Critical Evaluation of a CEO's Communication Style

Chosen CEO
YUANQING YANG, Chairman & CEO of LENOVO

Submitted to
Prof. Bhavani Naik
NMIMS Bangalore

Prepared by

Mansi Sharma
Roll No: A016
DIV : B
SAP Id: 80011220277

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About the CEO:
Yuanqing Yang was born on November 12, 1964. He is a Chinese business leader as
well as philanthropist and is currently heading Lenovo Group Limited as its CEO and
Chairman.

PART A
Identifying the style of communication and evaluating the same

Communication Style: ASSERTIVE

After going through the Twitter and Linkedin handles, company website and media
releases of Yuanqing Yang, we can observe that he follows an ‘assertive’ style of
communication.

Evaluation: 3 C’s of Assertive communication

Yuanqing Yang communicates his ideas and messages in a civilized way. In other
words, he is neither too passive nor too aggressive.

1. Confidence

His communication
reflects optimism. He
successfully explains
logical flow of events. He
also acknowledges
challenges faced and
how the business
changed for the better.
This attribute instils
confidence in the
company stakeholders.

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 2. Clarity

Yuanqing Yang communicates in a manner which is simple and easy to understand. In the example
attached below, he has revealed major and highly profitable partnerships with two business giants in
just two clear lines.

3. Controlled

This communication from the CEO had come on March 18, 2020, times when the panic with regards
to novel coronavirus was reaching its peak. In this message, he has expressed his emotions in a calm
and controlled manner. While acknowledging the sudden change in the personal and work lives of
the employees, he instils the sense of unity, thereby igniting hope and pacifying panic situation.

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 PART B
Analysis on Crisis addressed by Yuanqing Yang

THE SITUATION
Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google in October, 2014 for $ 2.91 billion. The company
was already widespread globally with over 60,000 employees. After this acquisition, it added
more 10,000 employees to its workforce.
Following is the extract of the statement made by Yuanqing Yang in October, 2014-
‘building a strong number three and a credible challenger to the top two in smartphones’
However, things did not turn out as planned and two years later in 2016, the Chinese
supplies of smartphones reduced by 85 percent in both US and Chinese markets. This
incident pushed Lenovo out of the top 5 smartphone brands where the CEO promised to
make Lenovo, the third largest market player globally.

APPROACH TO CRISIS
The CEO made the following statement during the company’s Quarterly Earnings Press
Release,
‘Integration efforts with Motorola did not meet expectations.’
This comment was perceived in two different ways by different media. Some regarded it as
‘self-criticism’ that is rarely to see for a top multinational company in its quarterly financial
report. Some others published it on a positive note stating that Lenovo is not shy about its
disclosures with regards to its smartphone business.

OPINION & LEARNINGS

In some circumstances, mergers and acquisitions do not yield expected results timely. This is
because, apart from financial and operational parameters, qualitative factors like sudden
change in organisation culture for the merging company employees also must be dealt with
carefully.
From the perspective of business communication, messages conveyed in crisis by the top
official of an organisation must include-

 Acknowledgement of the crisis

 A message in simple (and preferably less formal words) to convey that the company
understands stakeholders emotions
 A future plan of action to mitigate the crises

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Most Important Learning:
“The above factors should be conveyed in a manner that does not leave scope for dual or
multiple interpretations.”

MY APPROACH TO CRISIS
In the given case, there was a huge drop in the market performance of the company post a
new acquisition. However, such poor performance or failure was not supposed to last for a
long time. The company never had plans to do away with Motorola, but rather planned to
identify additional resources and capacities to turn it into a profitable venture.
And as we can see today, the interface of Motorola is very well integrated with Lenovo
devices.
Given the scenario, instead of the statement, ‘INTEGRATION EFFORTS WITH MOTOROLA
DID NOT MEET EXPECTATIONS’, I would have communicated, ‘INTEGRATION EFFORTS
WITH MOTOROLA ARE EXPECTED TO YIELD PROFITABLE RESULTS LATER THAN ORIGINALLY
PLANNED’.