Lenovo Do Network: Using technology to solve problems in emerging markets

In conversation with Shailendra Katyal, Marketing Head, Lenovo India, on the Do Network Lenovo launched Do Network campaign in India in December last year to bring bright ideas to life through the filter of technology in the emerging markets as well as a brand building exercise in a hyper-competitive digital products market. YourStory.in caught up with Shailendra Katyal, marketing head of Lenovo India for his insight on the campaign. Shailendra Katyal graduated from IIM Calcutta in 1999 and was with Marico for 11 years as Category Head, Personal Care. He joined Lenovo a year earlier. In this interesting conversation, he throws light on why Do Network was born and how it is useful to solve problems that emerging countries like India face. He also gives a sneak peek into what the program aims at achieving eventually.

YourStory: What does the “Do Network” signify for Lenovo?

Shailendra Katyal: Lenovo historically and globally has not invested too much in brand building. It is only in the last one year that driven by significant scale and after having established ourselves as a strong IT player, we thought it was time to tell more people about what kind of company we are. We came up with this positioning line called “For Those Who Do” around March or April last year. It was a global positioning exercise. And, we thought that in technology there seems to be the space not only for entertainment and communication, but for creation and doing actually.

We identified that the “doer” mindset will be one of the key enablers of the DO. We had to go through multiple phases of this campaign, with the first one being announcing to the world that we are for those who do, and that happened sometime around June last year in India.. But there are the other stages of the campaign that have we started rolling out. We ran a couple of campaigns and launched a bunch of new products during last year between July and December when we showcased to the world about how we are an innovative technology company through our products. We actually say we enable doers to do more with technology and that is when the thought of the Do Network came about.

How do you see the entire community forming around this network and various stakeholders connecting and adding value?

It is a global community. India is one of the communities participating in the project. India is a very young country [meaning lot of youth in the population]. There is a lot of do spirit which is all-pervasive at all levels because of economic growth, because India is one of the “youngest” countries in the world, with its population having a median age less than 25 years. We said that youngsters are going to be key drivers of this segment. We are driving participation through college campuses and we have a very strong on-ground leg to it. We are very active in the digital medium, as it is an online platform. So most of the action points are around getting the 18- to 25-year-olds into the doer community and this supported by ongoing marketing efforts.

Further there is an on-ground leg, a mass media leg, and a digital leg. We are on this task now and are building the program steadily. We have already got more than 2000 registrations and 500 entries on our challenges, and for most of the ideas, people are very engaged. One of the challenges we face today is how do you resolve the problem of mass education in the country and the traffic problem in the emerging markets. People actually want to contribute because they resonate with the challenge. They are actually feeling the heat and the pain, so they actually want to contribute to the challenge.

Any thoughts as to why these 3 challenges ( education, traffic, consumer product with large impact ) were specifically picked up?

Do Network is actually a long-term commitment. We would actually have four phases in it. What we have rolled out is only the first phase. When we were designing the program, we wanted to make it as universal as possible and obviously there is a filter of technology as to whether technology can play a role in solving a problem.

Four phases

Each phase is roughly 90 days long. The first phase is on invention where people showcase their technology innovation ideas. The second phase is expression, which means creating music and arts using technology. The third is social impact where in you use technology to make a huge impact on the society. And, the fourth one is on exploration wherein you will see laptops going to Antarctica or to space or to Mount Everest. So all the four are very exciting themes, because the doer mindset is a very wide mindset and we didn’t want to lose out on any. So we had to break it down to four buckets, because, for example, a person who is interested in arts may not be interested in invention. We wanted to understand the doer mindset better, and when we did a bit of research, these four themes emerged from our study.

The Initial Thrust and Plans

The first one is invention and the participating countries are largely developing economies. The first wave is on India, Indonesia and Russia where the challenges are mostly similar in terms of a huge number of people who are waiting to get educated, struggling with urbanization and transportation, and these are the ones who want to make a difference to their lives. So based on the common conversation between countries, we identified these countries and asked ourselves if you want to use technology for innovation, what would it be for. That is, how would you use technology to solve some of the common problems and the solution has to be real, authentic and implementable.

