Unless he can convince the US that Lenovo's AI isn't feeding private data directly to the Chinese Communist Party, he will fail.
Misfiring Lenovo hires Ford director to help with revamp
Lenovo has hired an experienced executive with financial, M&A and AI chops following a year of declining revenues amid continued efforts to reduce its over-reliance on the struggling PC market. John Thornton, who is joining as an independent non-exec director and member of the Nomination and Governance Committee, already holds …
COMMENTS
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Tuesday 22nd August 2023 18:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
"Step up AI, seen by some vendors as a panacea"
Yeah, that's going to work out well.
The new friendly face lashed to the bow of a sinking ship, not a job I'd relish, but the paychecks will be nice while the band plays "Nearer, My God, to Thee."
If their only plan to diversify is to me-too into AI hype at the last minute, they are going to fare as well as the clowns that bought the bag at the NFT fire-sale. Lenovo is going to get kicked in the face by the wave of anti-China sanctions and trade headwinds that Xi bought the Chinese tech sector. Over hyped blackbox AI isn't going to help that, it's going to be worse.
Diversification strategies are supposed to focus on lower risk bets in markets that don't move with your primary market, aren't they?
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Tuesday 22nd August 2023 18:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
Cynically
I doubt they have that high an expectation of him.
He's a dancing monkey. They didn't make him CEO. He's not in charge. He's not there to change anything at the company. He's there to sell a narrative from the existing management who already decided on a strategy. If they move him up it will be to fire him later and have him take the blame for the likely massive pool of red ink waiting on the horizon.
No, his job is set dressing to present a friendlier and more familiar face to large US companies they hope will waste mountains of cash buying AI snake oil and propping up Lenovo's share price for a few more quarters.
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