Although Dell has become synonymous with success and miracle, Dell still runs Dell with a sense of urgency and firm determination, just like a teenager who is in trouble in college. He said: "I still think we are challengers. I think we are still attacking. " Yes, he did ask himself that, and he carried this spirit to every corner of Dell. The company's productivity is close to the level of creating a turnover of $654.38+$00,000 per employee. Almost twice that of HP and three times that of ibm, but they are still not satisfied.
Dell and Rollins have planned an absolutely ambitious financial goal: by 2006, the company's operating income will reach 60 billion US dollars. And this figure is twice the company's 200 1 year turnover. Of course, if the company wants to conform to the trend of the times, it must train leaders from generation to generation. So far, its learning method has been fruitful. Dell combines its goals with employee subsidies and bonuses. More importantly, Dell instills the concept of "ownership" in employees by means of methods, and further enhances their talents so that they can play their full potential. One way is the willingness and ability to keep learning. Dell not only requires employees to learn, but also chooses a good foothold, that is, asking employees to learn from the standpoint of asking questions. Perhaps this method is too strict, so too few people can adapt to this harsh environment. In fact, the success of the company depends not only on the "direct mode", but also on the "winning culture" that matches this mode. This culture contains two cores, one is to have enough enthusiasm for customers, and the other is to have confidence in performance. This kind of culture will make employees feel great pressure and urge them to study hard and make progress.
Second, pragmatism and speed.
Dell operates in a very pragmatic way. Dell often asks, "What is the most effective way to accomplish this?" In this way, Dell rejected all bureaucratic possibilities, which also provided opportunities for learning. According to Dell's regulations, salespeople must install computers themselves, which not only makes employees truly feel what problems customers without computer education will encounter when installing systems, but also enables salespeople to have a more accurate understanding of the products they sell. So as to help customers decide which products to buy according to relevant information.
At the same time, Dell fully demonstrated the competitive advantage of "speed". "Participating in every detail" may lead to certain system conflicts, but it allows the top leaders to make decisions quickly in the case of knowing the situation, and the whole company is not allowed to waste every minute.
Third, communicate actively.
Dell faces all mistakes with a firm attitude and frankly admits that "we have encountered problems and must make corrections". One of Dell's slogans is "Don't whitewash peace". Don't try to beautify the bad things. Almost all employees of Dell can tell the basic concept of the company's professional foundation, because the leadership has spent time communicating with them to let them know the situation, what they are planning and what everyone should do to achieve the goals of Banzhu Company. Dell never puts on airs, and neither do the employees in the company. They can ask any questions and even blame their boss. Everyone is equal before this principle. When Dell made an annual summary of himself, employees complained that he was too cold. Dell apologized to them and promised to express his feelings better in the future.
Fourth, the pace is consistent and unified, and the "self" is integrated into the "big self"
Dell believes that the simplest and best way to establish or maintain a healthy and competitive culture is to become partners with company employees through the same goals and consistent strategies. They believe that no matter what stage the company is in career cycle, it should take the introduction of outstanding talents as the top priority. However, after employees really enter Dell, whether they are new employees or company management, they must be completely consistent with the company's philosophy and goals, and adjust the team to the same goal, so that the pace is consistent and unified. At the same time, Dell has established the same reward system throughout the company, striving to promote the development and growth of Dell.
Dell Company adopts the way of team operation to let employees help each other and abandon the "ego" temporarily, because only when the river is full can we get "the river has water". Dell found that there are some weak team members in the team, although some people just spend time and energy to help other colleagues who have not kept up with the progress for greater personal interests. But it also allows Dell's management team to cooperate with each other and pursue progress on a personal scale. This kind of team operation can be said to be an alternative way to unite the employees of the company. He doesn't ask employees to avoid mutual restraint, and he doesn't want employees to have healthy competition, but A reduces intrigue. The key point is to ask employees to pay full attention to each other's growth.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) thrifty
Dell's frugality is reflected in two aspects. First of all, it never holds a celebration dinner. Dell believes that the celebration will encourage complacency, which is absolutely not allowed in the full-speed Dell, because pride will lead to failure. It was once suggested to display the company's famous products in the company lobby, but Dell refused. He thinks this is the style of the museum, because only "the museum pays attention to the past". When good news comes from the team, he will send a mass email to express congratulations and give necessary comments or appropriate praise. Dell's own motto is "celebrate one billionth of the time, and then start a new job." On the other hand, it is reflected in Dell's new business. If Dell thinks that the new cooperative business is not satisfactory, it will be terminated quickly, which is what distinguishes Dell from other competitors. Edward Zander, former president of sun Computer Company, said: "It's incredible to start a company at such a young age and keep pushing it to such a level. People in a certain industry 15 or 20 years will become too strict, but he is an exception. "
However, their frugality has put Dell in a difficult position in innovation to some extent. The frugal management mode makes it difficult to develop products and invest in future technologies, especially compared with competitors. Even during the technological recession, IBM's R&D expenditure IBM 2002 was as high as $4.75 billion, accounting for 5.9% of the company's turnover, while HP's R&D expenditure was $3.3 billion, accounting for 5.8% of the turnover. Only a small sum of $450 million, accounting for 1.3% of its turnover. Competitors say that this business style has hindered Dell's expansion beyond personal computers, especially in areas with great development prospects such as digital cameras and data processing capabilities.
