...Journal of International Business Studies (2007) 38, 573–577 & 2007 Academy of International Business All rights reserved 0047-2506 $30.00 www.jibs.net AN EXECUTIVE’S NOTE Lenovo: an example of globalization of Chinese enterprises Chuan Zhi Liu CEO and President, Legend Holdings Ltd Journal of International Business Studies (2007) 38, 573–577. doi:10.1057/palgrave. jibs.8400281 Online publication date: 17 May 2007 Introduction by Rosalie L Tung, Simon Fraser University Mr. Chuanzhi Liu is President, CEO and co-founder of Legend Holdings Ltd. Lenovo belongs to the Legend Holdings Group. Lenovo is the world’s third largest manufacturer of personal computers (PCs), after Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP). In 2002 the Chinese government announced its ‘go global’ policy by encouraging Chinese companies with the capabilities and know-how to expand abroad. Lenovo, as a leader in the IT sector, responded to this government initiative. In 2003 Legend adopted a new brand name, Lenovo. The first two characters, ‘Le’, were taken from ‘Legend’, to reflect its heritage, and ‘novo’ (‘new’ in Latin) to signify the ‘spirit of innovation’ that is central to the company’s mission.1 Mr. Liu is the principal architect behind his company’s 2004 acquisition of IBM’s PC Division (PCD), and hence is commonly referred to in the press as the ‘Man who acquired IBM PC’ (Shenzen Daily, 2004). Even though the size of the acquisition was relatively small in the broader context of global mergers...
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...INFO 410 Case Studies 1-2 Handout General Instructions Case studies are to be performed as described in the syllabus and in the Chapter 1 lecture notes. The questions provided here are NOT designed to be comprehensive steps, just some of the points I’d expect you to address while doing the case studies. So please go beyond the issues identified here; these are just help to get you started. 1. Case Study I-1 IBM’s Decade of Transformation: Turnaround to Growth (starts on page 5) This case study addresses several problems over the history of IBM, so it’s more like a series of little case studies. Focus your attention on the state of IBM when Louis Gerstner took over in April 1993, and address how he could have proceeded from that point. Of course the actual answer is the creation of One IBM, but what other options could he have pursued? Only use the exhibit data through 1994, and you can ignore the discussion of EBOs and other events well after 1994. Since IBM is both a user of IT, as well as an innovator and creator of IT equipment, they have an unusual position compared to many organizations. Focus on the problems IBM faced during this time and the alternatives they faced for dealing with the problems. What is the origin of the problem? Is it a technical issue, or customer relations, or competition, or something else? What functional areas within IBM were responsible for handling each problem (e.g. HR, accounting, marketing, engineering, etc.)? ...
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...____________________________________________________________________________ Introduction During the 1970s and ‘80s, IBM was one of the most successful companies in the world. The company had experienced strong growth in both revenue and profits and had a virtual stranglehold on the market for mainframe computers. In fact the company was often referred to as “Big Blue,” a nickname derived from its massive blue mainframe computers. For four consecutive years in the 1980s, IBM held the top spot in Fortune magazine’s annual list of the most admired companies in the United States. However, by 1993 the quintessential “Blue Chip” company had reached its nadir. Over the three previous years, IBM had lost a total of $15 billion and its stock price was at an 18-year low. The brand had fallen below number 250 in Interbrand’s annual survey of the most valued brands with a brand value, estimated at a negative $50 million dollars. The explosive growth of personal computer networks threatened IBM’s lucrative mainframe and minicomputer business and the company was struggling to turn the situation around. In the late 1980’s and early 90’s, the drivers of innovation and change in information technology were smaller, nimble companies like Microsoft, Compaq, Dell, Oracle and others who offered less expensive systems than IBM that could basically accomplish the same tasks. IBM had fallen behind in technology as its top management stubbornly clung to the notion that traditional mainframes, which...
