Lenovo CIO Wangxiao: The Key to enterprise transformation is to balance the relationship between the parties

Lenovo CIO Wangxiao Sina Science and technology Beijing time August 12 Morning news, Lenovo CIO Wangxiao recently accepted the McKinsey Shanghai Branch director Wei interview, talked about IT department in the process of enterprise transformation important role.　　In the global business model, she argues, IT departments should respect the actual needs of the local business while improving the efficiency of industry standardization, while properly handling the relationship between the various business departments is crucial to the successful transformation of enterprises.　　The following is a summary of the interview: Wei: What is Lenovo's strategic objective in initiating such a transition? Wangxiao: First, we need to move multiple sets of old IT systems to a single strategic platform with SAP software.　　At the same time, we want to provide specific IT solutions to make the company's global business model viable, a model that provides many new business capabilities, such as managing global accounts and electronic transactions with our channel partners.　　Wei: What are the major challenges that Lenovo faces in this ambitious transition? Wangxiao: There are challenges in many ways. The maintenance costs of legacy IT systems that we inherited are quite high and can no longer support new business capabilities after more than 20 years of operation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to move them to a single strategic platform. At the same time, we do not have a complete system to support the new business model. Our SAP system in China is a solid foundation, but it still needs to be perfected to support our diverse customer base and global background operations. Of course, the PC market is fast changing and profits are slim. As a result, we must align the IT organization transition roadmap with the business priorities of the company and make adjustments if necessary.　　Finally, our employees have different cultures and are learning how to collaborate with each other, and most of us are first confronted with a global transformation. Wei: One of the major challenges in implementing ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning, enterprise-resource-planning) systems around the world is that they are either too focused, local impact diluted, or too localized to make things very tricky.　　How did you solve the problem? Wangxiao: The key is to balance the financial, supply chain and other operational needs and sales, marketing, such as the actual needs of the relationship, the former can be standardized globally, the latter will provide specific local requirements. For example, the PC industry is a global industry with the characteristics of product commercialization and profit pressures.　　So you need to balance the global scale of production and supply chain relationships. At the same time, we must admit that there are still regional differences in our market, the customer activities, pricing mechanism and other practical operations have different requirements. For example, we have a mature business model to work with Chinese channel providers, while in the US our business relies on direct marketing to corporate customers, which has a very specific requirement for how they want to buy a PC. As a result, our IT systems must be flexible when dealing with local needs. To do this, we chose to deploy a set of SAP systemsTo support the global business model, while allowing some reasonable differentiation of the existence of business, which is necessary to operate in different regions.　　Wei: How does the IT department head determine the roadmap and timeline? Wangxiao: When we define the roadmap, we find that there really is no highly relevant industry case for us to refer to. We understand that it usually takes 5-7 years to complete a global IT system adjustment of the same size, which does not take into account the complexity of the merged business consolidation we face.　　But we still have this term as our mission objective. The path we chose was initially to upgrade our IT platform in China, making it a solid foundation for the global business model. We tested the system template designed for the factory in the Shanghai workshop and created the sales template using the Canadian experimental project. Then we move on to areas where global standardization operates, such as supply chains, finance, and separate them from traditional systems. As for the sales and marketing areas where differentiation is very important, we give priority to developing emerging countries, where the thresholds are relatively low and companies urgently need to change their business models.　　Our next goal is a highly complex, mature market where it capabilities to support more complex sales activities are needed. Wei: Do you have any objections from some business units when you launch this project?　　How did you manage the area successfully? Wangxiao: It is true that scope control is essential. Therefore, in order to realize the combination of enterprise and IT department, I put forward several important principles. The first principle is that we do not offer 100% solutions to the problem, and our goal is simply to provide the key capabilities of the business operation. Companies will be able to improve their operating conditions later. The "Schedule for King" (Schedule is king) is another principle. We must do everything we can to deliver on our time commitments. Everyone in the enterprise has to make their plans around our new IT system release date.　　If we adjust the schedule of our previous commitments, this will have a series of negative effects and serious consequences. Given the complexity inherent in such a massive shift, it is easy to get into trouble. Therefore, you must have a thorough arrangement and a clear understanding of the business model in order to overcome complex problems and make a factual decision based on the critical choices of enterprise and it execution capabilities. CIOs need to have a clear understanding of the business model, and a deep understanding of the old systems they're going to eliminate.　　In addition, of course, you need to win the trust of business executives in order to move forward with this change.　　Wei: Would you please elaborate on the impact of your decision on Lenovo's head of business? Wangxiao: You need to take a holistic look at the need for change. Business executives must be aware of the urgency of change and serve as advocates for change within the organization. For example, in our change journey, it is the CFO's job to support the consolidation of the financial operations model, and when we adjust the general ledger system, they have to work with it for two rounds of rehearsals. In addition, at the beginning of the implementation of the new IT strategy before, you also need to carefully plan, promote the enterprise to achieve management adjustment plan. User behavior (like ordering our new online ecommerce tool) takes a long time to change.　　As a result, it needs to explain to senior executives in advance what major issues to make, and to ensure that companies can implement management change arrangements to bridge differences.　　Wei: How much change do you need to make to the corporate culture to accomplish these tasks? Wangxiao: Before the takeover, our leadership and management team were made up mainly of Chinese people. Our ability to execute is very efficient. But we are aware that this approach does not work when the business is becoming globalized. In the process of operating a global business, we need to establish a leadership team with different cultural backgrounds and different experiences.　　As a result, we have learned to be patient, to brainstorm, to be more open-minded when adapting to different leadership and different ways of communicating.　　Wei: Because your foundation is the old system, do you have the right people with the appropriate skills to cope with the new environment? Wangxiao: Because headquartered in China, we obviously have an advantage, that is, where we have a high-quality it talent reserves. But our local team lacks experience in managing large-scale global transition programs and lacks the experience to support IT systems as a global user base. So our talent strategy is to gradually improve the internal IT team. To begin with, we need external IT professionals to help us with our architecture, design, and testing efforts. At the same time, our in-house team will receive on-the-job training during the project. By the end of the period, our in-house team has been upgraded to have a greater say in project decisions and is adept at managing global projects.　　Our development costs are correspondingly reduced.　　Wei: Do you see the rewards or benefits of these projects? Wangxiao: Since 2009, we have launched three important new systems, all of which are released as planned and have no budget overruns. We have launched a global standardized business platform for finance and supply chains that has successfully shifted all emerging markets to these strategic platforms, with the United States and Western Europe being the last of our two places to achieve this change, and we plan to do so within the next 24 months.　　While the transition is under way, this shift will require a lot of spending, but Lenovo's total IT spending has fallen from 2.8% in 2008 to 1.3% to 1.4% in 2010, down from the average ratio of 1.5% to 2% in the PC industry. Wei: Can every CIO do that?　　What experience can they gain from your experience? Wangxiao: To complete the enterprise transformation, you need to understand the characteristics of the industry, the company strategic priority planning, business model. You also need to understand the performance and limitations of the old system, the performance and limitations of the new system you intend to adopt. Finally, you must be firm and resolute. As a CIO, you are the architect and performer of corporate transformation. But keep in mind that you also need the support of other business unit supervisors. (XuanE)