But in any case, Dell has embarked on a new journey and started to pursue perfection. Michael dell has entered the fields of printers, network equipment, portable computers and technical services. With the help of handheld digital music players, online music stores and flat-screen TVs, it has entered the market of electronic consumer products with extremely cruel competition. With the two sharp tools of direct selling and inventory, and the insatiable corporate culture, Dell will surely reproduce its glory in the field of personal computers. We will wait and see!
Yang once analyzed overseas markets. He said that after the acquisition of ibm pc business, Lenovo has a strong market in overseas enterprises and a weak market in small and medium-sized enterprises and personal consumption, so Lenovo's current overseas market strategy will focus on small and medium-sized enterprises and personal consumption markets.
However, although Lenovo has successively formed an alliance with office depot, the national office supply chain, and bestbuy, the global it retail chain leader, to enter Rio Tinto's American small business and personal consumption market, my personal observation shows that this appropriate strategy has been implemented slowly. No matter whether it is a laptop or a desktop, there are no Lenovo or ibm personal computers in mainstream online retail stores or shops in the United States. Especially the contracted bestbuy and office depot, there are no Lenovo brands (including ibm thinkpad) in online retail, at least the two chain stores I have been to have no products.
I just read an article by a well-known American it columnist yesterday, and strongly recommended Lenovo's Lenovo 3000 notebook. Think about it, if even the shadow of the product is rarely seen in the market, is the expert's evaluation equal to casting pearls before swine? At present, consumers are the main thrust in the pc market, with personal growth greater than business growth and notebook growth greater than desktop growth. The ratio of notebook sales to desktop sales is 6:4. It is not a good thing to miss the growth opportunities of overseas personal market and overseas notebook market. Whatever the reason, you can't say that HP Compaq merged for a year and a half, and Bainaohui or Gome still can't see HP's new machine. During this gap, other brands, such as Sony, have made great achievements in the American personal market, especially in notebooks.
To promote overseas markets, Lenovo's brand strategy is also worth exploring. In the American market, it is an objective fact that Lenovo, or Lenovo, is really little known to many enterprises and consumers. You must take care of this situation to implement brand transformation, customer first, not wishful thinking. The merger allows the use of ibm brand for five years, which is a very valuable introduction or springboard for launching Lenovo brand overseas, because ibm's name is a household name.
Brand promotion takes time.
There are two problems here: first, it seems that the ibm brand has been diluted or even abandoned prematurely. If you buy an ibm thinkpad notebook online now, you can hardly find a computer (such as cnet, yahoo), and you can only find outdated products or second-hand goods. Did ibm thinkpad really disappear overnight? No, Ibm thinkpad is still healthy and active in the market both in contract and physical sense, but its name has been changed to Lenovo thinkpad. If you search Lenovo thinkpad, you will get dozens of pages of the latest products of "ibm thinkpad" exactly the same as in the past. But what if the buyer doesn't know? Business opportunities are lost. Most Americans just don't know. Overseas markets really need time.
Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are both famous. HP buys Compaq. Today, more than four years later, HP still has Compaq brand products, such as HP Compaq presario and HP Compaq 7000 series. If Lenovo adopts Lenovo ibm thinkpad in the brand transition period, the brand transition may be smoother. For overseas users, it is convenient for them to identify the old brands they are familiar with and agree with, and at the same time, it also introduces the connection and promotion of Lenovo's new brands.
