Lenovo's Ward: CEO Change Won't Affect Channel

Ward, who took the reins at Lenovo after the completion of its merger with the IBM PC business, also said he simply decided he had taken the company successfully through its first phase of operations after the deal and believed the time was right for the change. He is being replaced as Lenovo CEO by William Amelio, who had been a senior vice president at Dell and, before that, a top executive at the IBM PC Co. during the 1990s.

"This company is committed to growth, and you've heard from the chairman of this company that none of this changes our strategy with our partners, with our channel," Ward told CRN. "I think Lenovo has the clearest channel strategy of any company in this industry."

Ward said he had worked with Lenovo Chairman Yuanqing Yang for two years to pave way for the eventual merger with IBM, and the transition has gone much better than expected. He said he would like to be involved again in similar opportunities once he leaves Lenovo.

"We've got to shift from building this company now to phase two, which is really to start working on competitiveness and start growing this business," Ward said. "I don't think we're too embarrassed about the success we've had."

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He said he has worked to bring other top management into the ranks of Lenovo since the merger and has started giving Amelio strong consideration as well.

"He's got great supply-chain capability. And frankly, to get a guy like that, you've got to put him in the top job,” Ward said. “He worked side by side with me and [IBM Chairman and CEO Sam] Palmisano and [IBM Senior Vice President] Bob Moffat for five years," he added, referring to Amelio's experience at the IBM PC Co.

Solution providers have largely been in agreement on the success of the Lenovo-IBM integration in recent months, but another major change at the company has prompted some concerns.

"I would say I would have a concern because certainly the Dell model is a lot different than the IBM model," said Norman Gaffney, co-founder of Garic Inc., a New York-based Lenovo partner. "So far, the transition has gone really well, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "The people who work for me think it's gone really well, and the customers think it's gone really well."

Still, Gaffney questioned the timing of Ward&'s exit. "Why now?" he said.

Bob O'Malley, senior vice president of marketing at distributor Tech Data, Clearwater, Fla., had praise for Amelio. "I've known Bill since he ran manufacturing for IBM's PC operations in the mid-'90s, early '90s, when I was in Japan," O'Malley said. "Bill is a very gifted executive, operationally focused. And with the time he spent with Dell, he is very global in his orientation."

O'Malley said solution providers should focus more on Amelio&'s 18 years of experience at IBM rather than his more recent work at Dell, the direct PC maker. "I think every manufacturer in the PC business is trying to learn from other business models out there," O'Malley said. "Dell is one we are trying to learn from. We know have an opportunity to work with someone who has seen Dell from afar but also from the inside."

Ward said that included--in the quicker-than-expected transition from the former IBM PC business--a quicker-than-expected acceptance of the Lenovo brand and logo. He said the company has begun briefing channel partners on new products it plans to unveil in February, products that will largely feature Lenovo's logo rather than IBM's. Part of Lenovo's agreement with IBM was that it could use the IBM logo on ThinkPads for a period of five years after the merger.

"We thought this would be five years. We already have the Lenovo logo building strength," said Ward, who will remain on board at Lenovo indefinitely in a consulting role while the management transition takes place.