Lenovo Business Project Analysis - Dissertation Example

?Business Project Table of Contents Introduction 3 Chapter Lenovo’s Competitive Position in Its Various Markets 4 Chapter 2: Lenovo’s Position In Relation To Cross-Cultural Issues 11 Chapter 3: Lenovo’s Position in Relation to Balancing Pressures on Corporate Social Responsibility with Profitability 16 Conclusion 20 References 24 Bibliography 27 Introduction Lenovo Group Limited is a Chinese global technology company with its headquarters in North Carolina, Beijing and Morrisville. The company specializes in selling smart phones, personal computers, Information Technology (IT) management software, electronic storage devices, tablet computers, workstations, servers, and smart televisions among others (Lenevo, 2013). In the year 2002, Lenovo was considered to be one of the largest sellers of personal computers in the world. The company is also known for its innovation strategies, such as ThinkPad. The company currently employs a total of around 27,000 employees worldwide. The company sells its products in nearly 160 countries and specifically targets the technological markets by way of manufacturing various innovative technology products, which outsells in the market as compared to many of its competitors. The company has been able to gain all round market recognition and popularity. The products manufactured by the company are considered to be of high quality and is widely sold in the global market. The company has also been able to establish itself as a well-known brand in the global market (Schuman, 2009). This paper entails a detailed study about the key factors concerning about the company’s competitive position in the global marketplace. The industrial position acquired by the company in the present marketing scenario, along with its past performances will also be reviewed in the further discussion of this paper. The discussion in this paper will also encompass various subjects relating to cross-cultural issues that persist in the working environment of Lenovo. The project will highlight upon all those factors that will represent the company’s current position in relation to various aspects, such as balancing pressures that occur while managing different activities in a large-sized multinational company including marketing and sales, financing activities, supply chain processes and other activities related to administration and support. The report will also emphasise various activities relating to the corporate social responsibility of the company performed to suffice the need of the overall society. It will also highlight those factors, which relates to the profitability of the company and the various procedures that the company can follow in order to raise the profitability and also for fulfilling the demands of the consumers. This paper would thus provide a great aid to acquire a detailed outlook about the actual operations and management policies of the company and help in assessing the actual position of the company in terms of various factors including its financial position, output ratio, level of competency along with its market positioning among various other factors. Chapter 1: Lenovo’s Competitive Position in Its Various Markets In this section, all those aspects that are associated with the competency levels of the company in the global markets will be studied. This part will rigorously analyse the company’s present position and the degree of its stability, as compared to the other players of the global consumer technology industry. From a generalised point of view, reviewing the current trends in the global consumer technology industry, the company is seen to have a favourable position. The company is a renowned business firm with a huge customer base. Reviewing the strategies of the company, it can be observed that Lenovo’s organisational leadership framework is well versed with the demands of the customers, moving in parallel to the ever increasing demands and following numerous processes of advancement in the features of its products. Accordingly, the company has been utilising innovative strategies and tactful measures to bind its customers with varying needs and demands, and likewise, obtaining competitive advantages in the targeted market (Sengupta, 2005). A detailed study relating to Porter’s Generic Strategies, Porter’s Five Forces, Bowman’s Strategy Clock can be helpful to analyze and critically measure the level of competency and the hurdles that the company may face with the emergence of new competitors. In other words, these models shall assist in a strategic and systematic manner to assess the competitive positioning of the company. Porter’s Five Force Approach Source: (K Zero, 2013) When considering the global consumer technology industry context, it can be apparently observed that an oligopolistic framework persists in the marketplace, which indicates the dominance of a few large sellers to serve the demands of a growing consumer group. Hence, it can be observed that buyers’ bargaining power is substantially high in this industry, which causes a challenge for Lenovo to attract its customers and therefore, acquire a larger proportion in the aggregate market share. The bargaining power of suppliers can also be observed as high due to the presence of few suppliers at the marketplace that are again sorted to smaller proportions on the basis of quality and technology advancement abilities. Threat of substitutes in the global consumer technology industry is further observed at a high degree, where companies attempt to operate in a concentrated form offering almost similar products and also owing to the fact that the price as well as quality features of one product tend to cause a significant impact on the characteristics of its nearest