2004年12月7日, IBM 與聯想電腦發佈聯合新聞稿, 用十七‧五億美元的代價，折合新台幣約五六五億元，購併ＩＢＭ連年虧損的個人電腦部門。
到目前為止仍看不出綜效. 雖然一般分析並不看好此宗企業購併. 但事情還是發生了. 聯想打的如意算盤如司馬召之心, 希望藉由此來擴大市佔率, 也因此企業版圖迅速擴大到行銷全球.
但是這其實併沒有把基本的問題解決:
- 產品的獨特性, 如何把電腦做到消費者指定的品牌, 以Notebook為例, 像是鍵盤特別好用, 這一招HP/Compaq已經用了; 外型Sharp, 像是IBM; 走時尚, 像是Sony; 走專業耐用, 像是Toshiba.
- 在銷售通路上是否有獨特, 例如通路商一定特別努力的賣聯想的電腦. 因為比較好賺. 像是 Acer 在歐洲, 或是 Dell 獨特的直銷模式.
- 是否能夠脫離打成本/價格戰的思維.
- 要把聯想電腦帶到那裡去, 到底聯想電腦要賺的是品牌, 通路, 還是管理的錢.
如果還在與各眾家PC大廠瓜分市場, 今天這一塊餅由對手拿去, 明天我再把它搶回來, 而不去開發真正的消費者要的東西, 那只是延遲失敗而已.
Tom Peters 說過, 贏家與別人不同點在於當別人在努力透過企業購併來買市佔率時, 他卻在努力的創造市場, 這是兩種完成不一樣的邏輯. Apple 就是最佳的例子.
是不是這樣呢, 讓我們由時間來證明, 希望聯想電腦的決定是對的.
English version: Coporation Acquisition
In December, 2004, IBM and Lenovo joined announced the news: “Lenovo to Acquire IBM Personal Computing Division”, which the total acquisition amount was approximately US$1.75 billion, even thought the financial report showed that IBM PC division was on a deficit.
This was obviously a strategy to grab at market share and to broaden the economic scale for Lenovo’s ambition to go to the global brand market. Almost one year past, we do not see Lenovo to solve some root problems for playing a role in PC industry.
- The product of differentiation. We don’t see Lenovo to build a series of products which customers designate. Laptop, for instance, the customers can easily identify the fine art of keyboard and flat LCD panel designed by Compaq (now HP), the sharp contour designed by IBM, the fashion style designed by Sony, and the professional and concrete look and feel designed by Toshiba. These brandy vendors have unique value to their target customers.
- The sales channel. The special designed sales channel show why Lenovo’s brand has more advantages than others. For example, Dell innovate direct-sell on-line business model, and Acer build more profitable for channel in Europe.
- What is the thinking logic of Lenovo’s value proposition to break the price/cost battle in PC industry? The winning solution is crucial in highly sensitive and competitive price/cost ratio of PC industry. The business experience shows that the cheap is nowhere to go except “more cheap”.
- Where is Lenovo going? Lenovo must clearly state their unique strength among brand, channel, management, or something else.
An enterprise is going to failure if it doesn’t invest on developing the product what customers exactly want, and if it doesn’t strive for sales power but focus on buying market share in the same pie.
I admire the quotation from Peter Job, CEO, Reuters, “Acquisitions are about buying market share. Our challenge is to create markets. There is a big difference.” and the quotation from Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne (INSEAD), from Blue Ocean Strategy: “Value innovation is about making the competition irrelevant by creating uncontested market space. We argue that beating the competition within the confines of the existing industry is not the way to create profitable growth.” The Apple Computer is a typical example to contemplate.
We are looking forward to observing Lenovo’s evolution and change, and happy to see Lenovo’s success in the future. The result will come out by given enough time.
Ref:
IBM press releases: Lenovo to Acquire IBM Personal Computing Division
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