For all the four phases, more countries will start coming onboard. We started off the pilot with three countries. The second phase, which is music and expression, is more widespread than invention, which is limited to technology. We expect more and more people to come in as we roll out the other phases.

You have a great mix of mentors...

Yes. The role of the mentors in the process is interesting. They are playing the role of the jury as well. They help us to select the Top 10 ideas and help finalize the winner. In terms of choosing the finalists, there is mentor evaluation and public voting as well. Then depending upon how the participants have finished the milestones on the project, there is a weightage given to that as well. Mentors do more than shortlisting. They are enlisted to guide people. A person may have raw ideas, but unless that person knows that he is in the right direction, he would not be able to proceed. So each mentor gets to pick ideas that he or she is particular about and helps the participant.

We are also evaluating the possibilities of having a DO lab. And, the people whom we have chosen are the ones who are deeply interested in technology, and in their individual capacity they want to make a difference. For example, Rajan Anandan as the MD of Google India is obviously associated with technology, but even in his personal capacity has invested in around 25 startups. He is a guy who loves ideas. We sent out requests to multiple people whom we thought would be interested in being a part of the doer network, because it is not a paid endorsement. Apart from Rajan, we have got a very senior scientist from DRDO Narvir Chand Sud, Mahesh Murthy and lot of interesting people supporting the platform.

Can you tell us about how Lenovo technology can be leveraged by participants?

The whole initiative is not just corporate social responsibility (CSR). It’s a brand building initiative, and there has to be some linkage to technology as well. If somebody has an idea on how to solve a traffic problem, the question is can you use technology to solve that problem. We want the filter of technology to the forefront in all the problems. Whatever help you need in terms of technology, for example if you need 10 laptops or one desktop, we are ready to fund that. Not for everybody, but for the shortlisted ideas. That is the gesture from our company. So we are giving away free technology. If somebody needs support with technology, then we tap into our network for help.

Any ideas that “wow”-ed you in the past three weeks?

It is still early days and it would be unfair to comment on any one idea. We are not giving out any statement as to what we really like at Lenovo as of now. But, we have seen over 500 ideas already. Not registrations, but ideas. Some ideas look very promising. You can see that people are actually trying to make a difference to the world.

As someone at the helm of Lenovo, what keeps you going on a daily basis?

I have been in marketing most of my life. As the world becomes more and more commoditized, when you look at consumer technology, product differentiation is becoming more and more difficult. It is becoming increasingly hard to create a brand that people love, like and are loyal to. If you do that, then you have created something sustainable, and that I think is the joy of marketing overall. And, especially in technology category in India there is a huge opportunity. Only one in 10 households in India have a PC, whether it is a laptop or a desktop, and there is a market waiting to be explored. We would love see an India where at least 8 out of 10 households have a PC soon. We are an emerging market player and our presence in emerging markets is very strong. Although we are a $22 billion company, it still feels like a startup for me. If you look at technology overall, it was distant to consumers overall. Our parent generation was not using technology on a daily basis, but look at our younger generation, we can’t live without technology and it has become all-pervasive.

Can you tell us a bit about Lenovo’s plans for India?

We have been the fastest growing PC brand for the past seven or eight quarters. We became number 2 worldwide last quarter and we are going to sustain that momentum. There is a statement by our Chairman that we want to become number 1 globally. Our strength lies in the emerging markets and that’s where growth also lies. Look at the 30–40 % of the population that has not yet got the access to technology, and most of them lie in the emerging markets. We are very strongly positioned to take advantage of that reality. When one of these people step out to buy their first phone, first laptop or first smartphone or a tablet, Lenovo will be there to support this need. India is the largest country in emerging markets after China. In China, we have one-third of the market share already. We have done very well there and it is difficult to achieve monopoly in a very competitive space. Again, in India, we have been the fastest growing brand in the past five quarters now, and we have grown from 7.5 to 12.5 percent market share in the past five quarters. We have grown 5 percentage points in the last year and a half, and we are going to sustain on that momentum. We have about 10% market share of smartphones in China. We launched our tablets in India. It is in a very early phase. We are again very committed to the device space in the long run. Whatever space we enter into in the device category, whether it is a smartphone, tablet, or a PC, we want to be a significant player, and among the top 3.

Do check out Lenovo Do Network, and submit your ideas today!