Daily Blog: A Company With No Fixed Headquarters

According to Forbes, “the new face of globalism” is called Lenovo.

While it may not be a household name in the U.S., Lenovo did 28% of the PC shipments to China in 2008 which was more than twice the Hewlett-Packard numbers in second place – and Lenovo is now the fourth largest PC maker in the world.

More important to mid-sized cities is what Lenovo represents in terms of the way “doing business” is changing, and the impact on the old real estate axiom about the importance of location, location, location.

Following is Rebecca Buckman’s description:

“Few companies live as globally as Lenovo. The company has no fixed headquarters; its monthly leadership meeting might be in Paris one month and Cambodia the next. Marketing is run out of Bangalore, India. Design work is done in Beijing, Raleigh, N.C. and Yamato, Japan.”

The American CEO lives in Singapore. The Chinese chairman lives in Raleigh.

For most cities doing economic development work, a first question is “Where are your corporate headquarters?”

If more companies follow the Lenovo model, economic development may need a new strategy.

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