Since many failures of cross-border acquisition assigns blame to the cultural differences, or precisely, cultural integration, this essay seeks to explain how the successful cross-border cultural integration was achieved in the case of Lenovo and IBM PC.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Henley Business School

How to achieve a successful cross-border cultural integration: Learning from Lenovo and IBM PC

Introduction

Cross-border acquisition is a popular choice for organisations to achieve competitive advantages and access new markets in the world. In 2004, Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computer (IBM PC) sectors in order to grow and prosper. As Lenovo is a localised Chinese company, the acquisition is called 'a snake swallowed an elephant' and viewed cynically by many researchers (Peng, 2008). However, Lenovo has achieved successful cross-border acquisition because Lenovo is one of top players in international computer market now with increasing profit (Peng, 2008). During the post-acquisition period from 2004 to 2008, Lenovo's business performance improved a lot, for instance the revenue and profit showed an dramatically increased tendency (Appendix 1). Since many failures of cross-border acquisition assigns blame to the cultural differences, or precisely, cultural integration, this essay seeks to explain how the successful cross-border cultural integration was achieved in the case of Lenovo and IBM PC.

In this essay, both of national cultural and organisational cultural distance would be explored through the comparison and analysis of national culture between Lenovo and IBM PC. It will focus on