Lenovo Outlines Its Aggressive SMB Strategy For India

Bangalore, August 9, 2011: Lenovo, the world’s fastest growing PC maker for six straight quarters in a row, today outlined its aggressive plan for achieving hyper growth in the high potential Indian SMB market. With an aim to replicate its superlative growth in the enterprise segment and the impressive inroads it has made into the consumer space, Lenovo is deploying a 360⁰ approach-to-market with the objective of making a decisive impact in the high-growth SMB segment.

• Aims to grow 3X the market and double its SMB market share by 2012
• Devises a 360⁰ approach to cater to SMBs that are fuelling India’s growth

Lenovo’s successful ‘Protect and Attack’ global strategy has helped it to grow at twice the pace of the Indian PC market. Lenovo India has grown from an overall 7.2% market share to an impressive 10% within a short time frame of four quarters (Q1 CY2010 to Q1 CY2011 – IDC India PC Market Tracker Report, JFM 2011). During this period, Lenovo’s SMB business has grown at more than 27% - an astounding 9 times the pace at which the SMB PC market grew.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India, said, “Lenovo’s overwhelming growth over the last few quarters is a testimony to the success of our Protect and Attack strategy. We strongly believe that going forward the Indian SMB will be the growth engine of our economy. We therefore are putting SMB at the core of our attack strategy and aim to play a leading role in the space.”

Lenovo aims to create a significant impact in the SMB market by deploying a holistic approach to market - encompassing aggressive retail push, deeper channel penetration and channel engagement and introducing an exclusive product range. Further, Lenovo is devising specific tactics to tackle the three sub-segments within SMB – Medium Business, Small Business, SOHO.

Elaborating on the company’s strategy, Mr. Rajiv Rao, Director-SMB, Lenovo India, said, “SMB is not a homogeneous market. While at one end SOHO operates more like a retail customer, at the other end of the spectrum the Medium Business exhibits many characteristics of a large enterprise. Lenovo aims to focus on the SMB market with this understanding and cater to specific needs of the three broad sub-segments - with a customized approach and solutions for each.”

To penetrate the length and breadth of the country’s diverse SMB market, Lenovo is creating an unprecedented reach of close to 500 retail touch points over the next fiscal year, which includes over 300 retail outlets and close to 200 resellers and VARs. This will enable Lenovo to move closer to its target audience at both ends of the SMB spectrum. In line with this objective, Lenovo is instituting an SMB focused tele-sales set-up to ensure real time support to the channel community.

And finally, to cater to the diverse computing needs of Indian SMBs, Lenovo is unveiling an entire range of laptops, desktops and all-in-ones exclusively designed exclusively keeping in mind the requirements of the segment. Aptly named EDGE, this range, which is part of the acclaimed ‘Think’ family, brings all the powerful and vital attributes of the Think brand coupled with features of style and entertainment that an SMB seeks.

Detailing the product launch Rajiv Rao added, “We are offering PCs that can withstand the vagaries of an SMB’s growth journey by offering unmatched performance blended with attractive design and affordable pricing. Our Edge range of PCs offer worry free computing, enabling users to accomplish their business goals and balance their personal lives. Edge range is carefully designed to optimize user experience with style coupled with the ThinkPad quality experience.”

The new range of over 10 products include ThinkCentre Edge 91z, ThinkCentre Edge 71z, ThinkCentre Edge 71, ThinkPad T420, ThinkPad X220, ThinkPad Edge E420s(SSD), ThinkPad Edge E420, ThinkPad Edge E420s (HDD), Lenovo B570. All the products are equipped with Lenovo Enhanced Experience 2.0 for Windows 7, ensuring fastest boot time along with superior performance, power management and exciting features leaving the user with an enhanced computing experience.

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a $US21 billion personal technology company serving customers in more than 160 countries, and the world’s fourth-largest PC vendor. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. It’s product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com