If you participate in online sales and online marketing now, you will definitely feel the charm of keywords. Many companies rely on keywords for their sales and promotion results. They try their best to use keywords, choose keywords and even buy keywords. Because the key words are right, the effects and results of enterprise management are endless. Didn't Google make a fortune by buying keywords? Therefore, Lenovo's purpose is definitely not to recommend the brand ibm, but these three keywords of ibm are still very pleasing and of great value in stages.
Unlike HP's M&A, Lenovo can only use the ibm brand for five years, so it must find a way out. This leads to the second discussion, Lenovo -ibm brand transition needs a clear transition schedule. In February of this year, Lenovo grandly launched the Lenovo brand. Although the external reaction is advanced, the operation itself is beyond reproach. However, there is no contradiction between the promotion of Lenovo brand and the transitional use of ibm itself, and Lenovo can control and manage it. The problem is that Lenovo and ibm are two different brands after all, and it is necessary to clearly announce the relationship and transition schedule in the next five years, especially when it comes to the renaming or termination of specific products and series. Your channel partners need to know this schedule so that they can stock up or even out of stock. Your business users need to know the product upgrade plan and even the service and support cycle.
From the analysis of Lenovo's brand operation at present, it has adopted the practice of "long-term pain is better than short-term pain" and switched ibm product brands in one step. In addition to users can also see ibm's logo on products, it seems that ibm's name can't be seen in Lenovo's official information, and Lenovo has not used brands such as Lenovo's ibm thinkpad. If so, it should be announced in public that Lenovo will completely replace ibm, and all products originally named after ibm will continue to use Lenovo thinkpad/
Thinkcentre production and delivery (continued)? What will be renamed or eliminated? I believe Lenovo must explain the brand transformation internally and on specific occasions, but for overseas public, Lenovo needs to do a lot of publicity and clarification, which is conducive to the rapid transformation of brand convergence in overseas markets and let overseas users embrace Lenovo as soon as possible.
Lenovo has its own ingenuity without fighting an unprepared war. Recently, Lenovo's global business framework and new personnel layout, especially the professional Lenovo Center of Excellence and Lenovo services, have made Lenovo's global expansion functions and resources more adequate. Amelio also conveniently gathered up his handy old staff, a good soldier and a strong general, and the fight was not far away.
HP acquired Compaq, two well-known and similar companies, which lasted for four years. Lenovo's acquisition of ibm pc, two companies with different advantages and different backgrounds, has just been integrated 18 months, and the integration is much more difficult. Lenovo 2.0 will not be smooth sailing, but it is only a matter of time before Lenovo becomes an efficient and outstanding system hardware manufacturer in the world, and it is only a matter of time before Lenovo becomes a global pc brand. Do not believe, wait and see.
Lenovo's Road to International Development
Lenovo has taken two steps from its establishment to the present: before the 1990s, Lenovo was mainly a trading enterprise, whose main purpose was to survive; Ten years later is the second step, that is, the stage of developing its own brand. After 20 years' development, Lenovo has become the number one computer industry in Asia, and occupies a dominant position in the China market. The future space is the global market, which will participate in global competition.
In 200 1 year, Lenovo put forward the corporate vision of "high-tech association, service association and international association". From June 5 to February 2002, Lenovo Technology Innovation Conference was a complete success. In addition to the "technical significance" to Lenovo, the conference should consider that the "related application technology strategy" is a grand plan, with front-end, back-end and social information services covering everything. If the plan becomes a reality, Lenovo must have multinational brand influence and excellent marketing ability, and cannot take the local market as the main market area. In April 2003, lenovo officially launched a new English logo (from legend to Lenovo), and continued to prepare for internationalization. On March 26th, 2004, Lenovo became a global partner of the International Olympic Committee (TOP), hoping to take advantage of the resources of the Olympic Games and take the lead in realizing the internationalization of brand influence. Although participating in the top program can enhance brand awareness, brand awareness cannot be equated with excellent performance at any time. Lenovo must invest a lot of resources in brand promotion, channel construction, product marketing, consumer education and so on if it wants the top plan to be truly beneficial to international performance. Lenovo has set itself the goal that 25%-30% of its sales will come from overseas in the next 3-5 years. Imagine how Lenovo can accomplish such a "great cause" on a global scale in just four years. Therefore, reducing the injection of resources and achieving twice the result with half the effort has naturally become Lenovo's choice. And this time Lenovo bought ibm.
Lenovo takes advantage of "international strategic alliances" to take an export-oriented internationalization road.