substitute. Correspondingly, Lenovo has to face moderate threat of substitute from other telecom companies like Samsung, Apple and Nokia. It is worth mentioning that the degree of substitution effects tends to be moderate in the case of Lenovo, owing to its highly competitive market positioning. Assessing all these factors, it can be apparently observed that Lenovo faces a moderate to high competitive rivalry in its industry performance, at the current market scenario (Ahrens & Zhou, 2013). Porter’s Generic Strategies Source: (Botten, 2009) As per the assumptions considered in Porter’s Generic Strategy framework, for creating appropriate competitive advantage, a company needs to plan on different activities that principally involve proper planning of the pricing strategies of the products. Stating precisely, lower prices should be fixed at the initial stages for attracting maximum number of clients. However, Lenovo can be observed to focus on offering its products at a higher price range, although competitive to its large competitors such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Apple. It may be owing to its strategic notion that in the global consumer market, high price indicates higher sophisticated brand and a better quality assurance. Focusing lesser on maintaining its price range at a lower rate, Lenovo renders its prime attention towards its differentiation policies in relation to pricing and marketing strategies for gaining a competitive edge over the competitors. With this concern, Lenovo has often been observed to introduce innovative products, and thus set a new trend in the industry, which has certainly acted as a key to attract a larger volume of consumers. Applying the framework, it can also be observed that Lenovo also implements strategies to achieve a narrow target, whereby the company attempts to re-tap market opportunities by following effective strategies of re-entering a particular market by launching new products and services. Generally, following expansion strategies in already saturated markets tends to bring efficient results and productivity, as the consumers in that particular market are already aware about the brand (Ahrens & Zhou, 2013). Bowman’s Strategy Clock Source: (Thompson & Fuller, 2010) As can be observed from the above diagram, in Bowman’s Strategy Clock there are different marketing activities that are usually discharged for the sole purpose of increasing the competency level of companies. When assessing Lenovo’s business and corporate strategies in lieu of these activities, it can be observed that the company primarily focuses on differentiation of its products and/or services in the global marketplace. From an in-depth point of view, Lenovo can also be observed to perform the market strategy of focussed differentiation, which primarily stresses on creating differences in a particular product line, on the basis of its various features and attributes. These types of strategies are usually followed for highlighting a particular product’s features to the mass consumers. Other strategies practiced by Lenovo at often instances, include increased price/standard product strategy. This strategy implies a high level price for a standard product. This strategy is generally implemented on those consumers who are ready to pay an extra amount for purchasing quality products, persuaded by the notion that higher the price range, better the quality of the product. These types of consumers are considered to be high end consumers who value quality of the products over the prices charged. Lenovo also uses the low value/standard price strategy for another particular group of its customers who are must driven towards standard price. This pricing strategy is specially implemented for attracting those consumers who prefer general quality products and are willing to pay a standard price in exchange of the product. Also, one of the extensively used pricing strategies that tend to attract the average income group of consumers is the low price and low value pricing strategy. In this particular pricing strategy, a nominal price is charged against products, which have only the basic features. In addition, low price strategies are followed by Lenovo for attracting maximum number of customers (Ahrens & Zhou, 2013; Sengupta, 2005). Based on the analysis of Lenovo’s competitive position in the global marketplace, it can be noted that the company is well versed with all the marketing and promotional activities in accordance with the prevailing market structure of the industry. The company is successful in creating a positive brand name among millions of consumers worldwide. The company has established wider reach and made its products available to many countries. Moreover, the company has been able to deliver high quality products to the mass consumers and is able to create a distinct level of competency within its competitors. The company has also been able to create a distinct trademark of quality and innovative features in its different product ranges (Piana, 2004). Based on the above analysis of all the three models, i.e. Porter’s Generic Strategies, Porter’s five forces, Bowman’s Strategy Clock, it was thus realized that Porter’s Five Forces would be the most applicable and useful strategic model to assist Lenovo with the development of the most relevant strategy for the company, if it wants to increase its competency levels and follow large expansion strategies. It is worth mentioning in this context that the most advantageous feature of the model is its applicability in assessing the rudimental factors of the industry structure, which further can be utilised to develop effective business and corporate strategies. Accordingly, with due consideration to the market structure and the company strategies, it can be affirmed that