Obviously, it is unrealistic to let 73-year-old Liu Chuanzhi come out again. So how can Yang Can Yuan Qing reverse the crisis faced by Lenovo Group?
On July 20th, Yang gave Lenovo two prescriptions: hold Liu's thigh tightly and bet on Lenovo's life and AI.
However, can these two drugs cure Lenovo Group?
Yang: Quit if you can't reach your goal.
According to Tencent Technology, Lenovo and JD.COM reached an agreement in 20 16, and Lenovo will strive to achieve the target sales of 60 billion RMB in JD.COM in the next three years. 2065438+June 2007, Liu Jun, executive vice president of Lenovo Group and president of China District, who returned again, reached a new commitment with Hu Shengli, president of JD.COM 3C Division, and the sales target of 60 billion yuan became 80 billion yuan, probably10 billion yuan.
Liu Jun said in an interview today that among the 80 billion targets, 60 billion are PCs, 654.38+0.5 billion are mobile phones and 5 billion are other products.
Yang added that if the target of 80 billion yuan is not reached within three years, the consequence will be to step down.
At the same time, at this conference with the theme of "Let the world be full of AI", Lenovo launched a series of intelligent hardware products, including smart ECG suits, Lenovo smart speakers+,Lenovo smart servers, Morningstar and other devices.
According to the "First Financial Daily" report, Yang said, "Lenovo has seen that AI is the future of the information industry, and Lenovo has put its life on AI."
Both PC and mobile phone are facing challenges.
Transformation is the prescription that Yang gave Lenovo Group in crisis.
At present, Lenovo Group is facing many challenges in personal computer and mobile phone business.
In terms of personal computers, the recent report released by Gartner, a market research organization, shows that the global PC shipments of 2011000000 in the second quarter decreased by 4.3% compared with the same period of last year. This is the 1 1 quarterly decline in global PC shipments, and it is also the lowest record since 2007.
At the same time, Gartner data also shows that HP surpassed Lenovo in this quarter and took the throne of global PC.
While losing the position of PC boss, the sluggish mobile phone business has not improved. According to the financial report of Lenovo Group in fiscal year 20 16/ 17 (as of March 3 this year), its mobile business revenue and sales volume in China continued to decline; Global smartphone sales recorded during the year decreased by 22% year-on-year, and the global smartphone market share recorded in this fiscal year was 3.5%. The Group's mobile business revenue decreased by 65,438+00% year-on-year to US$ 7.707 billion.
In fact, Lenovo used to be very leading in the mobile phone business and once became the first in the market share. However, since 20 14, the market share of Lenovo mobile phones has been declining year by year. According to the data, the sales volume of Lenovo mobile phones in China market has fallen out of the top five in 20 15 years, ranking behind Huawei, Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and OPPO. According to the global smartphone shipment data released by IDC in the first quarter of 20 17, Lenovo shipped 1200 units in the first quarter, ranking eighth, while Huawei shipped 35 million units.
Especially compared with rising stars such as Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo, Lenovo mobile phone, as the big brother, is even more desolate.
However, Yang said today that in the second half of this year, the outside world will see the effectiveness of Lenovo's transformation, and smart phones (Lenovo's mobile business) will enter the track of turning losses into profits.
Yang said frankly that Lenovo will still focus on PC in the future, but the PC here is no longer limited to personal computers, but "personal computing devices+cloud" and eventually evolved into "personalized computing devices+personalized cloud". In the future, investment will be strengthened in three technical directions: smart devices, smart cloud platforms and smart services.
The sky-high salary is controversial.
I noticed that since the first day Yang entered Lenovo, this challenge seems to have never stopped. 1989, 25-year-old Yang joined Lenovo, but his first job was sales. He holds a master's degree in computer science from China University of Science and Technology.
Yang's unyielding personality gradually established himself in Lenovo. 1994, Lenovo established a microcomputer division headed by Yang. That year, foreign brands entered China on a large scale, and Yang resisted the pressure, making Lenovo a unique domestic brand. In 2004, Yang led Lenovo to acquire IBM's personal computer business, making Lenovo a symbol of China's enterprise internationalization.
However, in recent years, Lenovo's business has fallen into a downturn, and Yang, who leads a high salary, has been controversial.
According to the data of Forbes in 20 15, Yang once again became the CEO of listed companies in mainland China and Hong Kong with a salary of nearly1.1.90 billion yuan. This is also the third consecutive year that Yang ranked first.
