LIU CHUANZHI

1944–

With a loan from a Chinese state-backed institute, Liu Chuanzhi founded the technology company Lenovo. Even though the loan came with many strings attached and Chuanzhi had little experience in business management, he successfully built the company into one of the world’s largest personal computer manufacturers.

Born in 1944, Liu Chuanzhi studied at the People’s Liberation Army Institute of Telecommunication Engineering in Xi’an, central China. In 1984, while a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, he acquired a loan from the Academy to set up computer company Legend (now Lenovo) so that he could develop his work further. Chuanzhi boldly insisted that the Academy allow him to manage the business himself, but he still had to work under many government restrictions.

He found the early years of his enterprise a struggle. After a failed attempt to import televisions, he saw an opportunity to distribute foreign-made computers. Legend’s first successful innovation improved the ability of these computers to process Chinese characters, which allowed many Chinese people to use a personal computer for the first time.

Chuanzhi’s business success came largely as a result of studying and adapting the marketing and management strategies of successful international companies, particularly the US electronics and computer corporation Hewlett-Packard. He also took on young people who had earned their business qualifications at colleges overseas to lead parts of the company. In 1990, Legend began producing its own computers, becoming the market leader in China six years later. In 2005, Legend acquired IBM’s Personal Computing Division, making it one of the world’s largest computer manufacturers at the time. Now in his 70s, Chuanzhi stepped down as chairman of Lenovo’s parent company, Legend Holdings, in December 2019.