Lenovo – “A company oblivious of what it takes to succeed”

Pros

The commute is pretty short and the weather's pretty good year-round.

Cons

The ridiculous demands on your time. There are conference calls day AND night, which eat up into time which should be spent with your kids. Mine are about ready to disown me! The legacy of IBM is still pervasive, so you work with a bunch of people who were fairly clueless about what it takes to run an efficient, profitable company. The IT system is so antiquated that approximately a quarter of the employees could be eliminated if it was updated.

Advice to Senior Management

Trim the fat where it counts... up top, and shore up where it matters, down in the trenches. The company's cost structure is ridiculously burdened by ex-IBM execs who are only now learning what it takes to make a business truly succeed. A large percentage of the employees below middle management are overworked and if measured by industry standards, underpaid. My home in Cary is definitely not cheaper than homes in many metropolitan areas around the country, so justifying my sub-par salary by claiming that the cost of living is low is erroneous! Another piece of advice I'd give our leadership is to stop hiring ex-Dell execs. There's a reason why they left - they couldn't hack it at a company that runs like clockwork. The ThinkPad is a great brand name, but that brand recognition hasn't helped and won't help sales when the product is falling way behind the competition.