Chen Shaopeng: Lenovo World from Northwest China

Chen Shaopeng, 2002 EMBA from School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, currently President of Lenovo Greater China

Learning EMBA in the spirit of vision is not only to recharge for career development, but also to fulfill the wish of studying in a famous school as a child

Sales engineer→regional sales manager→regional sales general manager→responsible for all-round Regional General Manager→Assistant President of the Company and Deputy Director of Marketing→Vice President of the Company Business Unit→Vice President of the Company's Marketing System→Part-time EMBA→President of Greater China of a Global Company

Open The company's most difficult situation in the South China market has increased sales several times; mainly focused on commercial desktops, with an average annual sales growth of 22.6% in four years, much higher than the market level in the same period; presided over and successfully completed the integration after Lenovo's acquisition of IBM PC Work and was appointed as the president of Greater China by Lenovo Group

How far has it been from a farmer in Baiyin, Gansu, to the president of Lenovo Greater China? Chen Shaopeng's answer is 13 years.

This northwest teenager, after a year of college in Beijing, joined Lenovo in 1993 and started his own legend. Back then, he wanted to stay in Beijing to do technology, but was arranged to go out of the capital to run sales.

He couldn't stop running. From the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the Pearl River, back to Beijing and back to school, his footprints have drawn a circle on the map of China. And the achievements he made and the EMBA he learned made his career not circle in place, but spiral upward and then rise again.

Before EMBA, he used his performance to speak.

In 1995, 26-year-old Chen Shaopeng moved from Chengdu Xinhong Road to Xi'an Yanta Road. Taking these two "electronic streets" as the origin, he traveled all over the large and medium cities in the southwest and northwest. In the second year, relying on the victory in the west, he went to Guangdong with great ambition.

In order to "encircle the city from the countryside", his new "BMW" in Chengdu was replaced by the old "Blue Bird", and he drove him through the poor and rich towns of Lingnan, which also made him experience the biggest test in his life. In 1996, Lenovo cut prices four times, "four battles and four victories", which has left the industry with emotion, but his Guangdong market is still dominated by "Compaq". At the Beidaihe summary meeting, Yang Yuanqing criticized South China without naming him. This made him, who was used to being excellent, hid back to the hotel and shed tears. "To be honest, I felt sorry for the leaders and subordinates at the time, and my self-esteem couldn't stand it," Chen Shaopeng recalled afterwards.

1996 was his worst year. So, 1997 became his hardest year. Just like a joke he and his wife often made, "Even if I go to carry the sack, it will be better than others."

After crying in Beidaihe, he had no intention of swimming and returned to Beijing to find a way ahead of time. "Under the market situation in South China at that time, when there was no basic foundation, you should not want to eat a big fat man and go directly to the biggest agent." dead and then born. He started with the "Computer Festival" co-organized with Guangzhou Computer City, and got on the line with Compaq's agent, Zhengdao Company. He ran away every Compaq agent from childhood to adulthood. He summed up the success factors in two words: "Dedication". Finally, Lenovo's sales in Guangdong increased by 5.8 times year-on-year.

2005 was the opposite of 1996, and he said it was his favorite year. This is also the birth year of Chen Shaopeng, who just finished his EMBA the year before. In this year, the "desperate" of this northwestern man proved not to be "brute force". On September 30, 2005, Chen Shaopeng took the position of general manager of Lenovo Greater China. Yang Yuanqing said, "I am 120% assured of him."

To ask what happened between 1996 and 2005, two years of his EMBA cannot be ignored.

After EMBA, Yang Yuanqing's successor?

Chen Shaopeng, who retired from the sales front line in 2005, does not have to focus on quarterly reports. As for how the EMBA taught him to go from being a sailor to being a helmsman, only he knows best. However, EMBA at least fulfilled one of his "dream" when he was young.

Chen Shaopeng had a smooth journey when he was young. In his words, "I was in school since I was a child, as long as I had the position of captain, I would be the leader, as long as there was a monitor, and I would definitely be indispensable as long as there was an award." In his senior year of high school, his first choice was Tsinghua University, the dream of every Chinese student. However, Tsinghua University did not admit him, and the adjustment was delayed because he did not withdraw in time, so he entered the second batch of admissions to the computer science major of Beijing Technology and Business University (formerly Beijing Institute of Light Industry).

