Mr. Finance Transformation

At Lenovo, finance transformation isn't just part of Dennis Culin's job -- it is his job. Business Finance editor in chief Jack Sweeney speaks with Lenovo's director of finance transformation about the computer maker's yen for transformation and why finance is front and center.

BF: A lot of finance departments talk about finance transformation, but you don't always see people dedicated to it. What prepared you for the role you now play at Lenovo?

Culin: When I was with IBM -- a large company, with multiple divisions, with new mergers, new products, and everything happening all of the time -- I was part of a team that would be called on anytime there was a change to corporate systems. My role was to make sure that whatever was done to modify the systems or change the processes would still be executable within the Personal Computer Division (PCD). And also, when we made changes, that we didn't do anything to damage the overall corporate environment or some other division within.

As a consequence, throughout probably 10 to 15 years prior to the merger with Lenovo, I had been working pretty much as a troubleshooter for the controller. Anytime there was a new business opportunity or anytime there was a new business change, I represented PCD on a corporate task force designed to make that change happen. This kind of gave me some background, so when it came time to do the merger with Lenovo and get the things that we needed to do with them done, I understood that this would allow me to build on that experience. To me, this was a chance in a lifetime.

BF: What made the challenges that you faced at Lenovo different from or more exciting than those faced by other multinationals?

Culin: Well, at the root of everything -- really, nothing. I mean, we've all got to meet the same accounting standards, we've got to follow the same rules ... these things are all the same. At the same time, the big difference was that we had two very strong companies, Lenovo from China, which was number one in its marketplace, and IBM's Personal Computer Division, an organization spread across the world. What was really different about this, in my mind, compared to most other such situations, was the opportunity to start over, the opportunity to start from scratch.