Lenovo China restructures to become more customer-centric

Electronics firm Lenovo China will restructure its businesses to become more customer-centric. The move follows a slew of recent reorganization announcements by Chinese tech companies including Baidu and TCL.

According to an internal email written by Lenovo China President Liu Jun, the company will reorganize to focus on three areas: commercial customers, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and consumers. Liu, who is also executive vice president for Lenovo, said the company’s China division had seen marked growth over the last year. A Lenovo representative confirmed the authenticity of the email to TechNode

Last May, company CEO Yang Yuanqing told reporters that Lenovo’s phone business “has sunk to the bottom.” Earlier in the month, the company had also been removed from Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index after a steep drop in value. But by late September, Lenovo’s shares had risen 42% again, outperforming all other Chinese tech stocks.

Liu wrote in the letter that Lenovo had made significant progress in marketing, customer relations, services, and other areas, while also exploring and laying out alternatives outside of its core PC business.

Its consumer branch will integrate smartphone product marketing, sales, and promotion. According to Liu, the company’s formerly underperforming phone business has seen significant growth in the last three quarters and pushed out multiple products. According to the company’s second-quarter results, its Motorola brand broke even globally for the first time in 2018.

A number of Chinese tech firms have moved to concentrate on enterprises amid a slowing economy. Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba all recently announced plans that are aimed at increasing their cloud computing abilities, while TCL sold its stake in nine consumer-facing businesses to instead work on panels and semiconductors.

Last May, in the midst of its financial troubles Lenovo China underwent restructuring to serve a renewed focus on consumers. The change overhauled the Chinese unit into a PC and smart-device group and a data center division.