Lenovo experienced a major reorganization in early 2004. It is a magic weapon for Dell to become famous to start applying the business model of direct selling to big customers. Lenovo also gave up the strategic policy of diversification formulated two years ago and concentrated on developing its core business-PC business. Lenovo's diversified development strategy in the past three years has been frustrated repeatedly. Although efforts have been made for many years, the effect of "information association" and "international association" is not ideal. After the lower-than-expected results were announced in 2003, Lenovo Group announced that it would focus on the core computer business again. At present, although Lenovo is the first brand of domestic pc, it still lacks strong influence in the international market, and it is in urgent need of new breakthroughs to realize the international development strategy.
In fact, internationalization has always been a goal of Lenovo and a strategic goal of Lenovo. This goal was put forward in 20001year. In 2002, Lenovo launched a new name on April 8, 2003. In 2008, Lenovo sponsored the Olympic Games and became an Olympic sponsor until Lenovo acquired ibm. These are the tactical measures of Lenovo's internationalization, which have become an integral part of this strategic action. This acquisition is a historic and powerful strategic combination between Lenovo and ibm. Lenovo is optimistic about ibm's international influence and excellent technical and management resources.
Modern marketing tells us that the best way for enterprises to survive in the competition and actively explore the market is to seek a new competitive model, so as to achieve the goal of * * * coexistence and * * * development. In the increasingly fierce international market competition, the competition principle of regarding competitors as enemies and not giving in to each other in the past has become an old management concept, which has been gradually abandoned by people. International strategic alliances is a new marketing organization with the functions of competition and cooperation.
Comparing Lenovo's shareholding structure chart before and after this transaction, we can say that this transaction is an acquisition, a merger, or even a joint venture, but from the "three steps" planned after Lenovo acquired ibm's PC department (that is, the first step, Lenovo will cooperate with IBM to purchase and manufacture; The second stage, the integration of market and sales; The third stage is to enter the field that others don't have. ) Look, the cooperation between Lenovo and ibm is more like international strategic alliances. Also known as transnational strategic alliance or strategic management alliance, that is, the cooperative interest relationship established by two or more enterprises in two or more countries to achieve a strategic goal.
With the help of "international strategic alliances", Lenovo will change from inward internationalization to outward internationalization.
Lenovo establishes comparative advantages and internationalizes outward.
The implementation of international strategic alliances requires enterprises to have unique advantages in operating factors, whether it is product advantages, market advantages, technology advantages, management advantages or service advantages. As long as Lenovo can use these advantages to better meet the needs of consumers, it can show real value in mutual competition, and finally change its relative strength with other competitors and gain obvious advantages over competitors. Lenovo's implementation of international strategic alliances is essentially consistent with its long-term planning, that is, serving the enterprise's own long-term strategic goals.
Ibm is a technology-leading company. Most of Ibm's customers and ibm's partners are concentrated in some high-end customers and product markets, which are highly complementary to Lenovo's more low-end consumer customers. Lenovo is good at channels in China, that is, Lenovo has customers and perfect marketing system in China market, while ibm enjoys a very high pc sales network in the international market; Lenovo is a pioneer in global pc consumption and has unique experience in sales and service, while ibm has always enjoyed high-quality service in the business field; Lenovo has a strong desktop computer design ability, while ibm has achieved excellent results in computer notebooks. Lenovo's acquisition of ibm's pc division with its leading pc technology will help Lenovo attract high-end enterprise users in the international and domestic markets, which is the main development direction of Lenovo in recent years. Therefore, Lenovo believes: "The acquisition of ibm's pc division will have a positive impact on Lenovo's expansion strategy."
Lenovo reshapes the main business of pc and accelerates internationalization. Buying ibm's pc business is a shortcut and an ideal move to quickly enter the world's top pc manufacturers. Lenovo has its own very strong manufacturing capabilities and ibm's service advantages. The new Lenovo Group can provide services to customers 24 hours a day, which can create more anti-risk ability. Lenovo cooperates with ibm to clarify their respective comparative advantages, and the new Lenovo plays a synergistic effect and long-term advantages in terms of brand, scale and effect. Lenovo's time to fully digest ibm's global pc business can be divided into three stages.
The first stage: the organizational structure, functional platform and supply chain integration of both parties. At this stage, Lenovo hopes to complete the procurement of two businesses, but the market and sales are independent. This phase is scheduled to be completed within 12 to 18 months. The second stage: After completing the first stage, Lenovo Group began to integrate the products, sales teams, channels and R&D of its two major brands. This stage covers the concerns of the outside world and two major brand partners, ibm and Lenovo. The third stage: expansion. Lenovo Group should start to launch new products and expand new business in the name of a new company.