Lenovo should continue practicing segregated market strategies as per the needs and demands of its diverse customer group. This shall not only offer the company with higher consumer loyalty in the increasingly competitive and concentrated market structure of the industry, but shall also fortify the competitive positioning of the company in the market. Chapter 2: Lenovo’s Position In Relation To Cross-Cultural Issues Increasing emphasis for international expansion of businesses, has led to the emergence of cross-cultural issues, which often cause radical impacts on the performance of any company when expanding beyond its national boundary. A multinational company, such as Lenovo, often have to employ employees from different cultural backgrounds, in order to maintain a balancing cost structure throughout its value chain. This may benefit a company to a very large extent and also hinder a company’s growth and developmental strategies to a certain extent by raising the degree of diversity in its international business environment. As people from different cultural backgrounds bring diverse thoughts and ideas to the workplace which facilitates a company to increase its ability to innovate new products and services, it also increases the risk of intra-organisational conflicts as well as raises the need to follow divergent managerial strategies (Silverthorne, 2005). With due consideration to these aspects, Lenovo has been striving to manage its diverse organisational environment by adhering to its organisational vision, respecting diverse cultural values and principles in the work environment (Lenevo, 2013). Lenovo, in its corporate strategy, primarily believes in innovation and technology. The company primarily aims to identify employees’ talents and put it into use by channelizing the identified talents throughout the job process. The company essentially deals with the Chinese and the American cultures, which are quite apparently diverse and often contrary to each other. This essentially raises a challenge for the company to maintain a productive environment within its organisational periphery. Hence, by preserving an all-inclusive working culture, the company tends to foster a working climate which respects cultures from various parts of the world and strives to implement the identified cultural values and principles within the company to seek the potential advantages arising thereon. The company had also been able to satisfy large consumers by way of culturally driven and accessorised promotional strategies and inventing products that represent the cultural values. This further enables the company to follow efficient diversification processes while expanding its business internationally, keeping in context with the factor of cultural diversity (Bhattacharya, 2010). The company has substantially created a wide reach by catering into international markets, where it has been able to meet the needs of a larger customer base. Lenovo’s corporate and business strategies can therefore be observed to change and diversify along with the changes witnessed in different cultural environments. For instance, the company advertisement strategies incorporate by Lenovo in its marketing operations in India attempts to render significant concern to the prevailing culture of India and its customers. The company is also seen to follow celebrity brand endorsement strategies for gathering maximum number of customers by formulating Indian culture oriented strategies. These kinds of activities are followed by the company for generating maximum brand awareness and catering to the high end customers within this particular cultural group. Again, Lenovo can also be observed to predominately follow the Chinese culture within its organisation structure comprising most of the employees from the Chinese background. Additionally, to assist its employees get imbibed with the diverse organisational culture of the company, Lenovo also practices a rigorous training and development strategic framework, which aspires to improve the employees’ potentials and instil high degree of loyalty within the workforce for the company. In simple words, the training and development strategies followed by Lenovo attempts to develop and preserve a workforce, which understands the goals of the organisation and work in accordance to the benefit of the company, maintaining a cohesive and cooperative climate within the organisational environment (Jackson, 2002). With its initiatives to manage the diverse culture prevailing in its internal as well as external business environment, Lenovo has been able to attract and retain not only loyal customers at a larger proportion in its global marketplace, but has also assisted in developing a loyal and satisfied workforce to overcome the cultural issues efficiently and perform in a much responsible manner. Furthermore, the company has also been practicing various strategies to attract the customers by addressing cultural diversity effectively in its promotion techniques. From a critical point of view, Lenovo can be observed to practice strategies that have been aimed to align technology needs with the diverse cultures of the marketplace. Such a concern, in relation to Lenovo’s marketing strategies can be observed with reference to its international stakeholder engagement programs, where customers as well as employees and other community partners are free to convey their demands and perceptions regarding the company’s strategic operations. Adequate research and development strategies are also followed by the company in order to suffice the demands and needs of the consumers along with that of its employees with better efficiencies (Lenevo, 2013). Irrespective of its all-inclusive approach taken to control and manage cultural diversity within its