ATHLETICS AMBASSADOR:

Yao Yingjia, Designer of the Olympics Torch


By Audrey Wu

 

 

 

OLYMPIC VIP: Yao Yingjia
CEIBS ALUMNI: EMBA 2004
DAY JOB: VP, Lenovo Group, (Former General Manager, Lenovo Group’s Innovative Design Center)
BASED IN: Beijing
CONTRIBUTION TO GAMES: Chief Designer of Olympic Torch

When Yao Yingjia, general manager of Lenovo Group’s Beijing-based Innovative Design Center, flew to the U.S. to watch the Houston Rockets in an NBA game in late 2007, the normally stone-faced U.S. customs officer at the airport warmed up suddenly. Finding the surname in the passport to be the same as China’s most famous NBA star, he excitedly asked: “Are you related to Yao Ming?”

The incident is just one of many instances in which Yao Yingjia (CEIBS EMBA 2004) has experienced a more friendly reception from Americans in recent years. “Since Yao Ming started on the NBA, many Americans have changed their attitude toward me,” he says. “Yao Ming actually changed American’s image of Chinese people as being not strong enough.” For Yao Yingjia, the new warmth toward Chinese people fueled by Yao Ming’s NBA successes is a testament to the power of sports in breaking down cultural barriers and uniting people.

During the past 12 months, Yao has gained much first-hand experience in the power of athletics to cheer and inspire people. In fact, his work has made him a kind of Athletic Ambassador, representing China to the world as the nation prepares to host the 29th Olympiad. It was just one year ago - April 26, 2007 - that the winning Olympic torch design was unveiled in Beijing. After a 10-month competition that attracted submitted designs from 388 applicants worldwide, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose a distinctive “cloud of promise” motif designed by Yao as his team from Lenovo’s Innovative Design Center.

That date - April 26 of last year - was a banner day for both Yao and Lenovo. That day, the IOC and the Beijing Olympic Committee also announced Lenovo Group one of three “global partners” of the 2008 Olympics torch relay. Along with Samsung and Coca-Cola, Lenovo will assist in selecting the actual torch bearers used during the Games. With that designation, the company simultaneously held three positions with The Games - Olympics Top 10 global partner, Olympics torch relay global partner, and Olympics torch designer.

Certainly, these connections to the 29th Olympiad have elevated Lenovo’s marketing and PR power to an all-time high. This month, Yao Yingjia shared with The LINK the story behind Lenovo’s Olympic triple victory, and how the company is maximizing its connections to the Games.

CULTURE CLASH

When Yao Yingjia was hired by Lenovo in 1996, after graduating from Qiqihar University with a degree in graphic design, he became the first-ever on-staff designer for China’s largest computer maker, bringing industrial design concepts to the nation’s computer industry. In fact, China’s industrial design field was so new back in the mid 1990s that Yao was likely the first in-house designer hired within China’s entire hardware sector.

Demand for Yao’s services caught on quickly at Lenovo. One of his primary areas of focus has been in building Lenovo’s design team; today, the Innovative Design Center boasts 110 designers. Meeting Yao today, despite his humble manner, the hard work he has take on during the past 12 years is even evident in his personal appearance; half of the hair on this thirty-something designer’s head has turned white from overwork.

Lenovo’s famous purchase of IBM’s global PC business in 2002, presented serious new challenges for Yao because the takeover required him to merge two separate groups of designers from distinctly different cultural backgrounds. Yao says he welcomed the challenge. Actually, even before the purchase of IBM PC, he had already built Lenovo’s design team to 60 employees, including seven foreign designers. Yao is proud that he was able to integrate domestic and international designers into a single team by instilling mutual respect. “These foreign designers appreciate and respect Chinese culture, and they have a fairly clear understanding of Chinese culture,” he says. After the IBM takeover, he replicated the merging of East and West in the design team on a far larger scale when the team of Western-educated, Tokyo-based IBM designers joined the Lenovo. Not only did the Eastern and Western teams quickly learn to coexist and cooperate, but Yao says bringing together different backgrounds and nationalities often fuels creativity by triggering debate.

Clearly, the single most important recent project undertaken by Lenovo’s design team has been its bid for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch design. The story of its design shows the creative East-West collisions that Yao promotes. For example, as the project got underway, one of the initial design concepts drawn up by the Chinese designers was, not surprisingly, a dragon theme. But foreign counterparts reacted against it, explaining that in the West, dragons are generally considered as destructive and evil-natured creatures rather than as auspicious symbols of power. After an intra-team debate, the team settled on the cloud motif instead. Thus, through a dialogue that included international voices, Lenovo’s design team came up with a fresh idea that embodies Chinese characteristics but is also understood and appreciated by foreign audiences.

BIRTH OF THE TORCH

Lenovo’s strong links to the Olympic Games date back to 2001. That year, the company was the largest single sponsor supporting Beijing’s official bid for the 2008 Games. Tension mounted as the July 13, 2001 deadline neared for the IOC to name a winning city. The fiercely competitive field of top contenders included: Toronto, Paris, Osaka, and Istanbul as well as Beijing. On the night before the announcement, Yao Yingjia remembers praying that China’s capital city would have the chance reclaim the national pride lost when Beijing failed to receive the bid for the 2000 Olympic Games.  

That night, Yao took a taxi home from work. He choose to keep away from the crowds when the news was released, being unsure whether his reaction would be joy or disappointment. When his prayers were answered, he remembers a chill overtaking him from the excitement. Yao was not the only one ? the whole country was swept up the same happiness. From his taxi window, he saw people rushing into the streets, cheering in celebration. 

