In March 2019, the Integrated Practicum Program successfully started in Guanghua School of Management. Our team was very honored to be selected by Lenovo. Since the first time that we have met the representatives of Lenovo, we felt like becoming a part of “Lenovo’s Family”. We gained a worm welcoming, and the feeling that we came not only to succeed in our IPP project but learning so much from a team that is ready to put all of the possible efforts in order to teach us some of the most significant aspects of the industry, and how to become a better and successful Management team.
Lenovo, a multinational company with headquarters in Beijing, is engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of reliable, safe and easy-to-use technical products and high-quality professional services, producing desktop computers, servers, notebook computers, smart TVs, printers, PDAs, motherboards, mobile phones, integrated computers and other commodities. Lenovo has operations in more than 60 countries and sells its products in 160 states. The first notion we had when we thought of Lenovo was definitely a legendary acquisition of IBM and its ThinkPad in 2005. However, after some research, we found out that Lenovo has gone far beyond pc market. It is a giant manufacturer of innovative technical equipment that ordinary person might never see in his life but these commodities are crucial for big companies’ successful performance.
On April, 4th we visited Lenovo’s headquarters in Xibeiwang’s hi-tech area for the first time. We were deeply impressed by a massive scale of this company. The headquarters looks a giant factory that is doing innovative researches on at least space. When we entered a company, the first thing we saw was a giant rock-climbing wall. It is open twice a week for our employees’ – said Sabrina, a member of the planning department who came to meet us. This reflects that Lenovo not only focus on working, but also pays effort to make their employee find a balance between work and personal life.
We then had a small tour around company and attended a meeting with Lenovo’s coordination team who explained us the peculiarities of the project. We found out that product transitioning, end-of-life of a particular product is not as simple as it seems and requires a lot of data-analysis, market research and careful coordination of supply chain.
Lenovo has an advanced global supply chain system. According to the Gartner report, Lenovo is the only Chinese company ranked among the top 25 global supply chains for five consecutive years,1st ranking in China and 2nd ranking in Asia, demonstrating its benchmark status as a local Chinese enterprise in supply chain management. As a leading company in the production of enterprise servers, Lenovo is faced with significant challenges when making decisions related to ending the life of an existing product, and the introducing new products to the market. These challenges range from ensuring exiting inventory of sold off while simultaneously ramping up production and sales of new products, managing supplier/client relationships, and ensuring a successful EOL transition process, with no more inventory of old products in stock, and no reduction in overall sales volume.
During our meeting with the team, Eileen, Justin and Jing helped us develop a clearer image of supply chain management field. We have been exposed to some new aspects of managements, such as: how to deal with all of relevant teams, and how to communicate better, what kind of strategic aspects should we take into consideration while we launch a new product, and what is a supply chain, and how we can identify and solve problems in transitions.
One of the most important things that all of us realized, is that in reality, there are many aspects and issues that we should take into consideration, theory will not be enough. So, therefore, in order to become successful managers and to lead our teams in a professional manner, we will have to learn, to analyze situations and try doing our best to recognize problems and think, together with all the members of our team, what would be the best solution.
Working with Lenovo’s supply chain management team has thought us valuable lessons about Operating in China’s growing technology industry and the Challenges faced by China’s multinational businesses when doing business in countries along the belt and road. Over the past couple of weeks, Our team has been focused on helping Lenovo discover innovative new was of managing end of life transition of products.
We are certain, that with good knowledge, experience, communication and creativity, Lenovo and us will lead this project to the next level and beyond.
bat365在线平台网站光华管理学院MBA整合实践项目
整合实践项目是北大光华MBA全日制与国际班的必修课，是一项具有社会公益性质的商业教育合作项目，旨在通过企业和学校联合打造的实践平台，解决企业当前存在的实际问题，并提高MBA学生的综合管理能力。作为一项体验式的课程，整合实践项目的基本框架为：在修完核心课程之后，学生组成小组，在学院教授指导下，深入企业执行一个具体的商业项目，提出改进建议和方案，并提交咨询报告向企业和指导教授汇报。每个项目都是由企业根据自身的需求设计提供真实课题，旨在解决企业当前存在的实际商业问题。整合实践项目的范围可以包括：为转型企业的管理问题提供战略、市场、人力资源、财务等方向的解决方案；为创业型企业或成长型企业的业务拓展提供商业计划等。本年度bat365在线平台网站光华管理学院MBA整合实践项目由bat365在线平台网站光华管理学院主办，GIO华兴控股集团联合主办。
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