It is estimated that it will take five years to fully digest ibm's global pc business. Joining hands with ibm to attack the world pc market is the inevitable result of Lenovo's long-term international operation, which provides an excellent opportunity for Lenovo Group to go global.
Problems faced by Lenovo's export-oriented internationalization
The biggest challenge facing New Lenovo is how to manage it, which is embodied in the following aspects:
The running-in of culture. As a Lenovo company with localization advantages, it is familiar with the China market, but quickly integrating into a department with completely different rules and cultural concepts, such as ibm, is the key to the good operation of the new company. However, we believe that the culture of the enterprise itself, from seeking truth from facts and making progress, integrity and innovation, is actually similar.
Lenovo lacks international experience and its popularity in the world pc market is still lacking.
How to maintain a good relationship with ibm customers will become the top priority of Lenovo's future development. Ibm customers and ibm partners are actually very precious to the new alliance. Lenovo's direct problem is how to retain its original customers. The ibm brand still exists, but Lenovo runs behind it. Can the original customers of ibm in Europe and America trust such a little-known company?
Overseas market channels. Ibm is a technology-leading company. Lenovo is generally good at channels in China, so how can Lenovo establish its own channels and supply chains overseas? After Lenovo acquired ibm's PC division, ibm's competitors are coveting ibm's market share, so how do Lenovo and IBM deal with it? How Lenovo is compatible with ibm's original channels?
Lenovo's technical image. I believe that for customers, they pay more attention to the quality control, features and functions of products, so if the future products of ibm brand are the same as before, consumers will still choose it. Lenovo is good at product application innovation in China, which is not an essential technological innovation and cannot fundamentally shape Lenovo's technological image. Ibm's leading image in technology has been accumulated for decades.
Business integration and how to improve profit growth rate. Although Lenovo currently monopolizes the pc market in China with a market share of 27%, its desire to enter the server and service fields has never come true. Moreover, due to the impact of international brands such as Dell, Lenovo's domestic market share has also declined. From the perspective of the global market, according to the latest data released by gartner, Lenovo only accounts for 2% of the global pc market, ranking ninth. Even if Lenovo acquired ibm's pc business, there is still a big gap with the top two (Dell and Hewlett-Packard). At present, only 3% of Lenovo's revenue comes from outside China, mainly in Southeast Asia. How does Lenovo talk about "completely controlling most pc markets in Asia-Pacific and even the world"?
Cost problem. Whether in the global pc market or the domestic pc market, the profit margin is shrinking. In 2006, the global pc user upgrade cycle will come to an end. At that time, if pc manufacturers want to survive, they must strive to optimize the efficiency of supply chain, improve service level and reduce product prices. At the beginning of the cooperation between Lenovo and ibm, the operational efficiency of both parties could not be compared with the direct sales model of competitor Dell. In terms of cost structure, Lenovo also has a certain gap with international giants such as Dell. Lenovo's inventory cycle in the latest quarter was 22.7 days, while Dell's inventory cycle in China was only 4 days. Due to the rapid price reduction of pc parts, it is very important for pc manufacturers to shorten the inventory cycle.
In the face of the upcoming downturn in the global pc industry, both ibm and HP will withdraw from the pc market. At this time, Lenovo will expand to the international market. If you are not careful, you may fall into a dilemma: the international market is blocked and the domestic market falls. Reducing cost is the most important thing for pc to survive at present. In order to reduce costs, large multinational companies often acquire companies from developing countries. Lenovo does the opposite and will inevitably increase costs.
The future development of Lenovo
The foreign market is progressing slowly, but it faces fierce competition in the domestic market. Lenovo should gradually implement three changes: first, focus on core business and focus on developing business to ensure that resource investment matches business priorities; Second, in view of the rapid changes in the market environment, establish a more customer-oriented business model; Third, improve the overall operational efficiency of the company.
Competition and cooperation are a new dialectical relationship. Competition does not exclude cooperation. To some extent, cooperation is conducive to fully realizing the efficiency of competition and maximizing the rational use of social resources. Join hands with competitors to establish strategic alliances, work together to accelerate the expansion of market capacity, make competition appear in a new form and at a new level, and change to shaping comparative advantage competition. To integrate ibm's global computer business today, Lenovo's internationalization strategy is imminent. Ibm will share its brand, R&D and sales system with the new Lenovo Company. Its strong brand and global sales, service and customer financing capabilities for corporate customers will help the brand-new Lenovo to take off in the international market.