BusinessWeek Magazine writes about the story behind Lenovo’s new superslim Thinkpad X300 notebook that also fits into one of those interoffice mail envelopes you have seen at the last MacWorld when Steve Jobs presented the MacBook Air.

 

"Phyllis! Get me one of those interoffice mail envelopes!"

It was just after lunchtime on Jan. 15, and Peter Hortensius was storming through the cubicles at Lenovo Group’s offices in Morrisville, N.C., shouting for his secretary. Hortensius, senior vice-president in charge of laptops, had just heard that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had unveiled the supersvelte, aluminum-clad MacBook Air by declaring it the "world’s thinnest notebook" and dramatically pulling it out of an interoffice envelope. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X300 notebook was due out in February, after a year and a half in development, and Hortensius was alarmed that it could be upstaged before it even made its debut.

His secretary, Phyllis Arrington-McGee, ransacked filing cabinets until she found one of the envelopes. She handed it to Hortensius, who gingerly slipped the X300 inside. "It fits! It fits!" he shouted.

 

Why do I blog this? Another good examples that great products might get killed by steering committees and review boards. To bring a great product to market it takes an individual who will pursue his vision no matter what a steering committee decides.

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