China's largest computer maker Lenovo Group has reshuffled its regional operations into two business groups and also set up two product groups to sharpen its focus amid the global economic slowdown.

Lenovo said the business groups would cater to the developed markets and emerging markets. The mature market group, which covers countries like the United States, Japan and Australia, will be led by Milko Van Duijl, Lenovo's president in EMEA (Europethe Middle East and Africa) region.

The emerging market group, including China, Russia, India and Africa, would be led by Chen Shaopeng, president for Asia Pacific region and Russia.

Lenovo also said it is setting up two product groups based on its "Think" and "Idea" branded products, which mainly serve corporate customers and consumers respectively.

Yang Yuanqing, chief executive of Lenovo, said in a statement that although certain areas are physically distinct, they are more likely to display similar market behaviors.

"Our goal is to create a faster, more streamlined organization that can quickly seize the growth opportunities and focus resources on our core business," Yang said.

Lenovo's latest restructuring comes shortly after the company posted a net loss of US$96.7 million last month for the fourth quarter ending December. It also led to the company's founder Liu Chuanzhi returning as chairman and Yang Yuanqing replacing Bill Amelio as chief executive.

Liu said earlier this month that the company would focus on China and other emerging markets as its customers in mature markets, mainly large corporate companies, have significantly reduced their IT investments after the financial crisis.

He said in a recent email to Lenovo employees that the company plans a "counterattack" within one year.

According to US research firm IDC, global PC shipments are expected to fall by 4.5 percent to 282 million this year. Most of the leading PC makers like Hewlett-Packard and Dell have cut employees or trimmed operations to reduce costs.

(China Daily March 27, 2009)