- Liu Chuanzhi founded Lenovo in 1984 with a group of ten engineers in Beijing with 200,000 yuan. Lenovo officially states that it was founded on 1 November 1984. The Chinese government approved Lenovo's incorporation on the same day. Jia Xufu, one of the founders of Lenovo, indicates the first meeting in preparation for starting the company was held on 17 October of the same year. Eleven people, the entirety of the initial staff, attended. Each of the founders was a middle-aged member of the Institute of Computing Technology attached to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The 200,000 yuan used as start-up capital was approved by Zeng Maochao. The name for the company agreed upon at this meeting was the Chinese Academy of Sciences Computer Technology Research Institute New Technology Development Company.
- Their first significant effort, an attempt to import televisions, failed. The group rebuilt itself within a year by conducting quality checks on computers for new buyers. Lenovo soon started developing a circuit board that would allow IBM-compatible personal computers to process Chinese characters. This product was Lenovo's first major success. Lenovo also tried and failed to market a digital watch. Liu said, "Our management team often differed on which commercial road to travel. This led to big discussions, especially between the engineering chief and myself. He felt that if the quality of the product was good, then it would sell itself. But I knew this was not true, that marketing and other factors were part of the eventual success of a product." The fact that its staff had little business experience compounded Lenovo's early difficulties. "We were mainly scientists and didn't understand the market," Liu said. "We just learned by trial-and-error, which was very interesting—but also very dangerous," said Liu. In 1990, Lenovo started to manufacture and market computers using its own brand name.
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