"
After Lenovo Group lost 840 million yuan in fiscal year 201516, Yang announced that he would give up the year-end bonus for fiscal year 20 16/ 17.
Although he gave up the year-end bonus, Yang's income is still an amazing figure. According to the 20 16/ 17 annual report issued by Lenovo group, the 20 17 fiscal year includes salary and long-term incentives. And Yang's salary from Lenovo Group reached 19245000 USD.
"
Yang likes to describe the development of Lenovo Group by climbing mountains, and regards the summit as the only goal of enterprise development. Perhaps in this process, some people will feel bored and even criticize the mountaineering efforts, but in Yang's mind, mountains exist.
Everyone is talking, as if they were framed by Lenovo to talk in circles, and we don't listen. They use the persuasion method of sales to let everyone recognize their statements according to this idea, so as not to let the stock market crash. In fact,
1, taking Huawei as an example, the capital investment is 10% of the sales, and the personnel investment is half of the company's personnel and R&D personnel. This investment lasted for 30 years, and Huawei's technical position in the world is today. Up to now, in the company structure and statements, what we see is that their counter-compensation for sales business is outrageous. Of course, this is also the reason why Lenovo succeeded. However, when enterprises face problems and require transformation as soon as possible, they want to gamble. In fact, your foundation and structure can't support your gambling.
2. The success of Lenovo's trade technology, in fact, we need to understand that trade technology is essentially the slogan of corporate politics, and Ni Guangnan's withdrawal is the failure of corporate political struggle. At the same time, China's domestic economic and social development at that time needed domestic trade to meet the needs of China's development at that time, and there was no difference in technology, industry, trade and technology. We can't forget that our generation knew Lenovo was a technology company from Lenovo Hanka. However, Lenovo's transformation has been sluggish, and its cognition still stays in the 1980s. It also believes that R&D is not as good as purchasing, and purchasing is not leased. I completely forgot that China's economy and society are different from those in the 1980s. This is a matter of cognition, so we can't support them to gamble.
3. Social support. Lenovo has always been a banner of China science and technology, and its word-of-mouth brand is highly recognized by Chinese people and the market, which is the market foundation for Lenovo's success. However, with the rapid development of science and technology in China, brands such as Ali, Tencent, Baidu and Huawei have become the pride of China people, and Lenovo's investment in trade, industry and technology is far greater than technology. This situation has not changed for 30 years, not because the market has forgotten Lenovo, but because Lenovo itself has not kept up with the times. On the issue of strengthening internal management, I remember that the media's evaluation of Lenovo's management was surprising twenty years ago. The overall performance declined and was kicked out of the system by Hang Seng. Recently, it was revealed that the long code part was voted for Qualcomm on the issue of 5G, which made Chinese people feel extremely disgusted after being stimulated by ZTE. The market base of your gambling is gone. Yang Zong did a terrible job in the crisis public relations.
Therefore, no matter from Lenovo's internal structure and mechanism, or its own investment and guidance, or the support and recognition of the market foundation, Lenovo does not have the possibility of gambling. The domestic and international markets have changed, but Lenovo is not aware of these changes, and is still proud of China as the first brand of science and technology. Where is Lenovo's future under such a decision? Everyone knows what the result of gambling is.
Personally, I think Lenovo, as a very large enterprise, is too self-righteous. At that time, Lenovo was established through terminal channels. When I was in charge of computer channels, I could see Lenovo's specialty stores everywhere, and the sales ability of Lenovo's specialty stores was relatively strong, but all Lenovo's specialty stores were controlled by the most capable local specialty stores. Lenovo's success comes from the advantages of specialty stores and specialty store systems. Lenovo's products have never been the most cost-effective products, and often Lenovo's products have the highest price ratio, so Lenovo began to pretend to be the boss. How strong its products are, but I don't know the changes in recent years, the rise of the Internet and the rise of the mobile Internet, and the impact is very great. From today's point of view, pure Lenovo stores are rare. I don't know what Lenovo thinks. Why can't many specialty stores survive? Instead, they have all been replaced by specialty stores in the form of hypermarkets? Then why Xiaomi, oppo, vivio, Huawei, etc. Now they are all doing specialty stores, and they are all very successful! What is Lenovo doing now?
