Lenovo announced an internal overhaul Wednesday, reorganizing both its regional and product groups.
Think products, like the iconic ThinkPad and the desktop ThinkStation, will be separated from the Idea group, which makes the IdeaPad and IdeaCentre PCs. The Think group will focus on commercial customers as well as high-end small and midsize businesses (SMB). The Idea group will target consumer and SMB transactional customers.
The reorganization also spawned two new business units: one that targets mature markets, and another that targets emerging markets. They will replace the current business units that focus on specific regions. Lenovo considers the United States, Canada, Israel, Australia/New Zealand, and Western Europe mature, while Africa, Asia-Pacific, China, Eastern Europe, India, Pakistan, Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the Middle East are emerging.
The reorganization is the latest change at the Chinese company, which has been hit hard by the faltering global economy and resulting drop in IT spending. Lenovo lost US$97 million last quarter--which resulted in the CEO stepping down, and the laying off of 11 percent of its workforce--due partly to the fact that it is so heavily invested in large commercial customers.
In an interview with CNET News last month, Lenovo COO Rory Read said the transactional business had slowed down more than expected, and that he hoped to grow the consumer business to more than the current 25 percent to 30 percent of sales it already accounts for.
This article was first published as a blog post on CNET News.
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