Ten years after graduation, this regret was finally made up. In 2002, the Ministry of Education approved 30 public universities to offer EMBA education. The 33-year-old general manager of Lenovo's commercial desktop computer division entered the first EMBA class of Tsinghua University. At the same time, in the four years he has been focusing on, the sales of Lenovo's commercial desktops have grown by an average of 22.6% annually, which is much higher than the same period in the market. Some commentators believe that this "lays an important foundation for Lenovo's absolute leadership in the Chinese PC market." ". The two-year EMBA recharge has also "laid an important foundation" for him to take charge of Lenovo Greater China.

Isn't this a "coincidence"? At the beginning of the school year in 2002, Chen Shaopeng and the Lenovo Group who sent him to further study, I am afraid it is difficult to think that he will take over the Lenovo headquarters after the acquisition of IBM PC business. Because that year was Lenovo's veritable "winter". The Internet boom in the new millennium has swept the world from Silicon Valley, and it has also overdrawn Lenovo's vitality. "FM365" in "New Strategy, New Journey" is the proof. The new strategy finally made Lenovo choked on the Internet. In 2002, Chen Shaopeng entered the EMBA, which can be called a good strategy that Lenovo made when it entered the "winter". "Raise soldiers for a thousand days, and use them for a while." Chen Shaopeng, two years later, was indeed impressive. Just after he graduated in 2004, Lenovo began a world-shaking merger and acquisition move.

EMBA is also the third "coincidence" in Chen Shaopeng's life. The first two times came from giving up; this time, he didn't "give up" in his work and study, but "gain" more.

The first time he was applying for the college entrance examination, he listened to his second brother's words, gave up the National Defense University of Science and Technology, and chose a computer that he "had never touched"; Inspired by Lenovo's recruitment advertisement in the Beijing Youth Daily - "If you want to stand tall and see far, please be a Lenovo person." .

Nowadays, in the Greater China market, where Lenovo is most reliant, 38-year-old Chen Shaopeng is turning the invisible strategy into the "New Lenovo" in the eyes of Chinese employees and consumers.

When an IBM China employee moved to the Lenovo Building, the pots of flowers on his desk can prove it; his family and friends can prove that he works an average of 14 hours a day. He once said that what he hopes most is to have time to communicate with friends more. Because he really can't promote old friends who are not capable enough because of friendship. Speaking of this, the big tears under his thick eyebrows flickered. However, no amount of intense work can kill his favorite. The place where Chen Shaopeng is most willing to spend money is not only buying toys for his son, but also buying books for himself.

The candor of this northwestern man, like his sales shrewdness, impresses everyone who meets him. Yang Yuanqing saw it in his eyes and kept it in his heart. Some analysts have pointed out that Chen Shaopeng, who is younger than Yuanqing, will be the next generation head of Lenovo PC.

"Where Lenovo kills, let Dell sales people lose their jobs". This is a famous saying by Chen Shaopeng a few years ago. In the not-too-distant future, the youngest president of Lenovo's four major regions in the world may go to the world at the same speed as he slaughtered from the northwest to the whole country.

Attachment: Chen Shaopeng's resume

1988-1992: Beijing Technology and Business University (formerly Beijing Institute of Light Industry), received a bachelor's degree in engineering in computer and application.

1992-1993: Civil servant in the computer center of a unit under the Ministry of Light Industry.

From 1993 to present: Joined Lenovo Group, served successively as manager of Northwest Region of Lenovo Microcomputer Business Unit, general manager of South China Region, general manager of Central South Region of Lenovo Computer Company, assistant general manager of Lenovo Computer Company in charge of regional business, Lenovo Computer Company Assistant President and Deputy Marketing Director, Lenovo Group Vice President in charge of the Commercial Desktop Computer Business Unit, Lenovo Group Vice President in charge of Marketing Systems, Lenovo Group Vice President in charge of Lenovo China Sales System, etc. Currently, he is the President of Lenovo Greater China.

2002-2004: On-the-job learning EMBA of Tsinghua University.