Driving Down the Memory Lane

Could you take us through the ThinkPad journey and the complete transformation period?

The acquisition of IBM's PC division by Lenovo was a bigsurprise for most of our customers. They were worriedabout ThinkPad as a brand; it was because the company ownership had changed after the acquisition. However,I maintained and convinced everyone that ThinkPad won'tchange at all. This was the first message I passed on tomy customers and from that very point, we started thetransition journey.

And if you talk about the employees of IBM, it wasagain a big shocker for most of them. It is becauseThinkPad as a brand was created by us, it was our babyand none of us wanted to part away with it. It is onlyafter we got the assurance that the ThinkPad brand isgoing to exist; we kept our worries behind and acceptedthe change. Apparently, in the next few months, every-thing settled down and we all started focusing on our business.

What are your plans to position Lenovo as a product in the emerging geographies including India?

Today, our worldwide organizational management ofmarkets is divided between two teams. One runs maturemarkets and the other takes care of emerging markets.It makes more sense for group companies to look at thebuying behavior and the maturity of the market. This isour strategy from the logistical point of view.

As a corporate, we follow the 'protect and attack'strategy. We know the fact that we have the most loyalbase of customers in the market. We protect our existingcustomer base by continuing the current ThinkPad linelike the T series, W series, X series, etc. Obviously, theseall evolve into new products by adding new technologiesand continuous innovation. But that's again extendingour classic product line.

On the other hand, we follow the attack strategyCEOS onto the consumers including the small andmedium businesses. In fact, we have introducednew products that are significantly different fromthe traditional ThinkPad line. This new range iscalled ThinkPad Edge that comes with a differentlook and feel, different design identity, which is inthe direct recognition of the buying preferencesof small and medium businesses.

Unlike the classic ThinkPad line that comes inmatt black color, the ThinkPad Edge range comesin different colors and different styles of keyboardetc. But we have made no compromise in themechanism of the keys, to keep the same feel andzeal. They are available in different shapes butagain it is in the recognition of different market segments.

Lenovo is committed to business and environ-mental sustainability, both as a company, and alsofor its customers. Our products offer the industrybest TCO, energy efficiency and performance,which help our customers reduce their energy billsand environmental impact, and ultimately enablea more sustainable business.

We are taking multiple approaches to remaingreen. From the product perspective, what we havenow in the market is recycled plastics being usedfor manufacturing the products. We are activelyintegrating recycled materials into the products.If you look at our products' packaging, we haveimplemented the use of recycled and recyclablematerial, reduced the size of boxes used for ourThinkPad products, and have increased the use ofbulk packaging. We are also using biodegradable inks for printing on these boxes.

What is Lenovo's commitment towards Green IT and highlight some of the initiatives that you have in place?

The new packaging material, made from 100 percentrecycled thermo-formed cushions, enables PCs to bestacked together and requires less packaging material.This new material also helps minimize shipping costs. Inaddition, Lenovo has implemented the use of 100 percentpost-consumer molded fiber (paper pulp) packaging, onmany Lenovo notebook product lines, which can typicallybe readily recycled in municipal waste streams. From thecorporate perspective, we invest heavily on unified powermanagement software in our ThinkPads and ThinkCenterdesktops so that the customers can manage powerconsumption. We proactively do power consumption testson our desktops so that one can quantify how muchmoney one can save on electricity. There's also an ongoing'Buy Back' program, wherein we buy back the old machinesand make sure that it goes to the right recyclers in themarket. And to ensure the development and marketingof environment-friendly products, Lenovo has committedto the design criteria established by EPEAT (ElectronicProduct Environmental Assessment Tool) and offersproducts at the EPEAT Gold and Silver levels that deliverhigher levels of energy efficiency and power management.

Could you highlight some of the key milestones in these 18 years of journey?

One of the most significant milestones for us is theintroduction of the ThinkPad brand 700c, in the year1992. Then in the year 2000, we totally redesigned theThinkPad series, wherein our focus was to give thecustomers consistency in terms of the positioning ofports, keyboard design, etc.

Interviewed by RAJNEESH DE
(rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in)
and NIVEDAN PRAKASH
(nivedanp@cybermedia.co.in)
(Read full interview at dqchannels.com)