Lenovo's roots are in specialty stores. Why do we have no roots now? On the contrary, we will cooperate with JD.COM. What are the advantages of Lenovo Online? If Lenovo still pretends to be the boss, Lenovo is destined to be like Nokia. I don't know why it suddenly failed. You know, Lenovo's products have no cost performance at all. Lenovo's route has always been trade plus technology. Without a strong technical reserve, there is no most important core competitiveness. This can be seen from the advantages of Huawei. In addition, there is no cost performance. Why can Lenovo let people buy online? The most important thing is the product display, cost performance, word of mouth, and a very strong publicity point. For example, oppo focuses on taking photos, appearance display and word of mouth. Even if the configuration is poor, the brand has formed its own characteristics. For example, Xiaomi, the brand's cost performance has reached the extreme, and its reputation has reached a very good level, which has formed Xiaomi's products with good quality and high cost performance. Then who can succeed if he doesn't succeed? In contrast, Lenovo, what products do we remember? Computer products have become a sunset industry. Even if they get bigger, the computer industry is shrinking. There are not many games played by computers now. Computer is no longer an entertainment product, but more a production tool, which is necessary. The demand for products has changed. Notebooks have become the mainstream, and desktops are yesterday's thing. People who pursue brands often buy them. What is the current position? At least I can't see where Lenovo's computer is located. I don't think most people can see the advantages of online shopping pages. Why do I have to buy Lenovo computers and other brands of computers? At present, the homogenization of products is very serious, so other brands have poor quality and poor service? Do I have to pay attention to Lenovo's service when I buy in JD.COM? Of course, this does not represent everyone, at least a large part of ideas. Lenovo is gradually marginalized on the Internet. Now people only want to see what they like because of the internet, and they don't touch or rarely touch what they are not interested in. What is the interest that Lenovo brings to people? This is why it is easy to hold large-scale product launch conferences for many products now, and the key point is to arouse people's interest and thus form a purchase. What changes has Lenovo taken?
There is no independent store, the product positioning is vague, the cost performance is not high, and the brand is gradually marginalized (not to say that the brand dies). The only thing I can see is that Lenovo is working hard on ai intelligence, but how do you work hard? Are you in JD.COM? I don't think it is possible to rely entirely on JD.COM. It can be seen that Lenovo can only exert its strength on ai, and I don't see it being integrated into Lenovo's brand. The brands of these products are scattered. Why not emphasize Lenovo and concentrate Lenovo's brands? I can be said to be the first group of people in Lenovo stores, and I miss Lenovo at that time. At that time, Lenovo monopolized six stores, which can be said to be the marketing strategy of crushing other brands. However, the subsequent development can be said to have been greatly impacted by the Internet, but at present, it is impossible to rely entirely on the Internet, nor can it rely entirely on specialty stores. How to enter the public's sight, how to arouse the public's interest, and the refined positioning of products should be considered.
For Lenovo, we are now facing not only business problems, but also behavior and image being questioned. If it is only a business problem, Lenovo, which has experienced many difficulties and obstacles, can get out of the predicament. Just like the previous financial crisis, as soon as Liu Chuanzhi came out of the mountain, he immediately turned to safety.
However, the crisis in behavior and image is not so simple. Even if Liu Chuanzhi is willing to go out again, can public opinion and the public buy Liu Chuanzhi's account as in the past and support Liu Chuanzhi and Lenovo as in the past? Without the support of public opinion and the public, it is the most terrible.
It may be a way for Lenovo to get out of trouble, or the only way out. Then, you will encounter such a question, is it "own" artificial intelligence or "others'" artificial intelligence? Now Lenovo computers and mobile phones are made by Lenovo, but the chips are made in Qualcomm. In other words, Lenovo has not mastered the heart of computers and mobile phones. A product without a heart is equivalent to a car without an engine and does not have core competitiveness.
This brings a question, how Lenovo's artificial intelligence will be carried out with its own life, and whether it can produce a real intentional artificial intelligence is a very important issue.
In fact, if Lenovo really wants to get out of the predicament, it should not be afraid to calm down, put down its business scale and profits, return to the research and development of core technologies such as chips, and become a heart research and development center, so that Lenovo can start a real second venture. This will not only help enterprises get rid of the crisis, but also reshape the market image and let the iconic Lenovo return to the hearts of Chinese people. It is artificial intelligence, and it must be artificial intelligence with a heart. This is the problem that Lenovo needs most and should solve most!
At this year's third global conference on innovation and technology, Yang, chairman of Lenovo Group, once said: "AI is the future of the information industry, and we must go all out and even gamble our lives."
