Fresh
from a triumphant showing at the Beijing
Olympics, Lenovo, the world's fourth largest
computer manufacturer, has set its sights on
conquering the Middle East.
The China-based company was given the arduous
task of supplying the technology for the 2008
Olympics in August, yet stormed their way to
gold with a flawless performance demonstrated by
the fact that their coverage of the 17-day event
went without a hitch
"The Olympics was a landmark event in terms of
opening up China to the world," says Damian
Crotty, Vice President of the Lenovo Centre of
Excellence at the launch of their ThinkServer
product last week. "But more importantly for
Lenovo, it opened us up as a global brand. We're
the market leader in China and as one of the
major global markets it's important that
customers across the world recognise our
strength there and that our capabilities can be
easily exported into Europe.
"And from a brand equity perspective it was very
positive. The entire Olympics ran on Lenovo
infrastructure and given that there was not a
single technology issue from reporting to time
management to all the other items we covered, I
think we were able to prove that, on the world
stage, both the brand and the technology hold
true to the commitment that Lenovo has around
quality, reliability and delivering great
platform solutions."
The company took on the biggest sports event in
the world with resounding success. Their
multi-layered computing solution, that serviced
30,000 journalists and was run by 600 engineers,
gave as smooth a performance off the track as
Usain Bolt did on it.
Lenovo provided computing for all 630
competitive events that included 302 medal
events spanning 39 different venues. They also
supplied 17 data centres that processed 23
million live queries and ran a series of i-lounges
coping with 3,000 visitors daily.
It is no surprise, then, that Crotty sees more
investment in sport as key to driving his young
company's brand.
Lenovo has history here, having successfully
supported the 2006 Winter games in testing
conditions in Torino, Italy and spending the
last year working in close capacity with the
AT&T Williams Formula One team.
"I think we've demonstrated a clear commitment
to investing in sporting events," continues the
Australian. "Like the Torino Winter Olympics –
where we were the technology provider with that
– the Beijing Olympics and our affiliation
with Formula One. So clearly sport is at the
forefront of really raising brand awareness.
"Those three events have proved it's a
successful medium to reach the broader public
and build recognition on what Lenovo's able to
bring to the table in terms of its technologies,
services and capabilities. And I think you'll
continue to see us being associated with
sporting events while at the same time making
sure we point more brand equity development
within specific domestic markets."
One of the markets Lenovo has identified is the
Middle East, as the company recently established
a new General Manager, Khaled Kamel, here four
months ago. The region's PC channel is worth
about $2bn (Dh7.3bn), equating to approximately
one million units sold in Saudi Arabia and the
UAE, so the computer manufacturer aims to tap
into that burgeoning market.
"Just given the relative growth rates and the
penetration of technology, it's incredibly
attractive," explains Crotty enthusiastically.
"We'll continue to invest in sales capability,
our business partner network [of which there are
35 affiliates around the region] and bringing
all these technologies to market to ensure we
have maximum presence there.
"There is just a very serious commitment and a
real ambition to be successful in what we call
the emerging markets that include the UAE, KSA
and Turkey. There are several capabilities
within our China business that we can leverage.
"They've done a wonderful job in terms of
building a very strong SMB [Small Business
Market] business, a strong channel partnership
model and a very strong brand identity. So, if
you look at those three dynamics alone, an
ability to import those into the UAE would
enable us to fast track our success."
Swift success is something Lenovo have proved
adept at, and at a speed the new Olympic 100m
gold medalist would be proud of. Founded in 1984
by a team of 11 engineers, it became the biggest
PC manufacturer of domestic and distributed
third party products four years later.
In 2005, a decision to buy IBM's PC division for
$1.27bn – $655m in cash and $600m in Lenovo
stock – proved a masterstroke and sales have
risen 17 per cent from last year to $16.4bn. And
Crotty believes the UAE, mirroring its rapid
rise, would be a perfect place to invest.
"The UAE's as good as any other market," he
clarifies in a sales-pitch as sharp as his
tailored black suit. "It's highly
entrepreneurial, the growth rates look
incredibly encouraging and it's clearly a market
that's attracting significant foreign and
domestic investment. And any time you see those
dynamics come together it leads to robust
growth.
"Lenovo wants to be in markets that are growing
strongly, where customer demand is high and
where we feel we've got a value proposition that
resonates powerfully. And the other thing about
Dubai and the UAE is that it's a very dynamic
and ambitious market, not that different to
Lenovo.
"The subtle overtones of that market and our
brand identity actually work very, very well
together and having that association would be
extremely positive."
One of the many positives to come out of
Lenovo's association with the Olympics was that
they raced to more brand mentions than any of
the competition's other partners in Beijing.
That includes the American heavyweights of
Coca-Cola and McDonalds. Expect the brand to
have run riot in the emirate by the time London
2012 rolls in.
Lenovo life
'Legend' was founded in 1984 by a group of
computer scientists led by Liu Chuanzhi. The
company set up shop in a small bungalow in
Beijing and introduced PCs to Chinese households
from then on. It began trading on the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange in 1994 and within four years had
sold it's one-millionth computer. Legend changed
its brand name to Lenovo in 2003 and acquired
IBM's PC market two years later, making it the
largest PC manufacturer in China.
