Lenovo supports employee start-ups

The shadow of an attendee sits on a podium wall during a Lenovo Group Ltd news conference in Hong Kong, China, May 26, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Lenovo Group Ltd, the world's largest personal computer maker, is encouraging employees to start up businesses through its "Dream Lab", an internal innovation and entrepreneurship platform.

Excellent innovative items will be chosen by Lenovo's senior executives and outside investors to enter into the "Dream Lab", a tech startup accelerator founded last August that provides seed four-month support to early-stage ventures.

The entrepreneurial items come from the daily life of the employees. The staff could put forward any good entrepreneurial ideas, which are not enforced to be consistent with the company's main business direction.

"The 'Dream Lab' actually offers a training platform, which teaches employees how to write a business plan if they have an entrepreneurial idea. During the process, some employees may find they are not suitable for starting a business, thus it will retain talent for the company," said Wang Qianying, vice president of innovation management of Lenovo Group.

Wang added their own jobs will not be affected as most staff-members explore innovation in their spare time or at weekends.

There have been four startup items standing out from numerous candidates in the first season, which cover e-sports, VR and other intelligent hardware. And five items started external financing in the second season.

"Even though the excellent startup teams finally leave Lenovo, they could also be connected to us to some degree," said Wang, adding this connection includes the support from capital and resources.

Moreover, artificial intelligence, big data, intelligent wearables, intelligent interaction and healthcare would be the concerned areas.