联想-日本论文.doc

1.The introduction of the company Lenovo is an international high-technology company full of creativity. As the leader in the global market of Personal Computer, it develops, manufactures and sales technological products and provides services. The main commodities from the company include desktops, laptops, printers, palmtops, main board and cellphones and so on. Because of the good quality of its products and services, Lenovo has had rapid development over the last several years and become one of the four largest manufacturers of personal computers.As the largest technology company owning the largest sales volume in the mainland of China, Lenovo joined venture with Nippon Electric Company(NEC) in 2011, and built an the Joint Venture Company named Lenovo NEC Holding B.V. in Holland. NEC, founded in 1899, was a Japanese company producing electric equipments such as information technology products, semi-conductors and electric devices. In the joint venture company, Lenovo owned 51% share and NEC owned 49% of that. Both of them put their service of Personal Computers in Japan into the joint venture company, so that they collaborated with each other in the production, development and sale of the products. Lenovo Group also provided NEC with extra shares worthing 17.5 billion dollars. The joint venture company focused on the services of personal computers and attempted to increase the market share in the globe and compete with other powerful high-technology companies. This essay elaborates the relationship between Lenovo and NEC, and then analyzes the objectives of the collaboration, its structure and management, the operational and financial performance against its objectives, and in the end concludes the influence of the collaboration on the company. 2.The collaborative relationship between Lenovo and NEC The new joint venture company undertook the development, production and the purchasing of components of personal computers. Lenovo and NEC both developed, produced and sold products directly to customers, and the collaboration could be shown in the following chart. JVC Supplying direct to customers NEC Lenovo Technology EquipmentComponentsMarketsTraining Component Revenues Profit shareLocal expertiseGovt AccessMarkets FacilitiesRevenuesProfit share JOINT VENTURE COMPANY(JVC) Manufacturing/Processing + Sales &Marketing Direct Sales - domestic & export The chart shows that by joining the venture, the two companies offered necessary element the joint venture company needed and the latter then made the most use of them. For instance, Lenovo could supply the technology, required equipments and components which could be made in China in order to reduce the cost. As for market, it has made the market share steady in the past years so that it lay the foundation for the products from the joint venture company. Besides, the new employees of the joint venture company were supposed to be trained in order to improve the working efficiency, which was also offered by it. On the side of NEC, its local expertise and advanced facilities contributed to the development of the products. But the most important were the government access and the Japanese market, which played an integral role when the products were sold to the Japanese consumers. With the sufficient conditions, the joint venture company developed and manufactured personal computers, and then sold them directly to consumers both domestically and overseas. After the sale, the two companies obtained the profit share from the joint venture company according to their shares.2.1 The objectives of the collaborationIn the global market, Lenovo has strong competitors such as Apple, Dale and Acer, which are the top three largest market leaders. In order to narrow the distance from them, Lenovo had to expand its market share in the world. NEC, the top company in Japan, owing the largest share of personal computer shipments and enjoying a highly evaluated reputation, could help Lenovo to enlarge it. According to the data of the market share of Lenovo and NEC by Personal Computer shipments in 2010 from Morgan Stanley, International Documentation Center(IDC), Lenovo reached the volume of 16 million units in Japan, taking up 6% of the total shipments while NEC takes up 20%. But in China, the shipments of Lenovo were 65 million units, occupying 28% while NEC had no market there. In the global market, Lenovo shipped 346 million units, owning 9.9% and NEC owns 0.9%. Based on the statistics, the collaboration of the two companies can contribute to the market share expansion of Lenovo in Japan. And Morgan Stanley also indicated that the joint venture can increase the personal computer shipment rate by 6% to 7% as well as the rate of sales volume by 10% to 12%. Thus, it narrowed the gap between Lenovo and the three competitors.With the rapid development of the society, consumers demand more high-tech products, which means that relevant manufactures have to upgrade their information technology and acquire the ability to the development and study of new products to meet the needs. In this respect, NEC was powerful and through the inter-study and exploration, Lenovo could improve the quality or make the products more advanced and fashionable. Besides, both companies could gain profit from the collaboration. Considering the advanced technology in Japan and the low-cost and abundant material in China, through the collaboration, they could absorb the advantages from each other and make up their disadvantages. Lenovo obtained high technology and NEC reduced the cost of producing products. The collaboration was beneficial to the product marketing and offered new opportunities for Lenovo to proceed business in Japan, which has been expected for a long time.Another reason of the collaboration may be that NEC was in depression because of the economic crisis and it needed the investment from other companies to recover and keep on running. The deficit mainly came from two sides, the first was the expensive cost and the second was too much expense of the company itself. The pressure urged it to choose a powerful partner. Since Lenovo, the fourth largest high-technology company, boasted profound status and sufficient capital, and it increased the personal computer sales volume by 24.4% in spite of the decrease of that of other companies, increasing the volume in a row of thirteen seasons, it was a good opportunity for NEC to get out of the stuck and continue to develop itself. Also, NEC was attracted by the the potential market in China. 