Lenovo Begins Major Business Reshuffle Next Week

It probably hurts to be a manager at Lenovo today. Nearly all of the company's business groups face upheaval in a planned reshuffle to commence on April 1.

Lenovo Group's core strategy in 2016 is to accelerate the transformation from a product-oriented business model to user-oriented business model. Its newly positioned four major business groups will become official in the new financial year started from April 1, 2016.

According to the internal communications from Yang Yuanqing, chairman and chief executive officer of Lenovo Group, the existing enterprise business will be separated and become the Data Center Group. Gerry Smith will be the president of DCG and report directly to Yang. Peter Hortensius will join DCG as chief technology officer and lead the strategy function; Zhou Qingtong will be chief financial officer of DCG and chief information officer of Lenovo; and Roderick Lappin will be promoted as senior vice president and lead DCG's global sales function.

Lenovo will enhance the leadership team of its Mobile Business Group and appoint Aymar de Lencquesaing and Chen Xudong as co-presidents of MBG, reporting directly to Yang. Chen will be responsible for the end-to-end product, sales, and marketing in the Chinese market; while Lencquesaing will lead MBG's businesses outside China, including research and development, product, supply chain, and the operations in Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In addition, Rick Osterloh has decided to depart Lenovo and Osterloh's old team will report to Lencquesaing.

Lenovo will establish a PC and Smart Device business group, which is led by Lenovo Group's president and chief operating officer Gianfranco Lanci. This group will cover PCs, tablets, smart TVs, smart homes, and other Internet of Things devices.

For Ecosystem and Cloud Services, most product-related personal cloud service teams will be combined into PC&SD and MBG. At the same time, a new Lenovo Ventures Group will be built and led by He Zhiqiang.

Moreover, Lenovo announced several new appointments. Its North America chief operating officer Emilio Ghilardi will be Lenovo Group's vice president and North America president. Chief strategy officer Ken Wong will be promoted as senior vice president of Lenovo Group and replace Roderick Lappin as president of Asia Pacific. Tong Fuyao will be promoted as Lenovo Group's senior vice president and China president. Barry Au will be promoted as Lenovo Group's senior vice president, leading the group's financial management and control.