In the months that followed the announcement, Lenovo joined nearly every possible competition connected to the Games. For example, Yao Yingjia’s design team participated the bidding for the design of the 2008 Olympics emblem. One of the team’s three submitted designs was accepted as a finalist. Despite failing to win the top prize, Yao says the experience helped Lenovo employees to “contribute to the Olympics.”

JUMPING AT THE CHANCE

Three years later, when Yao’s team had another opportunity to compete for an Olympics design - this time for the torch - he again jumped at the chance. Yao signed on for the competition even without seeking approval first from the company’s top management. During the next 10 months, Yao and the team members spent many of their nights and weekends on the project.

Yao describes the working style of Lenovo’s design team as “open discussion, heart-to-heart communication in which every type of idea is explored and freely considered.” A case in point, he says, is the team’s choice of design for the handle of the torch design - which is in the shape of a simple roll of paper. The idea was formed during a brainstorming session when one designer showed the others her idea: she produced a sheet of paper and rolled it up and said it was the team’s design. At first, other team members thought she was kidding - how can piece of paper represent a torch? But the designer explained her concept. Paper is a fitting element for the torch for two reasons, she said: first, paper was invented in China, and second, paper today still serves as a common communication tool that links human civilizations worldwide. The designer’s concise, articulate explanation was accepted and formed the basis for the handle’s simple, clean shape. 

Yao explains the other element of the torch that won over the judges. First, the design was made with the torch-bearer’s comfort in mind. Designers added a leather-like textured paint to the torch surface to give the handle a warm look and feel, and to prevent slipperiness. In terms of color, the designers first thought of red, which is a symbol of happiness and luck in China. After a long debate in which 18 different red colors were considered, the team chose a warm, rosy red for the torch body. The uniqueness of this year’s Olympic torch is that it is the first time in Olympic history that the torch is predominantly red. Like the distinctive “cloud of promise” motif, the red color will make the torch easy for torchbearers and audience members to spot, even from a great distance.

What elements in the final design swayed the IOC so effectively? Yao says one of the winning aspects was the element of contrast. He explains: “Half of the torch is covered in red, the other half is enveloped in a cloud. One side is simple, the other is complex. The contrast created by these two opposing elements represents the concept of a balance between Yin and Yang in Chinese culture.” Yao adds that the final design also represents the ability of the Olympics to bring different people together. “Clouds are a natural substance, related to fire, that are constantly in motion drifting together and apart. In this way, the cloud symbolizes the movement of people around the world to come together and communicate during the Olympics, then return to their own countries with fresh new experiences.” 

Finally, the Lenovo team also had to design the technical capabilities of the torch, which involve complex manufacturing techniques. Altogether, Yao explains that the torch functions involve 10 different disciplines, including: industrial design, graphic design, material engineering, mechanical engineering, sociology, and aesthetics. The technology involved even borrows elements from airplane engineering, Yao says.

Whether it was the mix of yin-and-yang in the design or the clever incorporation of technology in the mechanics of the torch, the IOC was convinced that Yao’s design was best in class. Since July 2007, the distinctive torch has been promoted worldwide whenever the Beijing Games are marketed.

MARKING BY TORCHLIGHT

If any single Chinese company understands the power of the Olympics as a marketing tool, it is Lenovo. Since being named as a Global partner of the 2008 Games in 2004, the company has embarked on a steady stream of ambitious marketing campaigns. The winning of the torch design brought these efforts to a new high. According to Yao, in the first month after the Lenovo won the torch design bid, the company received more than 200 minutes of TV coverage - equal to the amount of TV advertising time the company had budgeted for during the entire year. As an added bonus, the torch design win also attracted a flood of coverage by international media.

The company’s marketing team rushed to leverage the public interest in the company by organizing low-cost, high-impact marketing activities. One of the most effective examples came by for Lenovo during the 2008 Spring Festival Gala - one of China’s most-watched TV shows of the year. This year’s annual Chinese New Year entertainment special starred one of the nation’s best known comic-dialogue actors, Zhao Bengshan, who created a skit based on the selection of the Olympic torch bearers.  As homes across China tuned in to the holiday show, Lenovo won public support for bringing glory to the nation before the Games even begin.

Since the unveiling of torch design, sales of Lenovo computers in China have grown dramatically. In fiscal 2007, Lenovo Group revenues rose from US$2.85 billion in fiscal 2004-5 to a reported US$12.9 billion for the first three quarters of 2007 alone. Although Lenovo’s recent successes cannot be wholly attributed to the winning of the Olympic torch design, the company’s skillful leverage of its connection to the Games - as worldwide partner, torch relay partner, and torch designer ? has certainly speeded growth. In Yao’s words: “The Olympics have become Lenovo’s integrated marketing campaign, domestically and internationally.”

For Yao’s design team, and himself personally, the Games have been a source of great pride. He tells of a recent “Evening of Lenovo” event held in Los Angeles during which designers from internationally renowned Fortune 500  companies such as P&G and Motorola lined up to take photos with Lenovo’s Olympic torch design team. Then too, the design team has won other non-Olympics international recognition; in 2006, the Lenovo Design Centre won both an IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Awards), one of the best known U.S. design awards, and a Germany-based Red Dot award. 

Yao says his greatest source of satisfaction comes from the knowledge that Lenovo, and his work for the company, represents China to the outside world and improves the lives of customers. He explains: “Lenovo’s technology and capacity now has gained a solid reputation domestically and also overseas. We sell not just products, but also a kind of cultural experience in which our brand is associated with auspicious symbols.”

One successful example, Yao continues, is the new Tianyi laptop released in August 2007 sporting the symbol of the Olympic torch “cloud of promise.” Since then, the product slogan -“Designing the torch for the Olympics, designing Tianyi laptop for you,” has become a catchphrase for the company. Says Yao: “Our innovative achievements improve people’s quality of life ? this is a great source of happiness for us.”