organisational structure, Lenovo also has to face few major issues. Being a Chinese multinational, in its initial years of global expansion, especially to the American and British states, the company had to face a primary issue relating to the language barriers and often contrasting cultural beliefs. Diversity and cultural gaps persisting between China and America had long been debated in the global plethora. Notably, the key personnel in Lenovo’s organisational leadership positions comprised Chinese people in particular, in its early days of formation. However, as the hierarchical systems as well as communicating forms and etiquettes are quite distinct, the company’s key personnel had to face substantial difficulties while coping up with the overall American culture. In respect to this issue, the company focused on rendering training and development assistance to its employees and thereby develop its diversity in its working environment (Lenevo, 2013). Lenovo is a well established company with wide span and has been rigorously involved in planning of various expansion policies and strategies in other countries. In order to accomplish this aim, the company will have to develop a deeper understanding in relation to other cultures and its values. Therefore, it would be greatly recommendable for the company to follow a cross cultural approach, as it will enable the company to gain more efficiency in analyzing each of the cultures and its values from an in-depth perspective and hence, will prove to be very beneficial for the company (Lenevo, 2013). The company can standardize its products and services to a large extent as the wants and demands of the consumers, have often been observed to vary substantially, as per the different cultural values. It is in this context that the company should continue striving to cater its products and/or services according to the distinct needs and requirements of international customers. This particular strategy shall be able to benefit the company to a large extent and will enable the company to expand its operations and its marketing channels that can enhance the performance of the company to higher levels. If the company is required to increase its operational activities for the standardization of the products and/or services in accordance with the demands and preferences of the diverse customer groups, the company’s marketing activities will generally expand. The various marketing activities may relate to advertisements and promotions, sponsorship, sales and services among others. However, the company is seen to continuously follow similar marketing strategies and also make effective changes in its products and/or services, so as to comply with the preferences of the customers to a substantial extent. The company caters to different international customers and therefore is known to make many modifications in its overall marketing processes and standardization of products and/or services. As per the above discussions, it was clearly identified that the company had created mass awareness of its products and/or services by making advertisements in the form of celebrity endorsements in those countries where it has been able to create a landmark (Jackson, 2002). Furthermore, Lenovo can be observed to implement similar strategies with prime attention towards promotions through advertisements and organizing sponsorship programs, which aims at generating maximum public awareness about the products and/or services, enabling the company for create a distinct market positioning among its competitors (Lenevo, 2013). However, based on the above assessment of diversity management in Lenovo, it can be affirmed that the company deals with different cultures in a well diversified manner, fortifying a working culture where respect is delivered to each distinct culture associated either internally or externally with the company. Contextually, the company understands and respects diversity in cultures and is also apt in managing the aspect towards the generation of better productivity, which has substantially enabled it to seek a recognisable position at the global marketplace (Lenevo, 2013). Chapter 3: Lenovo’s Position in Relation to Balancing Pressures on Corporate Social Responsibility with Profitability Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has accorded a wide range of importance in the overall context of Lenovo’s economic environment. The conception of CSR lays fundamental policies and principles that are specifically designed by companies with the sole intention to strengthen its sustainability within the global periphery. In a more comprehensive manner, these principles are designed by companies like Lenovo, to follow and fulfil its obligation towards the community in which it operates. CSR, in the current context, has emerged as a vital facet of modern organisational management, which directly links the organisational objectives of the company with the interests of its stakeholders at large, in order to achieve the overall objectives of the company by channelizing its products and/or services to the society. Correspondingly, the CSR initiatives taken by Lenovo, represents many noble causes in support of those community groups who are in need for assistance to develop. It is in this context that Lenovo is often observed to aim at providing extended help to Non-Governmental Organisation, child trusts and old-age homes through its CSR activities. Within its CSR operations, Lenovo also emphasises the consumption of energy and other environmental resources, which may be considered as one of the most important aspects of its sustainability aims (Mullerat, 2011). In the global marketplace, companies greatly value the concept of CSR, especially those companies with a high brand image, for the sole purpose