Lenovo's understanding and action on AI is not a day or two. As early as 20 15, the head Yang talked about Lenovo's thinking and actions in five aspects of "smart connection". From the outside world, Lenovo Group has indeed "tossed" too much in the last two or three years. However, Lenovo has changed from a single PC business company to a multi-business group with PC, mobile, enterprise and cloud services. Undoubtedly, Lenovo has never been so close to the business form of the AI ? ? era.
At the third Tech World, Lenovo demonstrated the world's first visual recognition smart speaker+,integrated mixed reality smart glasses daystAR Morningstar, ThinkSystem series, ThinkAgile solution, virtual intelligence assistant CAVA Kawa, Lenovo intelligent ECG smart vest, Lenovo intelligent situational engine LCE, Lenovo service robot ... nearly 10 AI innovative technologies and applications. Coupled with the previous artificial intelligence achievements in computers and mobile phones, Lenovo's smart devices at the front end are more abundant and diversified, and the annual shipment of 65.438+0.5 billion devices is considerable, which helps the AI strategy.
Lenovo is also full of confidence in cloud services supported by artificial intelligence back-end algorithms, big data and computing power.
Based on these potential advantages, Lenovo faces the goal of becoming the top three data center providers in the industry and the plan of becoming the fastest growing and largest supercomputing company by 2020. In the era of intelligent internet that has arrived, Lenovo's AI strategic layout in consumer-level business and enterprise-level business has taken shape, and then it depends on execution and concrete results.
I think someone downstairs answered very well. Such a big association is not deep, but more technical and short-sighted. Obviously, the era of selling goods through channels has passed. Liu, even if you agree to sell Lenovo's one trillion products, Lenovo's product technology will not work. Can JD.COM buy it herself? Obviously, the era of using channels to promote sales has passed, and Lenovo can't see when Apple has embraced the thigh of the channel. To sell well, consumers must first buy. If consumers don't buy it, how strong is the channel? Some people analyzed below are very willing. The fundamental reason is that those in power, thinking ability and strategic vision can't keep up with the times. Talent can't get up, and it's heartless to make money. Liu always chooses successors who have no strategic vision. After doing it, he has a high salary for more than ten years. After seeing Ma Yun, the CEO will be changed in almost three to five years. One is to keep pace with the times, and the other is to let talented people come up.
I think the second person in Alibaba just got Taobao up and made it colorful, and it was cut down. He just dissolved the class and distributed the money to the shareholders. Let the new guy come up.
The technology industry is not gambling, and Lenovo's biggest problem is that it is not enterprising. Since its establishment more than 30 years ago, none of the key components of the computer are its own.
Backed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the thickest science and technology tree in China, Lenovo's management is not qualified, because it has not contributed to China's information industry.
Huawei, which he founded at the same time, started at 20,000 yuan, acting as an agent for foreign exchanges, earning money to invest in research and development, and constantly accumulating technology. Today, Huawei has become the world's number one and the third supplier of communication equipment in the mobile phone world, and its chips are all its own.
I want to buy someone else's chips and memory today. Invest the money earned in buying land and building a house. Lenovo's ideal is not to be a technology company, but to be a local owner and collect rent.
With the support of the whole country and the full help of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, such a big company finally lived the dream life of a licensed woman. This is a blessing for Lenovo's shareholders and a sorrow for China's technology industry. Failed to live up to the support of netizens for so many years.
My first computer is Lenovo, why buy it? It's for my son's study. There is a software on it that can control children's time on the computer. However, it didn't take long for the power button of the computer to be broken. It was still under warranty. It took half a day to get a new one. However, it didn't take long for it to break down again. This time the warranty period is over, call Lenovo maintenance department. They said that replacing the switch requires 180 yuan, which is not cheap. It's company policy. At that time, I thought it was outrageous, so I studied it carefully to see if I could repair it myself. I suddenly found that there was something wrong with the design of the power button position of Lenovo computer. It is on the main chassis, and every time it is turned on, it is pressed with your fingers, which is much stronger than pressing it from the side. After a long time, the gap of the power button will be covered with dust, and the button will get stuck and cannot be recovered. Although the reason is found, the power button is not easy to use. I called the after-sales department and said that it was caused by the design, not our operation, but they said coldly 180 yuan, change the switch, or go to the Beijing company headquarters. At that time, I was a little angry. I asked for the number of the Beijing headquarters and called. People at headquarters have a bad attitude and are even more outspoken. I said at that time, this is not good for your association, whether it is Liu Chuanzhi or Yang, you should do it. Finally, I found a friend in the computer city 10 yuan changed a switch and fixed it. I haven't used Lenovo's products since then, because Lenovo computer is related to it, so I dare not use it.
