When Beijing$-$based Lenovo bought both IBM$$s PC division and ThinkPad brand in $2005,$ many observers thought the $$1\mathrm{.}75$ billion purchase would represent a transformational change for the $20-$year$-$old Chinese upstart. But did it really?

From its $1984$ origins as the Chinese Academy of Sciences Computer Technology

Research Institute New Technology Development Co$.($soon renamed Lianxiang, or Legend$),$ the company has been constantly evolving. As a research$-$ dominated group under the communist regime of Deng Xiaoping, Legend had among its ranks team members with top$-$level engineering, design, and manufacturing skills, but no experience with market$-$oriented economies or marketing strategy. None of the founders spoke English or other languages of global business, but they hoped eventually to expand into international markets.

Mary Ma$,$ who joined the company as CFO in $1990,$ introduced the concept of

investor relations, which required an entirely new perspective for managers

accustomed to a centrally planned economy. As they strove to serve international

partners, the founders needed to learn about transparency, accountability, Westernstyle financial reporting, and corporate communications. In $1994,$ with the company$$s name changed to Lenovo $($a combination of legend and novo, Latin for new$),$ Ma shepherded it through an IPO on the Hong Kong exchange. She established governance mechanisms such as audit and compensation committees, international roadshows for institutional investors, and China$$s first investor relations conference. These systems and activities became embedded in the corporate culture over time. Meanwhile, the company had begun to augment its product engineering and manufacturing competence with a new focus on brand management. Expanding first through the Chinese countryside, managers at all levels of the company learned to create and market products for specific customer segments, adapting brand strategy to fit local and regional markets. The ThinkPad acquisition created Lenovo$$s first important opportunity to manage a global brand. With a huge new network of global resources, operations, and competencies, Lenovo became the third largest computer manufacturer in the world. In $2007,$ Mary Ma stepped back from her executive position to take an advisory role as vice chair.

Continuously learning from the new market challenges, the company retained the

ThinkPad brand for several years before relegating it to one of several product groups under the Lenovo name. In $2013,$ Lenovo became the largest PC company in the world. Its products ranked first in quality, followed by Apple and HP$\mathrm{.}53$

In $2014,$ Lenovo purchased Motorola Mobility for $$2\mathrm{.}91$ billion, making it the third

largest competitor in smart phones $($after Samsung and Apple$).$ With dual headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville, NC$,$ operations in more than $60$ countries, and

sales in some $160$ countries, Lenovo had become a truly global competitor$$all

resulting from steady evolutionary change.

To be sure, there were hiccups along the way. But Lenovo managers, wherever they worked, were encouraged to practice Fu Pan, the Chinese concept of $$replaying the chess board,$$ to review and evaluate all of their activities. This constant reflection resulted in a bias toward continuous learning and improvement. In fact, the changes at Lenovo were all incremental and evolutionary, each one supported by the cumulative changes that preceded it$.$

$1.$ Why was change needed at Lenovo?

$2.$ What design decisions $($scope and origin$)$ were made in this case?

$3.$ What was the type of change described in this case?

$4.$ What were the advantages and disadvantages of those decisions?

$5.$ Was the change initiative successful?

$6.$ What differences between the examples $($Amazon vs Lenovo$)$ can you identify?