Yang assumed the reins at Lenovo (formerly known as Legend) in
2001, when the company’s founder, Liu Chuanzhi, moved on to become chairman. He
served as CEO for three years before succeeding Liu as chairman, and he and Liu
engineered the stunning 2005 acquisition of IBM’s personal computer business,
which suddenly made Lenovo the world’s third-largest computer maker. In 2009,
after the company had begun to falter during the global recession, the board
asked Yang to return as CEO, a post he’s held ever since. Pursuing a strategy
the company calls “protect and attack”--defending its core market in PCs
(Lenovo is now the world’s number one manufacturer) while moving into new
growth areas such as mobile and the cloud--Yang has turned things around.
Earlier this year Lenovo spent $2.3 billion to acquire IBM’s low-end server
business and $2.9 billion for Google’s Motorola Mobility unit. He talks here
with HBR’s editor in chief about Lenovo’s innovations, competitors,
acquisitions, and more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]