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...Diversification Strategies Pamela L. McGhee Dr. Kimberly Anthony The Business Enterprise – BUS 508 Strayer University, Savannah Campus 30 October 2011 Diversification IBM a Fortune 500 company celebrated its 100th birthday this past June. IBM employs over 400,000 employees and is considered to be a $100 billion dollar or more giant in e-business global marketing technology. With the inception of the computer, IBM’s core business was mainframe computers, which almost bought the company to its knees in bankruptcy. IBM looked at the PC as just a gadget and with any gadget over time would fade into oblivion. IBM would find out the hard way that the PC would rapidly transform the world into the Information Age in the business arena and in that of our personal lives. IBM quickly moved into software, hardware and other services. IBM has been a Fortune 500 company since the 1970’s, and has survived, whereas over a-third of those in the Fortune 500 during that era have either merged, been acquired, sold in pieces, or just completely disappeared off the face of the earth. IBM launched an extensive e-business marketing campaign using its own initials Internet Business Machines during the 1990’s. IBM informed businesses that the Internet would be the new way to conduct business. By 1997 IBM had well over 10,000 e-business customers. IBM’s global e-business has expanded to Russia, China, Brazil and India. (Savov, 2011) Abercrombie and Fitch were incorporated in...
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...Title: IBM and The Emerging Cloud-Computing Industry Case Study Analysis Introduction The character of a company -- the stamp it puts on its products, services and the marketplace -is shaped and defined over time. It evolves. It deepens. It is expressed in an ever-changing corporate culture, in transformational strategies, and in new and compelling offerings for customers. Those are the words that start the chronological history on the IBM website [1]. I couldn’t agree anymore with that statement. I am often very fascinated by the evolvement of technology stories I get to hear quiet often from my fellow senior coworkers. One of the stories I enjoy is about the large IBM370 computer my workplace once owned in 1970’s. From my understanding it occupied a whole room and it required several people to operate. That was less than a half century ago. Today the smart phone’s memory is much higher than that computer. For my time what I could relate to, is the floppy disk which of course is obsolete today. I am sure my kids will be fascinated by the floppy disk someday just like I get fascinated by circular slide rule that predated the calculator era. In place of floppy disks or another external memory, in the cyber world today, cloud computing is taking place of all those external memories. IBM website defines Cloud computing as, the delivery of on-demand computing resources everything from applications to data centers over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis [1]. Background...
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...IBM Global Business Services Executive Report Customer Relationship Management IBM Institute for Business Value From social media to Social CRM What customers want The first in a two-part series IBM Institute for Business Value IBM Global Business Services, through the IBM Institute for Business Value, develops fact-based strategic insights for senior executives around critical public and private sector issues. This executive report is based on an in-depth study by the Institute’s research team. It is part of an ongoing commitment by IBM Global Business Services to provide analysis and viewpoints that help companies realize business value. You may contact the authors or send an e-mail to iibv@us.ibm.com for more information. Additional studies from the IBM Institute for Business Value can be found at ibm.com/iibv Introduction By Carolyn Heller Baird and Gautam Parasnis CEOs, according to the IBM 2010 CEO Study.1 Today’s businesses are fervently building social media programs to do just this. But are customers as enthusiastic? Actually, most do not engage with companies via social media simply to feel connected. It turns out, customers are far more pragmatic. To successfully exploit the potential of social media, companies need to design experiences that deliver tangible value in return for customers’ time, attention, endorsement and data. With the worldwide explosion of social media usage, businesses are feeling extreme pressure to be where their customers...
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...MARKETING International Business Machines Techno in or techno out Case study 6-13 By Giana Martiena, MBA 2012-2013 Faculty of Hospitality, Tourism Management & International Business Studies University of Aruba, March 2013 INTRODUCTION By adapting its marketing strategy to meet and create demands International Business Machines (IBM) has proven to be able to withstand the ever changing technical world. Challenges come and go, in this case study we discuss a three-prong road that IBM faced. Should they continue to be a tech services company? Or should they explore the collaborative business model, running a risk to become exploited? Is it an option to keep the acquisition spree going for growth rather than organically grow by in-house or collaborative research and development? Facts of the case Structure, management and strategic directions IBM is a multinational corporation that started its activities in 1911. Its origins however, can be traced to 1890, during the height of the Industrial Revolution. It was first known as the Computing-Recording Company, and then in 1924, it took the name of International Business Machines. Nowadays, this multinational company is known as the ¡§Big Blue¡¨ It was first known as the Computing-Recording Company, and then in 1924, it took the name of International Business Machines. Nowadays, this multinational company is known as the ¡§Big Blue¡¨ IBM main activity is to find solutions to its wide range of clients using advanced...
