Lenovo EMEA wakes up after five quarters of sliding sales, adds CEO

Lenovo EMEA has dropped its top ops man into the CEO chair following five quarters of shrinking turnover and recent operating losses.

Francois Bornibus, charged with igniting the sales engine, will continue to report to president Luca Rossi, who will still hold “overarching” dual responsibility for the region and Latin America.

A Lenovo spokesman told us the firm wanted a local management team that has “dedicated focus,” and judging by the recent string of relatively crappy financial results, this is much needed.

Lenovo reported EMEA sales growth for the three months ended 30 September 2015, and since then has posted year-on-year declines for each quarter. The last full set of numbers for the period ended 31 December included a pre-tax loss of $102m.

Bornibus has been told to:

• Make Lenovo the biggest PC seller in the region (it was number two in 2016).
• Consolidate its number three spot in the server space.
• Import the full Motorola portfolio across all “price categories.”

Back in January, Lenovo reorganized the business across EMEA in an effort to give local territory heads more power to force through local decisions – at least, this was the grand vision.

The UK, France and other large markets were each given a single boss, while others including Benelux and the Nordics shared one. Each territory head runs the P&L account. All will now report to Bornibus.

Previously, Lenovo did not have country heads, instead it had directors that managed multiple countries in the north/south/east/west regions. ®