of portraying a positive message to the consumers by generating social value for them. It is worth mentioning in this context that one of the major challenges faced by multinational companies to render extensive significance towards CSR is its low profit ratios. Also, a company cannot take the burden of making very high investments in CSR as it will harm the profitability ratios of a company. As a matter of fact, generating profitability tends to be the primary objective for Lenovo, which may collide with its intentions to serve the community at large. Under such circumstances, it becomes quite crucial for a company to balance its profitability with its sustainability in the long-run. Earning of profits along with assuring CSR is very crucial for a company, especially if that company has been able to create a distinct level of competency in the market. It is hence, quite crucial for Lenovo that it continuously performs and strives to maintain a dominant position in the market and move in parallel to the prevailing market standards (Grunewalder, 2008). It is thus suggestible to Lenovo that prior importance should be given to the concept of social responsibility and should be widely practised by maintaining a balance with its profitability. In this regard, one of the major CSR initiatives taken by Lenovo can be illustrated as its innovative supply chain management strategies, involving its employees, its customers, its suppliers and other different partners associated with its value chain functions. The products and services delivered by the company aims at serving various business purposes that primarily include commitment to the society. Lenovo is well known to embrace the concepts of innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, customer service and integrity. The company primarily believes in supplying products and/or services with high degree of quality assurance, rendering due significance towards ensuring proper safety in its products along with managing sustainable energy consumption for the same. The company also believes in providing proper environmental conservation assistance to its customers by performing various activities relating to the reduction of various environmental impacts that are generally caused through a rising proportion of industrial wastages and improper disposition of the waste materials. The company also focuses on maintaining high level of ethical standards and integrity when marketing its products. The company strictly follows governmental laws and is seen to adhere to its ethical principles as well as CSR policies in alignment with its organisational vision (Mullerat, 2011). The foundations of CSR initiatives adopted by Lenovo can further be considered to be very solid, wherein the company is seen to follow strict guidelines to facilitate its industry presence and sustenance. The company is well known for its dominant position in the market. It is also well known for its distinguished quality assurance as well as product and services features offered to its customers. In its current performance, the company has been able to attain a significant level of competitive advantage, which has further contributed to its long-term efficiency by a large extent. Correspondingly, analysing the CSR strategies and the company’s efficiency to collaborate with its stakeholders at a large extent, it can be affirmed that its responsible presence in the industrial context has played a vital role in contributing to its overall profitability. Currently, the company is considered to be one of the topmost profit earning companies in the consumer technology products and/or services sectors. It is undoubtedly owing to its global responsible presence that the company has been able to create a distinct brand image, building its consumers’ trusts, which has further contributed to the competitive advantages of the company. It is one of the primary objectives of the company has been to earn a high profits and likewise, suffice the interests of its shareholders. It has also rendered equal importance in satisfying the needs of its employees worldwide and also that of its stakeholders to obtain competitive advantages in the form of employee loyalty. It is worth mentioning in this context that it is largely due to Lenovo’s distinguished marketing standards and excellence that the company’s overall profitability is not limited to one particular country. Countries like India, China and America, being three of the most active markets of Lenovo, the sales of the company and also the degree of customer loyalty for the brand are considered to be the highest as compared to other countries. The company distributes its products through different suppliers and distributors that aids in generating large amount of profits to the company (Hawkins, 2006). In this respect, it can be affirmed that the company is quite competitive to manage both its profitability concentrated strategies and sustainability concentrated strategies in an equal manner. The company has served the environment and the consumers as well, in the most flourishing manner. Correspondingly, it has been able to provide various measures for the welfare of the society and the community in which it operates. The company’s broad activities concerning its CSR activities, have prudently affected it in multiple ways that embrace consolidated brand image, efficient service delivery process and maintenance service effectiveness to address the distinct requirements. These success factors ultimately facilitated the company towards attaining valuable recognition in all over the world. Hence, it can be affirmed that Lenovo has grown up to a substantial level and has been able to effectively maintain balance between its social responsibility and its objective of earning substantial