Yong Tang: How do you communicate with other Lenovo senior executives
including Chairman and CEO on a daily basis?
Advani: As I said before, at one of our first meetings, Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo
Chairman, said trust and respect and compromise are three important words.
Whenever we come together as a team, we should trust each other and respect each
other and compromise with each other.
Yong Tang: Do you need to report to Yuanqing Yang to make marketing
decisions?
Advani: No. I have been making decisions every day. We are a fast moving
entrepreneurial company.
Of course I spend a lot of time with Yuanqing Yang on the strategy. We
discuss and we debate and we argue. Chairman and CEO cannot get involved with
all the decisions that are made on a daily basis. One of the reasons I believe
Lenovo will be successful is that the senior leadership is very strong. Once
everyone is in agreement with the overall strategy, people execute.
Yong Tang: Is IBM PC business and Lenovo complimentary?
Advani: Yes. If you look at the marriage between HP and Compaq, they have
overlapping product lines, overlapping customer services, overlapping in the
countries where they operate. Say, I am a sales guy in Chicago and another guy
came to me and say, we are in the same company now, who is going to serve these
customers? Is me or you? We don't have the same problems with the new Lenovo.
Yong Tang: To what extent the culture difference may affect the growth of the
new company after two companies from different countries merge?
Advani: COUNTRY culture is not as important as the COMPANY culture. IBM has a
corporate culture that stands for customer service, innovation and
trustworthiness and integrity. Lenovo also believes the same values. Since we
have commonality in corporate culture, that is much more important than country
culture. If our corporate culture were not aligned, we would have much more
difficulty and much more conflict. The number one reason of why merger and
acquisitions don't work and don't deliver expected benefit is that company
cultures are very very different. That is why you would have a lot of conflict.
Yong Tang: Do you have any suggestions for Chinese companies who are looking
forward to merging with American companies?
Advani: They should buy Lenovo PC, that is the first message. (Laugh) It
takes a lot of wisdom and maturity to know what it may take from different
sides. You have to go into this with a very open mind. I may have to do
differently to grow in the United States or in Japan or in Germany. Having that
awareness and making sure you clearly understand what are the skillsets we bring
to the table and what are some of the additional skills I need to acquire. As
long as people go into that with an open mind then as the world is getting flat
I would expect more similar deals to happen in the future. There are a lot of
lessons to be learned by observing what Lenovo is doing and what we are going to
do. Lenovo can be a very good teacher.
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