic objectives that have to be considered to stay globally 
competitive are efficiency, flexibility 
and learning.

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Lenovo is efficient because it concentrates manufacturing in low cost countries like
China, as well as Argentina, India, Mexico, and Poland which helps to diverse sales across

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advanced economies and emerging market.
They keep their flexibility by sourcing manufacturing of components to different countries 

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while keeping manufacturing at low costs and therefore invest a lot in R&D to innovate 
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new product features.
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On the organizational level Lenovo focuses on M&A to acquire new knowledge and global 
market share. 2005 they for example acquired the Pc business of IBM, in 2011 NEC. 
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“Protect & Attack” combines defensive and offensive elements. Defensively, Lenovo seeks
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to build on its success in China, where it currently occupies a dominant position as China 
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(and the world’s) top vendor of PCs. Offensively, Lenovo seeks to grow internationally by 
leveraging acquired assets and expanding sales to emerging markets
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Q2: DESCRIBE LENOVO’S ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE. WHAT ARE THE 
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CHARACTERISTICS OF LENOVO’S CULTURE? HOW DOES THE CULTURE HELP LENOVO 
ACHIEVE ITS INTERNATIONAL GOALS?
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By definition, organizational culture means the underlying beliefs, values and ways of 
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interacting that guide all members within an organization. Generally, it is the way how 
business is conducted within an organization and how employees/customers/stakeholders 
are treated. 

In the case study, some characteristics of Lenovo’s culture are mentioned:
1) Firstly, in order to foster the global spirit, their meeting locations rotate between 
different countries. To enable an appropriate business communication, the 
organization’s official language is English. 
2) Secondly, it promotes processes aimed at recruiting young managers from various 
nationalities into their organization. Origin, skin color or any other characteristics do not
matter. Rather their capability and vision matters. 

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 3) Furthermore, connectedness is emphasized and promoted to ensure proper action by 
all management members. This creates a strong integration and connection, as well as
encouraging communication and interaction within the employees. The decision­
making process on company activities is based on this connectedness and facilitates 
global knowledge exchange. 
4) Finally, Lenovo promotes diversity of global cultures and the learning opportunities of 
that. They encourage their employees to establish a global mind­set and cosmopolitan 
values.

Q3: WHAT IS THE NATURE OF LENOVO'S INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY? IS THE 
FIRM'S STRATEGY PRIMARILY MULTIDOMESTIC OR GLOBAL? JUSTIFY YOUR 
ANSWER. WHAT ADVANTAGES DOES LENOVO DERIVE FROM THE PARTICULAR 
INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY(S) THAT IT PURSUES?

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Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's, the firm generates more than US $21 billion and the 
company has access to IBM's Global distribution and sales in 160 countries and regions.

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The merger increased Lenovo’s scale economies in manufacturing and marketing.
The diversity of partners and international environments helps Lenovo acquire new 

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technical and managerial know­how, new product ideas, improved R&D, and partnering 
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skill.
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Lenovo uses mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to acquire needed knowledge and other 
assets from partner firms, and to expand into markets worldwide. The merger increased its
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scale economies in manufacturing and marketing.
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Multidomestic strategy is an approach to internationalization in which headquarters gives 
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autonomy to each country manager, allowing him/her to operate independently and pursue
local responsiveness Global strategy is an approach in which headquarters seeks 
substantial contol over its country operations in order minimize redundancy and achieve 
maximum efficiency, learning, and integration worldwide.
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The firm’s strategy primarily is multidomestic. Because Lenovo’s products are 
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standardized worldwide, but elements such as keyboard and software are customized to 
respond to local language needs. Marketing also responds to local conditions.
The strategies can help Lenovo save costs and to achieve global efficiency.
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It was developed to help managers better understand the trade­offs common in 
international business. They can also improve the quality of product and processes. 
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High quality products promote global brand recognition and give rise to customer 
preference and efficient international marketing programs and create marketable 
economies, which result in lower operational costs.

Q4: EXAMINE LENOVO IN TERM OF THE INTEGRATION­RESPOSIVENESS FRAMEWORK. 
WHAT ARE THE PRESSURES THAT LENOVO FACES FOR GLOBAL INTEGRATION? WHAT 
ARE THE PRESSURES THAT LENOVO FACES FOR LOCAL RESPONSIVENESS? WHAT 
ADVANTAGES DO LOCAL RESPONSIVENESS AND GLOBAL INTEGRATION EACH BRING 
TO LENOVO?

Lenovo has standardized its components for modular architecture, so they can be used around the
world in different variations. Products are standardized up to their maximum point, that means

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 elements such as keyboards in different languages or software are customized to local demand,
because they can’t be fitted to a world standard.
To also face local responses, Lenovo adapted its prices to the local buying power such as low-
income consumers.
Lenovo bought IBM to achieve brand awareness on a global scale and sponsored the Beijing
Olympics in 2008. After that, the company successfully made use of social media branding. Just as
in manufacturing, Lenovo only adapts to language and keeps their websites looking all the same.
Lenovo even established a global training program and strongly influences a positive outcome of
their employee’s careers to keep a strong international bond to local markets (highly skilled
employees that could theoretically work in any country where Lenovo is active and still have the
know-how to be successful locally).
Pressure local: adapt to language and low income
achieve market share
Advantages local: response from low-income buyers
Pressure Global: maintain brand awareness
buy other firms to expand
Advantages Global: standardized products
standardized employee skills (global mind set)

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diversity though standardization

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