2.2 The structure of the collaborationThe joint venture company formed two new business group, based on the degree of market maturity instead of on districts. One group was for customers in the mature and steady markets, including those in Canada, Israel, America and Western Europe and clients in the other parts of the world. The other group was for clients in the newly developing markets such as the mainland of China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan,South Korea, ASEAN, India, Africa, Russia and Central Asia, etc. Lenovo also has adjustment to the organization of products, which was divided into two groups. The first was the Think group, which concentrated on relation business and high-end business market for middle and small sized enterprises. Another one was the Idea-pad group, which focused on the mainstream consumers of the newly developing markets and the mature markets, as well as the clients of middle and small sized enterprises of relation business. The adjustment meant to strengthen the concentration on creation and better serve consumers and business clients.The joint venture company kept the structure of Lenovo in the organization of products. In the joint venture, the company parent NEC was mainly responsible for the newly developing market, especially in Japan, for it has established its brand and laid foundation there. As an international joint venture company, it set up a board, under which was the CEO and many subordinate departments. The members of the board held their shares, taking responsibility and sharing bonus according to their shares, which was different from individual proprietorship. Under the CEO and the board, there was the general manager, under which were a lot of departments, including the Programme Department, the Technique Department, the Manufacture Department, Client Department, Finance Department , Administration Department, Information Management Department, Brand Spreading Department, Service Department, Consuming Market Department and Commerce Department, etc. By structuring the joint venture company, it had large numbers of advantages. For example, the well organized structure was beneficial to the efficient operation of the company and avoided the repetition of stuff and equipments, thus realizing large scaled goals and reducing the waste of resources at the same time. This type of structure helped the rapid growth of the company at the stage of growing up. Besides, with the classification of the business division, the employers could focus in the their position on the long strategic program of the company, which in turn nurtured managers of the high class.The Joint Venture Company was actually a subordinate company of Lenovo Group in Japan since the NEC has fewer shares. The personal computer department of NEC was separated from the enterprise and formed as a new company, which meant that this department was detached from NEC as a result of the establishment of the proprietary company. Putting the two companies into one and under the arrangement and program of the proprietary company, they could develop steadily. The structure of the joint venture company made the specialized employers do their own job according to their merits, and at the same time it built the departments cross the districts, for instance, between China and Japan, to expand the service area.2.3 Operation and Management There is a kind of management where each partners can negotiate that not all shared management ventures are fifty-fifty and that one partner has more than a co-equal role in the International Joint Venture. The Joint Venture Company of Lenovo and NEC belonged to the second type of the shared management. It operated as an independent individual company as Lenovo did to some extent, in many aspects. But, it also had its own characteristics as an international joint venture company. As a company famous for its information technology, Lenovo is completing the management of its technology, service system, information system, and the supplying,purchasing and logistics. After the formation of the Joint Venture Company, Hideyo Takasu, former president of NEC, was later the president and CEO of the new joint venture company, and Roderick Lappin, former president of Lenovo in Japan took the position of chairman of the board. At the first stage, though the two companies joined venture, the brands in the market was still separated so as not to influence consumers on the NEC brand, in terms of the Japanese consumers. Although they joined together in supply chain, service, product developing, they stayed independent in the business brand. At present there are two brands of personal computers in the Japanese market, one of NEC and the other of Lenovo, and the two brands are under the operation of two independent contingents. Later the joint venture company made a complete system to ensure that everything go smoothly. It analyzed the factors including the operation environment, strategy, organization, production, marketing, human resource and cross culture,etc, and then took the management policies and gradually completed the management.2.3.1 Technology advancement and innovation It insisted on the advancement of technology and the improvement of innovation. The joint venture company combined the two companies and by letting them achieve the exchange of knowledge, it enforced the knowledge management. Paul considered that knowledge refers to intellectual capital such as patents or other sources of value such as customer or market knowledge, and in the knowledge management of joint ventures composed of Chinese firms and other firms, Chinese firm seek to access the technological and marketing capabilities of foreign partners more often than they seek management skills. Acquisition of these skills has helped Chinese firms develop their manufacturing capabilities and gain access to new markets. Chinese firms seek partners with market experience and a superior market position when their goal is market expansion.