Growth through Cross-border Acquisitions: Can Lenovo Repeat Its Success Story?

Founded in 1984 in a dusty, two-bedroom Beijing guardhouse by Liu Chuanzhi and a team of engineers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lenovo soon began to manufacture and sell computers. Language barriers and differences in communication styles also proved challenging. With the Motorola acquisition, Lenovo became one of the world’s largest mobile phone makers. A business transformation team was assigned with the task of exploring the cultural differences between Lenovo and IBM, and efforts were made to ensure that the cultural differences between the two parties were openly highlighted and the employees on both sides received cultural and communication training. After less than one year, Steve Ward was replaced with William Amelio, a senior executive at Dell. English was introduced as the official work language, and the frequency of meetings between the Chinese and US senior managers was increased.