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...Using Kotter’s model, identify the three (3) most significant errors made out of all of the change stories presented and describe the ramifications of those mistakes. In 2002, Hewlett Packard experienced a merger process that many questioned whether it was fitting. Under Kotter’s model, Hewlett Packard made three significant mistakes during their merger. The first significant mistake Hewlett Packard made was when they failed to make the merger suitable for their large employee base. The second step in Kotter model suggests leaders should form a coalition to convince people that change is necessary (cite web). Before the merger, Hewlett-Packard’s CEO, Carly Fiorina made significant changes to the company’s structure. Those changes were met with considerable, but subtle, employee resistance. Fiorina’s vision of HP creating a new interface with customers may have been was regarded as a radical change and therefore was not commonly welcomed by many who were part of the HP “system (cite book). Another significant mistake Hewlett Packard made was when they changed the separate selling approach to customers such as Boeing and Ford. The fifth step in Kotter model suggests leaders should remove obstacles - the processes or structures that are getting in the way of the change process. This step can be applied to the business relationship with Boeing and Ford. As result of the change process with Hewlett Packard, the business relationship with Boeing and Ford became and obstacle...
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...Topic: How a new strategy saved and created a bright future for IBM in 90s. Statement of problem: In the early 1990s, IBM suffered in dramatically declining in the revenue of the mainframe sales, and the stock price also dropped. During the period, the personal computer was the most popular products in Information Technology market, and the mainframe was already outdated. Last but not least, IBM could not reduce its cost according to its size and bureaucracy. As a result, many people believed that IBM could only fell or be divided to smaller companies. Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., who was the new CEO, saved IBM and implemented different strategies in the company. Objective & Method: The purpose of the study is to evaluate how a new strategy affected IBM. Except the abstract, the term project will be separated to four parts: problem statement, strategy formulation and strategy planning of solutions, the summary of results, and recommendations. The term project should reach the following goals through in the four sections. 1. Problem statement will describe IBM’s previous business situation and introduce how problems had generated before Gerstner arrived. 2. The solutions from Gerstner will be deeply analyzed according to the theories from strategy formulation and strategy planning in the textbook. 3. The summary of results will be presented after IBM transferred. 4. The project will offer some recommendations to IBM in the last section. References: The main data resources will...
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...IBM Global Business Services Human Capital Management Achieving success in a globally integrated world: Enabling an adaptable workforce 2 You’ve remodeled your supply chain. Optimized your IT infrastructure. Overhauled your financials. But you’re still not getting the results you expect. So what’s missing? Like many companies, you may be overlooking your most valuable asset: your people. While human capital is an organization’s single largest resource, many companies don’t utilize their workforce to its fullest — even when they’ve been successful in maximizing other strategic business areas — leaving a huge opportunity untapped. By looking to the workforce to improve enterprise adaptability, innovation and productivity, corporate leaders can differentiate their businesses and stay ahead of the competition. Yet, to achieve true differentiation, companies must develop a more responsive, flexible and resilient workforce by finding better ways to source talent, allocate resources across competing initiatives, measure performance and build vital capabilities and skills. This requires developing programs that focus on workforce performance, identifying and employing talent globally, working collaboratively to accelerate change, generating innovation and producing measurable business results — now and into the future. 3 Providing solutions based on solid research IBM’s Global Human Capital Study 2008, which reflects the insights of over 400 senior executives...
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...When Cheryl Smith, arrived to WestJet as the new CIO, the CEO to advise whether or not the company had an adequate IT infrastructure, the statement that CEO said was; “I’m not sure if we have great IT…or otherwise” (Munro, M., & Khan, S. 2013). The aspects of the WestJet IT situation that Cheryl Smith assess in order to respond to the CEO's concern, was what they had in place along with assessment that was just done. Cheryl Smith assesses what IBM study had on WestJet, along with knowledge that CEO gave her before coming aboard. From this information IBM stated to establish a PMO (project management office) Cheryl was concern on the expenses that would be used to establish a PMO so she asked to place it on hold. If I was to summarize and critique Smith's assessment, I would have to first agree with her initial request to stop and place on hold the PMO ideal. The first thing that Cheryl did was to determine budget and resources available to her. Next she compared the number of IT experts to WestJet IT cost. I would have done the same this would have gave me a clear picture of what I have to work with, and what I can use to develop an IT department. Some of the biggest changes in IT at WestJet that were essential and that allowed Smith's governance model to enable WestJet to achieve its strategic goal, was re-structuring staff. By moving experiences personal in to leadership roles and moving out manger and supervisor with no knowledge in IT out of the department. I believe...
