And now, a word from our Olympic sponsors: Lenovo

What does it mean to sponsor the biggest sporting event in the world? In this series, Radio86 asked some of the biggest Olympic sponsors to take us into the practical side of sponsorship.

Bob Page, director of corporate communications for Lenovo

Lenovo decided to become a sponsor of the Olympic Games in 2004, two years after it was awarded to Beijing. What makes this sponsorship different is that Lenovo decided to become a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games even before it had a worldwide footprint. In 2004, Lenovo was a company primarily based in and focused on China. In 2005, Lenovo bought the PC division from IBM and thereby created a global footprint. Lenovo was not a global company until 2005.

Lenovo is the computing equipment partner for the Olympics. The technology infrastructure and hardware for the Beijing Olympics are supplied by Lenovo, including about 30,000 pieces. Lenovo also has about 600 engineers and technicians supporting the Games.

Lenovo also became the first worldwide partner to design the Olympic torch, competing against 300 others to win that honor. The design is based on one key Chinese contribution to the world – the invention of paper. The torch, which is shaped like a scroll, is made from an aluminum-magnesium alloy, making it exceptionally lightweight. The pattern on the upper half of the torch, “Cloud of Promise,” is extremely common in Chinese architecture, furniture and textile design.

In China, Lenovo is extremely well-regarded and well-known. Within China, the central mission for Lenovo is to position the company more as a global brand, rather than only as a Chinese brand. Outside China, the company is less well-known, so we're building brand recognition in the over 60 countries where Lenovo operates. The Olympics couldn't be a better kind of partnership on which to build that brand recognition because what Lenovo is doing is a case study in technology deployment. We are creating what is basically a Fortune 100-level of organization with the equipment we are providing. If we can do this for the Olympics, imagine what we can do for the ordinary consumer.

One of the key challenges has also been one of the greatest opportunities. During the midst of all the preparation for the Torino Winter Games, the first that Lenovo sponsored, as well as for the Beijing Games, the company itself has been managing the transition into a single company from teo completely separate companies. The worldwide partnership with the Olympics and all the activities connected with it have served as a way of uniting the whole employee population of Lenovo around a single objective, the Olympic Games.