Lenovo Reviews

Pros

decent products with a good reputation from IBM days, quality has been dropping; see consumers reports

Cons

Senior management still referred to the company as IBM 5 years after the buyout. IBM kept the best and the brightest before the buyout, current US management are dinosaurs and don't understand the market. Lenovo views the US as a secondary market and not willing to win business, people that control pricing don't have an understanding of enterprise business needs

Advice to Senior Management

Stop selling your sole to IBM and enter start selling enterprise products. Client computing is changing and you need to stop selling products that are geared to the past not the future.

Pros

Good work life balance
Global environment with growth in all GEOs

Cons

Very flat organization with little room for professional growth

Pros

Culture, work life balance, cutting edge technology, diverse workforce.

Cons

External technical competition is about to get fierce once the giants realize how good the products are and that market share is growing.

Pros

- Global exposure and experience
- Good pay

Cons

- No work/life balance - yearly layoffs - less people and the amount of work is still the same;
- Carrier advancement not possible - it is about who you know and not what you do
- No recognition for work well done
- Management - scare tactics, micro-management, no coaching/development
- No job security
- Senior management focuses on current quarter/Fiscal Year (big bonus carrot) vs. long term strategy/success of Lenovo
- Internal systems/processes are joke

Advice to Senior Management

People are your biggest asset. You will lose some great talent as soon as the economy turns around if you don't start paying attention on work/life balance, fair treatment and carrier advancement opportunities. Also it is a time to take a look at some long-term IBM execs who are overpaid, provide little value, take credit for work done by their teams and feel entitled (they all protect each other).

Pros

Dynamic challenges abound as the cultures between China and IBM are sorted out. Good product set (ThinkPad), decent compensation, smart colleagues.

Cons

Cultural gaps between China ownership and west. Poor consumer strategy. Lack of brand recognition holds back consumer adoption. PC industry in serious flux.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more aggressive in releasing state of the art consumer products of interest to the market, not the product catalogue.

Pros

Great benefits, Flex time is great (as far as when to start work), friendly work environment

Cons

No focus by senior management on employee work-life balance, promotions are few & and far in between, salaries tend to be significantly lower than other companies, employee career development plans are not very well supported by management team (treated more so like a check list by managers on their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on keeping talent. Most employees I've surveyed are simply not happy; most lack the initiative to pursue employment elsewhere. You need to reward & recognize employees. Show them (in a tangible way) that the work their perform really matters. Provide hones feedback about performance. Provide honest performance reviews vs. waiting to force fit t some bell curve.

Pros

Best in class products. Focused brand team. Very energetic marketing team that wants to bring new and exciting products to market. Equitable compensation. Good benefits. Good and friendly people.

Cons

Inconsistent management message. Changes happen, but changes each and every quarter means they are just looking for the magic formula to grow for growth's sake. Information is used as weapon. Internal systems absolutely suck. Any good experience a customer has had was because they had a good employee taking care of them that understood how to get around the system.

Advice to Senior Management

Look to the long term market strategy and vocalize it to the entire team. Invest in the future not the quarter. If you are going to do business in a market segment, then do business in that market segment. Dipping your toe in doesn't do anyone any good. Jump in and get used to the water.

Pros

Lenovo is a good place to take an experience, good place to learn from others, good salary (for Moscow), positive relations of each other

Cons

No professional growth, no benefits, no medical insurance, no awards, actually I can't advise it as a good place for work. Good but not for a long time

Advice to Senior Management

I advise to pay attention to the views of staff and encourage them for their achievements, as well as explain a workflow itself in details

Pros

-Good people to work with
-Top quality poducts
-Simple product portfolio
-Low managment overhead most of the time

Cons

-Many legacy IBM tools and processes still being used
-Need to move to real time information
-Don't push software and peripherals that you can't support properly

Advice to Senior Management

Become the new company you want to be. Shed the old IBM ways and blaze a new trail. Keep the quality, consoidate tools, update and improve processes

Pros

the frontend store management & government relationship in China is great

Cons

still lack of foundation to be a great company (I previously worked in HP), I am not feel fully valued in that position, though I worked overtime frequently, partly due to a headless manager I met

Advice to Senior Management

take in some fresh air & keep mind open, don't hold the old management opinion too strong