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...IBM Case Study 1. What factors led to IBM’s success during the 1960s and 1970s and its problems during the late 1980s and early 1990s? Watson Jr. hit a home run when he invested $5 billion to develop the System/360 computer family, which utilized an integrated semiconductor chip and modular components. Taking full advantage of this innovative momentum, IBM debuted other products during that time which enabled the company to rise to the top of the IT industry. These products included hard and floppy disks, a new computer language and the company’s first personal computer. In the mid 1980s, IBM started to run into trouble when its returns and market share began to slide. Customer needs were changing and emerging technologies led to the demise of IBM’s main product focus—the mainframe. Customers were looking for interconnected mainframes and mobile personal computers with distributed data sources and applications. Instead of devising a strategy to satisfy customer demands and set itself apart from competitors, IBM chose to transition from a lease oriented business to a sales oriented business. This lack of customer focus was coupled with an inefficiently designed workforce that would rather fight with each other than work together. Additionally, the company was so successful in the past that no attempt was made to cut costs/expenses and identify/correct inefficiencies. Adding more salt to the wound was the fact that top level executives were so far removed from daily operations...
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...shaped the course of nations, the economy, and society. It is well recognized that effectively run organizations are more productive and successful while poorly run organizations suffer at the hands of ineffective leaders. Compounding the need for effective leadership is the unethical and illegal behavior of numerous business and public sector leaders that has led to the failure of many organizations. The scandals at Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth, OfficeMax, Tyco, Marsh & McLennan, Putnam, and Boeing, to name just a few, have focused on the importance of strong, effective, and ethical leadership. Dissatisfaction on the part of stockholders and boards of directors has increasingly led to the termination of high-profile CEOs. The recent termination of HewlettPackard’s CEO Carleton (Carly) Fiorina has focused considerable attention on the qualities a leader needs to have in order to achieve the organization’s goals. Employees have suffered at the hands of ineffective leaders. Job satisfaction has declined over the last decade, with the biggest decline in on-the-job happiness among workers earning $25,000 to $35,000 and among workers between the ages of 35 to 44. The biggest reason for people leaving their organizations is that they are being treated poorly by their...
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...ASOCIO Policy Paper CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Date: June 2004 Table of Contents 1 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ........................................................... 2 1.1 What is corporate social responsibility? ........................................................ 2 1.2 Asia Pacific Perspective ................................................................................ 2 1.3 Corporate Social Responsibility: Unlocking the value................................... 3 1.4 World Economic Forum & CSR ..................................................................... 3 1.5 Case Studies ................................................................................................. 4 1.6 Should ASOCIO have a role? ....................................................................... 5 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ASOCIO Policy Paper June 2004 1 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming an increasingly important activity to businesses nationally and internationally. As globalisation accelerates and large corporations serve as global providers, these corporations have progressively recognised the benefits of providing CSR programs in their various locations. CSR activities are now being undertaken throughout the globe. 1.1 What is corporate social responsibility? The term is often used interchangeably for other terms such as Corporate Citizenship and is also linked to the concept of Triple...
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...BOB7024 Organizational Behavior & Design, Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A. Judge, Organizational Behavior, 14th edition, 2011, Pearson Education Chapter 1 Case Incident 1: “Data Will Set You Free” Ford CEO Alan Mulally is known for starting meetings by saying “Data will set you free” and for trying to change Ford’s culture to one that is based on increased accountability, more information sharing, and hard metrics. “You can’t manage a secret,” he is also fond of saying. Although it’s not clear whether Mulally’s approach will work at Ford, which is known for its self-contained fiefdoms where little information is shared, some companies have found that managing people according to hard metrics has paid off. Consider Freescale Semiconductor, a computer chip manufacturer based in Austin, Texas. Freescale has discovered that in order to have the right people at the right time to do the right job, it needs an extensive and elaborate set of metrics to manage its 24,000 employees in 30 countries. Of particular concern to Freescale is retention. “There’s no greater cost than human capital, especially in the technology industry,” says Jignasha Patel, Freescale’s director of global talent sourcing and inclusion. “When you’ve got a tenured employee that decides to walk out the door, it’s not just one person leaving, it’s that person’s knowledge and network and skills.” To manage talent and prevent turnover, Freescale holds line managers accountable for recruiting, hiring, and...
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