Kathy Gibson at Lenovo’s 2018 strategy briefing – Lenovo has come from humble beginnings as a domestic Chinese PC manufacturer, but it is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in the global IT market.
Today, Lenovo is a $43-billion company, and ranks at number 226 in the Fortune Global 500.

More significantly, says country manager Thibault Dousson, it is listed at number 27 in the Forbes 2017 Global 2000 Top-Regarded Companies index.

As it transitions from a PC manufacturer to a full ICT supplier, Lenovo is employing a three-wave strategy, Dousson explains.

“We aim to maintain leadership and profitability in the PC business; build the mobile and data centre business units into growth and profit engines; and invest in the smart Internet era,” Dousson says.

Big data is one of the new technologies that is becoming more prevalent – and is keeping business leaders awake at night, Dousson points out.

As individuals grow their digital footprint, companies are looking to invest in technologies for collecting, storing and analysing the data that is produced. “Organisation need to take that data, and use it make their products and services better.”

Lenovo doesn’t just supply enabling technologies, it uses them itself drive its own unified data platform that collects data from operations and customers to understand what new products and services it should bring to market.

Project Omini is an initiative the company launched in the mobile phone business that aims to develop a d closer, direct and collaborative relationship with customers.

The results of the initiative saw an eight-times improvement in customer engagement rates, a five time improvement in NPS survey completion rates, and ad 10-time improvement in traffic to Moto tips.

In addition, it uses machine learning to improve demand forecasting and also supply chain forecasting so that partners in the manufacturing process can improve their operations as well.

“Big data really is at the heart of our vision.,” Dousson says.

Underpinning Lenovo’s growth strategy is a raft of new products.

Lenovo SA’s chief product and solutions specialist Julian Pienaar highlights two of the new product lines available now in the South African market.

Gaming is becoming bigger than we ever imagined – and is now a $3-billion industry.

“It is an exciting time,” says Pienaar, adding that gaming today is performance-driven, sociable and engaged.

The Lenovo Legion Y720 gaming laptop offers powerful performance, immersive audio, multiple gaming controls, Lenovo nerve sense and is ready for virtual reality. “This means you can use the VR goggles to play immersive games with the Y720,” Pienaar says.

The Lenovo Legion Y720 laptop combines powerful processing, graphics, hardware and integrated Xbox One Wireless Support, and is the world’s first PC featuring Dolby’s Atmos audio technology.

It is built for gaming with up to 7th Generation Intel Core i7 processors, NVidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics and hybrid storage.

A 15,6-inch optional UHD IPS anti-glare display makes the most of gaming technology, while dual metal fans and rear air vents keep the Y720 cool.

The Lenovo Legion Y520 is marketed as the “baby brother” of the Y720, offering many of the same features that gamers want.

Lenovo’s flagship Yoga range boasts new engineering design in the latest products.

Lenovo is the leader in convertible devices – and soon most mobile computers are going to be convertible, Pienaar says.

The company today unveiled the new Yoga 920, 720 and 520 laptops in the commercial space.

The Lenovo Yoga 920 boasts long-range voice-activated support, a nearly edgeless 4K display, and an optional digital pen.

Available in platinum, copper and bronze, it is tough, featuring a 360° hinge and finished in CNC aluminium built to withstand wear and tear.

The Yoga 920 responds to spoken questions and instructions in sleep mode, from up to 4m away.

Featuring pin-point accuracy and palm-rejection technology, the Lenovo Active Pen 2 emulates the comfort of a pen-on-paper writing experience, with twice the accuracy of competitors’ pens. The use of Windows Ink means users can turn their thoughts into action.

The Yoga 920 boasts a wide-angle 4K display, edged with razor-thin 5mm vertical bezels that make the most of the visuals. The Yoga 920 is also available in FHD.