Like many, if not all organisations over the past couple of years, Lenovo South Africa is in a state of flux. Much of this was down to the fact that the pandemic forced organisations like Lenovo to change the way it did business.

This included adopting a remote working model which has since shifted to a hybrid one as lockdown ended and regulations around employees in the workplace evolved. But the shift to a hybrid working model has been about more than ensuring workers come in three days a week and remain as productive as they did before the pandemic hit.

Speaking to recently appointed country manager for Lenovo South Africa, Yugen Naidoo (pictured above), the shift to hybrid work has resulting in sweeping changes in the organisation.

This resulted in a more visible evolution, such as moving from its former Johannesburg offices into a specialist co-working space, to subtle shifts, like embracing consumer technology built with working from home in mind.

It has also seen Lenovo South Africa strengthen its relationships in the local channel market, as well as working hard to address former supply chain hurdles and bring more devices into the country at a greater frequency.

Touching on all of the above, here is what Naidoo had to say about Lenovo Southern Africa’s evolution, what is to come in future, and how hybrid work was the inspiration for it all.

Hypertext: The last time we spoke was 2019. Quite a bit has happened in that time, including your appointment as country manager. How has the change in roles been, especially against the backdrop of a pandemic?

Yugen Naidoo: The last time we met were under very different circumstances indeed. Pre-pandemic, life was very different to what it is now.

Professionally I was appointed as country manager for Southern Africa, and that includes a few other countries like Mauritius, Angola, South Africa, Botswana. And we’ve actually gone through a journey as Lenovo.

One of points as we sit here is that we changed our offices. This talks to the future vision of Lenovo, because we believe in a hybrid workforce, and we’re not just talking about it, we’re actually doing it.

So if you look at the spaces we’re in now, it talks to that. Having an agile workforce, and we are driving that strategy.

Hypertext: The shift to a hybrid model can prove tough for many an organisation. How has your workforce handled it?

YN: Well we have different generations that make up our workforce – Gen X, Gen Z, Gen Y and millennials. They all have different outlooks, both to life and the way things should work.

We had to take that into consideration, so as a company we had to try to understand that people were quite happy to work remotely.

The results speak for themselves as we delivered 25.1 percent market share last quarter. Our prelim results have not been officially released yet (at the time of recording), but we grabbed number one spot again, which would make it consecutive quarters, but what does that mean?

It means that our employees are enjoying the productivity of the workspace we make available to them now. Currently we work on a three-two split – three days at the office and two days at home. We’ve found that’s the balance, so the hybrid, agile workforce is here to stay.

Hypertext: So the adoption of the hybrid model is not just an interim solution during the pandemic, this is a model that Lenovo will be pushing ahead with in the future too?

YN: It’s not just a strategy locally, and our chairman Yang Yuanqing has made that clear. We are an office-based company, but the ability to listen to our employees and embrace the hybrid approach is something that is here to stay.

The world has changed, and we have to adapt.

Hypertext: What Lenovo’s customers and partners, are they of a similar opinion when it comes to hybrid work and has your company looked to assist in enabling it?

YN: From a customer perspective, digitalisation is not something that is nice to have anymore, it is a necessity. It is carving the way of the future, as out customers are realising that the hybrid approach delivers far more productivity from employees.

From a partner perspective, most of our partners in the local channel are working fully remote. What we have found is that there are two extremes – fully back to the office or fully out of office. I think that as we progress this is going to become a reality for our partners too.

Hypertext: As Lenovo looks to gather momentum for the post-pandemic landscape, what are some of the key strategies for the company moving forward?

YN: I think that the opportunity lies in digitalisation and hybrid workforce. At Lenovo we are pushing that message hard through our three year strategy.

We are focusing on smart IoT, smart infrastructure and smart verticals.

An example of a vertical for us ia education. So if you have kids, they can go on a virtual tour from the comfort of their classroom. Another example is the medical field, where surgeons will be able to perform an operation first before they begin to cut a patient.

Other areas we’re focusing on is manufacturing, looking at how we can get things like forecasting more accurate, and this is where data will play a crucial role thanks to smarter IoT environments and the infrastructure to support it.

Hypertext: Speaking about devices for a moment, Lenovo’s Think edge servers are a truly interesting prospect. What has the local uptake of those been like to date?

YN: So we used to have two sales teams at Lenovo, each focusing on a separate part of the business. Those teams have since become one, and we have put down some ambitious goals in that regard.

In the next two years we are expecting to double our revenue in South Africa. There is now an expectation as we have some aggressive targets, doubling our revenue and driven by an extended sales force and increased channel.

We plan to meet those goals with a now doubled sales team, an addressable local market from a channel brand standpoint. Over the past two quarters for example we have been able to growth our share in the channel by 17 percent, just by making a few tweaks to our strategy.

Added to this is our anniversary around the think product, which is celebrating 30 years, so there will be a few initiatives on that end too.

Hypertext: Lastly, Lenovo recently scooped up some local awards for its performance in the SADC channel. Where will Lenovo focus for the coming year?

YN: From client… to edge… to cloud… to networking and obviously the infrastructure too.

Everything that is available to us will be pushed through the channel and our partners. We are a 100 percent channel organisation, so we believe in the channel, they are our extended sales force, and we have given them product to address our customer needs.