Friends, those who use electronic things like laptops and mobile phones, will be well aware of the Lenovo brand. But for those who do not know this brand, let me tell them that “Lenovo Group Limited”, also known as “Lenovo PC International”, is a Chinese international company. Which is generally designed to develop and sell a range of products such as personal computers, tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and electronic storage devices.
Lenovo is the world’s largest PC vendor by sales unit since 2013 and today operates in more than 60 countries and sells its products in about 160 countries. The name of founder of this company is Liu Chuanzhi. Who started this company after many struggles and took it to the pinnacle. Even in the early days, he himself used to carry a personal computer on his bicycle. And this person who bought the PC business of a giant company like IBM used to sit in the back row wearing his father’s old suit as an IBM agent.
So, friends, we have come to know about this inspiring journey of the Lenovo brand from the beginning.
So friends the story begins in 1944, when Liu Chuanzhi was born in a place near Shanghai, China. After completing his schooling and graduating, he cleared all the exams to become an army pilot but was rejected at the time of recruitment saying that he was not fit to serve in the army. After which Liu thought of studying computer-related studies and then he took admission to GDean University. However, his graduation subjects were such that he could not find his favorite section here and had to make do with radar studies.
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Although here he got a good opportunity to learn computer. Later in 1970, he worked at the CAS Academy of Science. But while working there, he was not happy with his salary. He only got 100 yuan a month. And friends, let me tell you that 1 Indian Yuan is approximately equal to 9.75 rupees. Frustrated with his low pay, Liu opened a small company with 10 people on 1 November 1984 with some money from his first company. And this company was named by Liu “Legend”.
This company had to face a lot of difficulties with funding in the initial days because the Chinese government did not have any support for startups in those days. He also tried to import television in this difficult situation but failed in this too. And then they joined hands in the digital watch market, but their work did not work. In fact, in the team of 10 people, no one had much knowledge of the business. But Liu learned from his mistakes and persevered with them.
And then in 1985, Legend developed a circuit board to be used in the computer, which he was able to sell to IBM, and it was Liu’s company’s first success. In 1988, Liu Chuanzhi opened another office of his company in Hong Kong and moved there with a total of 5 employees. Through this company, Hewlett Packard which we know as HP, and Toshiba started distributing computers.
And in order to save money in this work, he distributed the computer in which he was running more with himself and his colleagues. And just like that, their hard work quickly paid off as Legend became China’s largest “computer distribution network”.
In 1980, the company began manufacturing and selling its computers under the Legend brand name. And then gradually this company started becoming famous in China.
“It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1994.” And at this time its finance had reached about 30 million US dollars. And the company had already made around 1 million pcs. In 1997, Legend was recognized as China’s “best-selling computer brand” … but even it was surpassed by the Chinese market leader, IBM. In 2000, Legend’s computer named Tensi sold over 1 million units and the computer became China’s best-selling computer.
In 2002, the company also started manufacturing mobile phones. And then later in 2003, Liu changed the name of his company from “Legend Computer Limited” to “Lenovo Group Limited”. To compete with a world-famous brand like Dell. And in the same year, they spent 200 million on youth for their branding. In 2006, Lenovo struck a deal to buy the Windows operating system for around $1 billion. Previously, most computers in China came without an OS.
And Lenovo’s recognition in India increased when the Tamil Nadu government placed a bulk order of 1 million laptops in 2012. And by 2015, 100 million units of the ThinkPad, the most popular series of Lenovo laptops, had been sold.
So, friends, this was the story of the Lenovo brand which was started with 10 people, and today more than 60 thousand people work in this company. And according to the data of 2016, its revenue is about 43 billion dollars. Thanks for reading this article.