Lenovo's International Strategy Research

In the 21st century, the globalization has become an unconvertible objective reality and "global thinking, global acting "has already been a rule for multinational companies to observe.For most Chinese companies that have been or is going to be international companies, there is only one way to become a "visionary company" and gain lasting competitiveness : that is to involve themselves in the globalization trend and face the challenging future positively.The Lenovo Group has been a flag for the Chinese IT companies, and after its acquisition of IBM PC Division, Lenovo has become an important PC manufacturer globally, therefore it is meaningful and challenging to study its internationalization course during the past 20 years. The purpose of this paper is exactly to be theoretically and strategically revelatory and indicative to the New Lenovo and other companies that desire to be excellent global companies through deep study of the success and failure of Lenovo's international practices during the past twenty years. This paper is divided into five parts: First, the author points out that for a IT company to maximize the value of products or services and enterprises, it have to optimize the allocation of resources globally and realize global production and global management, which is based upon the macro analysis of the relationship between the IT industry and the economic globalization and especially the international characteristics of PC industry. Second, for the first time, the author divides Lenovo's twenty-year-long internationalization course into two parts: the Liu Chuanzhi Period and the Yang Yuanqing Period, according to the difference of international strategies between two generations of leadership, and after reviews their international strategies respectively under general strategy frames, then specifically studies the relativity between the strategies and practices.Thirdly, after a theoretical description of the internationalization mode of worldwide and especially the Chinese multinational companies, the author divides the analysis of Lenovo's international strategies into two parts: strategies before the Acquisition and strategy of the Acquisition itself, using different analytical tools such as internal and external environmental analysis, Twiss Model, Strategy Management and Path Dependence Theory for the analysis of the first part, and then deeply analyzes Lenovo's motive , plan , risks and challenges of the Acquisition, which is a strategic action . Fourthly, by case study method, the author reveals two key success factors for the New Lenovo to run globally from Acer and SAMSUNG' cases, in which both of them have gained great success internationally.Lastly, using theoretical tools such as Value Chain Theory, SWOT analysis and Core Competence Theory, the author makes suggestions for the New Lenovo' strategic positioning at present and strategic transformation in the future, which also includes important points about the strategic management and tactics for the global success of New Lenovo, and which is based upon the analysis of the current status of the global PC industry and market and the forecast of the future trends.