On December 20th, at the 2024 New Growth Conference organized by the Chinese edition of Harvard Business Review, Gao Lan, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of LENOVO GROUP, discussed that the localization talent strategy, transparent and fair compensation and benefits system, along with a diverse and inclusive "anti-involution" culture, are several key elements in shaping LENOVO GROUP's Global capabilities.

Companies expanding overseas must overcome numerous challenges, one of the initial dilemmas is overseas talent recruitment, whether to send expatriates or hire locally? Gao Lan pointed out that both methods have their advantages, and it is crucial to choose a talent strategy that suits the company and make continuous investments. LENOVO GROUP adopts a globalization talent strategy centered on localization, where the advantage is that local talents better understand the local market and customers while avoiding inefficiencies in regional decision-making caused by strong control from headquarters.

"In all regional markets, we boldly appoint local professional managers as the first person in charge and grant them high autonomy in decision-making, encouraging them to maximize the local business and serve local customers," Gao Lan emphasized, stating that expatriates would only be sent when local talents have not yet matured.

Even when sending expatriates, clear KPIs will be set for these employees dispatched overseas, with the cultivation of local talents being one of the key tasks from the start of their assignment, aiming to find a local "successor" within a specified time.

Gao Lan pointed out that globally in LENOVO GROUP, 97% of the management is local talent. This deeply embedded local talent system has not been established overnight but has been carefully built and continuously optimized over at least a decade, including training and recruiting international talents and enabling expatriates to identify with LENOVO GROUP's culture and values. In addition to improving efficiency, this highly localized model effectively reduces the risks that companies face due to geopolitical interference, providing important guarantees for the company's Global operations.

In addition to a suitable talent strategy, Gao Lan mentioned that a fair and transparent compensation and benefits system, along with a diverse and inclusive corporate culture, are also key factors in retaining and attracting core global talents. She indicated that while cultural integration may seem slow and challenging to quantify, it often serves as a crucial factor in the success of a company's globalization. LENOVO GROUP's initial reliance on contracts to retain merged teams has shifted to talents proactively joining, with one key reason being the establishment of a diverse and inclusive corporate culture.