'I've been lucky: I got to grow up with an industry," says Frances K. O'Sullivan. As SVP of the product group at Lenovo, an international company with executive HQ in Raleigh, NC, she has worldwide responsibility for all Think-branded and Lenovo-branded desktops, notebooks, displays, options and services.
The industry O'Sullivan grew up with is personal computers. She joined the IBM personal computing division in the 1980s, just eighteen months after the company announced the world's first PC. "I've been working on PCs my entire career," she says.
The new Lenovo
In May 2005 Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computing division. That made Lenovo a leader in the global PC market, with about $13 billion in current annual sales of both legacy products from IBM's PC division and newly launched Lenovo products. Its principal offices are in Raleigh, NC and Beijing, China.
In 2004 O'Sullivan, who had been general manager of the IBM PC division, became SVP and COO of the new Lenovo. Of Lenovo's 19,000-plus employees, about 2,000 are under O'Sullivan's leadership, and eight are her direct reports.
Moving around
For most of her IBM career, Raleigh was O'Sullivan's home base. But as an exec at the top of the Lenovo organization, she regularly travels to places like Beijing, China; Yamato, Japan; and London, England, where she recently had a long meeting with a business partner.
"As an engineer, it's so exciting working with Chinese engineering teams, integrating best practices between U.S. and Chinese teams and sharing the experience," she says. "They're all very new and talented and eager to learn."
Teams in China work on desktops, software, servers and cell phones. A major development lab in Yamato designs ThinkPad notebooks, and Research Triangle Park, NC handles software and notebooks.
One of O'Sullivan's responsibilities is meeting with customers and reviewing sales of products from all geographies. She greatly enjoys working on "the coolest products ever" and checking out future product concepts.
Clever, flexible and adaptive
A major management challenge is the 'round-the-clock nature of the global company. "China is twelve or thirteen hours later than us, depending on daylight savings," she says. "There is zero overlap of business hours.
"You have to be clever and flexible and adaptive in communicating quickly at night and waking up to get the answer. One misstep and you've lost a day. It can certainly be challenging."
O'Sullivan is also working on her language skills. She knows a little Japanese, but feels she will need formal training to master Chinese.
Growing up in technology
O'Sullivan's interest in computers began with her father, an EE who started his own company that made analog frequency converters. She enjoyed math and science in high school, and Saturdays she often worked with her dad at his office in New Jersey.
She graduated from the University of Virginia in 1980 with a BSEE with a heavy emphasis on computer engineering. "In those days you would work from a terminal connected to a big server," she says.
Recruited for the space shuttle
IBM recruited her on campus, and when she graduated she moved into contract work for NASA's space shuttle program. The shuttle hadn't even taken off yet, and "I was single and living in Cape Canaveral! Those were exciting times," she says.
From 1980 to 1983 she worked on the electrical simulator of the space shuttle, which "tested every satellite to make sure it worked properly before we placed it into the space shuttle." The job developed her software and EE skills.
Into management
Management was not O'Sullivan's original career goal; she started out wanting to be a lead engineer. But it was obvious to her own leaders that management was her destination, and once she was persuaded to take on the role she realized she loved it.
This happened as early as 1984, when she moved to a test engineering department in IBM's PC division in Boca Raton, FL. For four years she moved through a variety of first-line management jobs in engineering and development.
"Everyone wanted personal computers at that time. We were working three shifts a day, seven days a week to get them made. It was an exciting, high-growth area, and we had a lot of competition," O'Sullivan says.
Moving on up
She transferred to Research Triangle Park, NC in 1988 to manage IBM's PC display business. Her first middle-management job came in 1990, providing procurement services for the site.
In 1993 she moved to New York, NY for a year-long development assignment as executive assistant to the president of the PC group. Then she returned to Research Triangle Park to take up her first executive position: director of consumer division development.
Her roles continued to change rapidly. In 1996 she transferred to the ThinkPad operation and two years later became VP of ThinkPad development. She became GM of ThinkPad in 2000, and a year later desktop products were added to that job. She became GM of IBM's PC division in 2003. "When you run a division, you basically run the profit-and-loss business performance for the entire unit," she explains.
Settling in at Lenovo
When IBM announced the acquisition of its PC division by Lenovo, O'Sullivan was part of the deal. First she worked for the new Lenovo as SVP and COO, then, in 2005, she took on her current job as SVP of Lenovo's entire product group.
"The industry itself was in a time of change as it grew up and matured," she says. "If you're not learning and coming up with great new ideas, you've been in one job too long."
Giving back
Despite the heavy professional demands on her time and major travel commitments, O'Sullivan finds opportunities to contribute to the professional development of others. She's active in mentoring both men and women at the company, and she serves on the University of Virginia's engineering industry advisory board, "looking at what the curriculum will be and the research the professors are doing," she says.
Recently O'Sullivan was keynote speaker at a university anniversary event focused on leadership. She spent time with a group of students at a roundtable. "It was rewarding to see young faces so excited and the next generation coming along," she says.
udents access to the advice and knowledge of top women engineers around the world.
O'Sullivan also finds ways to balance her hectic schedule with her personal life. Her husband, who loves to travel, sometimes accompanies her on a trip overseas. At home she enjoys gardening and playing with her three "spoiled cocker spaniel puppies."
"Whatever it took"
Looking at her career so far, she realizes it was her determination to get the job done that always got her through. "Whatever it took, I did, from getting all the teams together, to doing team recognition when everyone did an extraordinary job, and making sure that we have open communication throughout the company.
"I'm not going to say communication solves all problems, but open communication is something you've got to have," O'Sullivan advises.
D/C
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