Lenovo benefits from overseas market

Despite the global PC market shrinking year by year, Lenovo has kept on making progress and gaining revenue from overseas markets through a series of flexible and compatible strategies, Andreas Mayer, Lenovo's Executive Director and General Manager Benelux, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The executive director, who is in charge of Lenovo's business of Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg). illustrated an encouraging picture for the company's future.

"Our development is dynamic with double-digit growth and making further progress," Mayer said.

Mayer's confidence comes from Lenovo's dual strategy. "We protect market segments where we are traditionally strong like in SMB and corporate accounts, in parallel we invest in relatively weak areas in our region like the consumer space."

This strategy has helped Lenovo gain much revenue and become a leading purveyor in the global PC market.

Lenovo Group recently reported earning results for its first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2013, with quarterly revenue of 8.8 billion US dollars, a 10-percent increase year-on-year.

Lenovo's PC shipments for the first fiscal quarter were 12.6 million units, the 17th quarter in a row that Lenovo outperformed the industry as a whole, which was down 11 percent year-over-year.

Lenovo's business is in remarkably good shape, while the global PC market continues to shrink. The global PC shipment plummeted 10.9 percent to 76 million, compared to the same period in 2012, representing the fifth consecutive quarter with declines, Gartner's figures indicate.

Mayer said, "Lenovo managed to grow share by expanding into the 'PC plus' area, including tablets and smartphones."

According to Lenovo's latest earning report, during the first fiscal quarter, Lenovo's laptop computers were the largest contributor to the company's revenue worldwide, generating about 52 percent of Lenovo's total revenue.

According to Mayer's estimate, Lenovo still has room to lift its sale in Benelux area. "Compared to competitors, we have a stronghold traditionally in the commercial space, and we are now focus on increasing our foothold in the consumer space."

"We have been making good progress as more and more consumers in Europe recognize and appreciate Lenovo's products and brand compared to 3 or 4 years ago when only few had heard of us," Mayer said, "During the recent consumer electronics fair IFA in Berlin we have noticed a great increase in interest in Lenovo's products."

Moreover, Lenovo's managing localization style paves a good way for sustainable growth.

Mayer said that unlike traditional multi-national companies from the United States and Germany, for example, Lenovo is good at bridging the culture gap by hiring local people in the executive team.

Mayer, who has worked in the IT industry for the past 16 years, said "Local experience is very valuable for Chinese companies which try to go aboard."

He added, "In our view, cultural diversity is an important element for a company involved in global competition."

On this year's Fortune Global 500 list, Lenovo jumped to No. 329 from No.370 in 2012, with revenues of 33.87 billion dollars, up by 14.5 percent. Its profits reached 6.35 million dollars, a 34.3 percent increase.