profit (Cuvilseva, 2012). It is worth mentioning that managing CSR responsibilities along with ensuring high profitability often impose serious challenge for most of the companies (Rang, 2011). Majority of the companies believe in yielding high income and profitability. Simultaneously, ensuring CSR may not be considered to be equally important as that of profitability. However, Lenovo has been assessed to balance the two aspects, i.e. CSR and profitability, in an all-inclusive and appropriate manner, with equal significance. Managing CSR responsibilities may incur large amount of expenses that most of the companies may not aspire to undergo. Eventually, these companies may incur expenses towards advertisements and promotions of the products that may very well be implemented for the purpose of ensuring general awareness of those products, which may in turn improve the profitability of these companies (Mc Calley, 1992). Conclusion Based on the above discussions, it can be affirmed that Lenovo aims to implement various strategies and activities that are meant to improve the position of the company in terms of operations and its overall productivity. It is in this context that the obtained findings postulate Lenovo’s business and corporate strategies to be extensively aligned with the external market changes, not only in terms of its structure but also in terms of its cultural diversity. Accordingly, the strategies and corporate vision considered by Lenovo broadly emphasises in expansion strategies with due regards to cultural diversity and distinct preferences of its customer groups. The company is also identified to reap the benefits of cross cultural relationships throughout its working environment. Hence, it can be recommended that the company needs to follow a cross cultural approach if the company opts for its successful expansion and long-run sustenance. As per the obtained results from the applied theoretical models, one of the major strengths of the company had been its efficiency to imbibe cultural diversity prospects and profitability goal in alignment with the sustainability intentions. The scope of the study also aided in determining the company’s position in relation to balancing pressures on CSR along with those practices that involve profitability and income. In this paper, a deep study about the importance of CSR and profitability was primarily conducted to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Lenovo to meet the customers demand in the global plethora and accordingly, obtain competitive advantages over its competitors. To be mentioned, such as understanding also assisted in identifying the actual industry position of the company. As per the analysis, it was realized that the aspects of CSR and profitability of a company plays a very important role in the determination of a company’s overall development. It has broad implications of further development in a company’s perspective. Correspondingly, analysis of this paper justified that it is often quite difficult to manage both the aspects, i.e. CSR and profitability, with equal importance by multinational companies, as most of the companies are more concerned about their profit earning capabilities, which at a certain instance may persuade the management to compromise with its long-run sustainability objectives. Nevertheless, Lenovo can be observed to be quite efficient in adopting and implementing strategies, with due significance to its profitability and sustainability. In this regard, the main intention of Lenovo has been to generate awareness for its products and cater larger amount of customers within its global marketplace. The company has also been assessed to maintain proper CSR responsibilities as well and a high level of competency which has proved to be quite beneficial for its growth and expansion. Based on the maturity levels of the company, the conducted assessment in the above discussion has further revealed that Lenovo has been able to perform all the broad responsibilities in its social and corporate fronts by identifying and responding to the industrial changes witnessed in the external business environment, by fostering cultural diversity within its internal business environment and by rendering equal significance to its profitability and sustainability concerns, which accumulatively enhanced the competitive market presence of Lenovo. It was further identified through the assessment that the core strength of Lenovo was its brand name and wide reachability within the global periphery. On the contrary, one of the major weaknesses of Lenovo can be observed to be its efficiency being restricted within few countries and thus, lacking uniformity in all the market spheres of the global marketplace. Hence, it is recommendable that Lenovo should attempt to fortify its presence in other national markets with similar notion, which has assisted it in gaining a competitive market positioning within few of its marketplaces. References Ahrens, N. & Zhou, Y., 2013. China’s Competitiveness: Case Study Lenovo. A Report of the CSIS Hills Program on Governance. Batten, N., 2009. CIMA Official Learning System Enterprise Strategy. Elsevier. Berger, C., 2008. The 4 Types of Market Competitive Positioning and its Key Strategies. GRIN Verlag. Bhattacharya, D. K., 2010. Cross-Cultural Management: Text and Cases. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Cuvilseva, M., 2012. The Importance and Significance of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting. GRIN Verlag. Grunewalder, A., 2008. Corporate Social Responsibility. GRIN Verlag. Hawkins, D. E., 2006. Corporate Social Responsibility: Balancing Tomorrow's Sustainability and Today's Profitability. Palgrave Macmillan. Jackson, T., 2002. 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