(Paul & Nathaniel, 82) Therefore, Lenovo took the advantage of the Joint Venture Company by combining with NEC, which also had strong interest in the information technology development. After the merger and acquisition of the International Business Machines(IBM), Lenovo has gained the lesson that new information technology are the most important and worths the concentration of business resources. Now facing the famous NEC in Japan, it focused on the study and development of new technology with the collaboration of techniques in Japan. At that time, Cloud Service was popular in the information technology field and Lenovo was planning to develop it. NEC has acquired relatively mature techniques and owned experience in this respect. It could provide the complete platform of Cloud Service by offering a series of materials and products, including data center, server, OS, intermediate part and application software, etc. NEC aimed to spread the service in the Japanese market in a large scale and even in the international market. This service attracted Lenovo so deeply that it chose to collaborate with NEC in order to improve the level of its technology. 2.3.2 Attentions to service The Joint Venture Company realized that as the trend that the quality of personal computers differs less and less in the whole market, the main part of market competition gradually converts from the technology of products to the application and service. The developing strategy of products-oriented thereupon turns to that of clients-oriented. It is a significant method of improving the core competitiveness of the information technology enterprises to boost the satisfaction from clients. Therefore, it began to improve the service. As a developer, manufacturer and also seller, it provided the service from the beginning to the end, and there were hundreds of servants in the free call centers and consultant engineers from the two former companies. Also there were repairing points scattered in countries and cities with specialized engineers and reserved spare parts. Usually a personal computer sold is guaranteed to be repaired in two years without paying money. The Joint Venture Company had a program of free call service which lasts four years. This specialized and convenient service has been widely accepted and counted on by the consumers. It learned and applied the service and routines of NEC into the Japanese marker to attract the native consumers.2.3.3 Routines and information management The third, it made a perfect routine to the management of collaboration. For instance, through the Joint Venture Company, Lenovo controlled its constituent company in Japan and the subsidiary NECPC. The core management group was made up of three person, who solved all conflicts and problems through negotiation. Thus, it contributed to the combination of the two companies without a hitch. Also, it paid much attention to the construction of information management to improve the comprehensive competitiveness. Through the construction of information management, it has constructed the platform in the management of data, technological process and decision-making. Thus, it has achieved the accuracy, punctuality and sharing of information in the operation. It has quickly met the market demand and decreased the cost of management, as well as satisfied the consumers and thus improved the efficiency of the company. 2.3.4 Marketing management The Joint Venture Company concentrated on the business of personal computers.With the relatively low cost materials from China and the advanced developing techniques from Japan, the joint venture company could produce the products with low cost and high quality. With this prerequisite, it had the advantage in saving resources. Therefore, it took the marketing strategy of low price with high quality. Though NEC was the top seller in Japan, its products were much expensive. However, by reducing the sales price with the same quality, compared with that of other brands, the join venture company could draw the attentions from consumers. This strategy in a short time might go against to the companys purpose of making profits, but in the long run it helped to improve the popularity of the company and the brand.2.3.5 Human resource management Good human resource management can bring the largest value for the company. In the international market, the joint venture company attached importance to the the management of human resource. First of all, on the matter of selecting talents, it observed in the working to find employers with ability, and then to support and train them. Those who will be selected must experience the process of practice and recognition and then practice and recognition constantly. The company believed that training a talent was just like training a tailor, because both of them cannot be excellent in a short time. The second was the training the new staffs. It had strict requirement to them. For instance, they were supposed to be hard-working, unselfish, tolerant and persistent and dauntless in the work; to support the unification of the com