As a candidate for Liu Jiahu, it shows that Liu's possessiveness has surpassed Lenovo's development, and the chicken thief has gone too far. He doesn't know the value of association. He used to wear a national hat, but now he is a private enterprise. Meaningless. Let's break up. Lao Liu engaged in Didi, investment, no intention to engage in Lenovo, buy his mother, and great wealth transfer. He also wants to get close to Ren Zheng Fei, and it's better to mix with a junior like Ma Yun.
In fact, on the surface, Lenovo lost its mobile phone to Huawei and its computer shipments to HP, but these are all appearances. The real problem lies in Lenovo's lack of core technology and serious business model problems, which led to the collapse of Lenovo's mobile phones, computers and other product lines, and its operation was in trouble. Yang said: Artificial intelligence is the future, and Lenovo gambled on its own life and entered this field. Lenovo's development of AI has no problem in the direction, but the foundation of Lenovo's development of AI is not solid because of the lack of core technology. If you are impulsive, it is likely to accelerate the decline of Lenovo. The core technologies and products such as chips, communications and software that Academician Ni Guangnan once dominated in Lenovo, if not abolished, will become Lenovo's biggest capital for developing AI, and Lenovo will also become a world-class chip and communications enterprise. Unfortunately, with Academician Ni Guangnan being expelled from Lenovo, everything went up in smoke, and Lenovo is now mired in a quagmire. Lenovo has no chips to bet on now, and Lenovo is a little sad now.
The root of Lenovo's predicament lies in its lack of core technology.
Lenovo's mobile phone has not been weak since the early "China Hualian Cool" era, but due to the lack of core technology and too much emphasis on commercial interests, Lenovo's mobile phone has been constantly defeated and surpassed by OV Xiaomi and other latecomers. In the PC industry, Lenovo has become a world PC giant after several large capital operations, but because of the lack of core technology, it has basically become an agent and wage earner of foreign chip giants. Even if it is not surpassed by HP, it is difficult to reverse Lenovo's predicament. Therefore, the core problem of the decline of Lenovo's mobile phone and computer business is the lack of core technologies such as chips, communications and software. Now Lenovo is in a dilemma and wants to bet its life on AI. Without the core technology, it is likely to repeat the same mistakes and accelerate the decline of Lenovo.
Lenovo's business model has led to today's predicament, and there is still no chance to develop AI.
In the early years, under the leadership and promotion of Academician Ni Guangnan, Lenovo comprehensively laid out core technologies and product fields such as chips, communications and software, which laid a solid foundation for Lenovo's future development. In terms of business model, Lenovo's business model at that time was a high-tech enterprise development model driven by independent research and development and technology. According to the development model at that time, Lenovo is likely to be a world-class chip, communication and AI giant. However, due to the huge investment in independent research and development in the early stage and low short-term benefits, Lenovo executives represented by Liu Chuanzhi paid too much attention to the current interests, not only dismissed Ni Guangnan, but also cancelled all independent research and development projects led by Ni Guangnan, completely transformed into trade and agency enterprises and became agents and wage earners of foreign chip companies. Because of the change of business model, Lenovo lost its core competitiveness, paid more attention to capital operation, and invested in IT-related projects such as liquor and real estate, which directly led to Lenovo's core technology.
The development of AI technology needs core technologies such as chips, software and communication.
Although AI technology represents the future development trend, it is difficult to succeed without the support of core technologies such as chips, software and communication. Academician Ni Guangnan always advocated independent research and development in Lenovo, and made great efforts for Lenovo's early development of core technologies and products such as chips, communications and software. If Lenovo executives such as Liu Chuanzhi hadn't fired Ni Guangnan and cancelled his independent research and development, Lenovo wouldn't have to gamble on developing AI now. If Academician Ni Guangnan insisted on independent research and development on core technologies, it is only natural to develop AI now.
The decline of Lenovo's PC and mobile phone industries is because there is no core technology. Now the development of AI also needs core technologies. If you just gamble blindly, it will only accelerate the decline of Lenovo. It is precisely because of Lenovo's serious mercantilism that it did not insist on developing its own core technology, but changed the mode of trade agency and was keen on capital operation, which eventually led to Lenovo's predicament today. Lenovo's decision makers and management must reflect deeply. Only by thoroughly clearing up the wrong ideas of mercantilism, the business model of agency and trade, and re-embarking on the road of independent research and development led by Academician Ni Guangnan, Lenovo may still have a chance.