'I'm the same person at the office and at home'

Jack Lee, Lenovo's corporate vice-president for operations in the Middle East and Africa, may be responsible for growing the company - the third largest maker of personal computers - across the region, but what really interests him are people. He's inquisitive about every aspect of his visitors, works hard to put them at ease, and then when he gets to know them better he whips out his iPhone to share pictures of his twin boys.

"I am sorry, but I have to show them to you, aren't they great?" he grins. That's not to say that fatherhood has dampened his ambition. Jack, 44, has worked with global companies for more than 15 years. He moved to Lenovo from Microsoft where he was vice-president, Greater China region. From very humble beginnings as an aircraft cleaner in Canada, he's fuelled his ambitions and has reached the top.

An inveterate globetrotter and a history and culture buff, he was based in several cities including Singapore, Vancouver, Tokyo, Pune, Hong Kong and Beijing before he moved to Dubai in May 2011. Jack is the embodiment of a true global nomad.

Jack believes strongly in an individual's capacity and role in shaping his own destiny. Passionate about the function of human resources in a company, he is also a firm advocate of the idea that people are a company's most valuable asset. Jack sits down with Friday to share more of his fascinating story.

Work

I believe that if you want to succeed, either in business or life, you have to absorb the local culture, otherwise the business you generate will be very transient. The UAE is one of the most interesting of all the places I've been to.

My priorities are localisation, 80 per cent of my time is spent in talent management - hiring the right people, and encouraging local talent.

Whatever work you do, it has to transcend the different realms of business. Corporate social responsibility has to be part of the agenda. I believe in leading by example.

I worked my way up from the bottom. I put myself through school in Canada. My parents were middle class Chinese from a village near Beijing who migrated to Singapore for work. I was born in Singapore. But life didn't take the turn my father expected so we moved to Canada when I was 11.

After I finished high school I worked in a salmon cannery for some time while studying. The fish comes in from the boat and you cut off the head… It's a process line. I worked 25 to 30 hours a week. It was a three/four shift pattern where you work three days and rest for the next four days. I had to do that otherwise it would have eaten into my school work. Then I worked for five years as an aircraft cleaner. I enjoyed the work and it paid well.

All this happened while I was studying art and architecture of the Indian subcontinent at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver. I was so interested in it, but even then I used to dream of being a businessman and travelling the world. Now that I am doing it, I just want to get off the plane and go back to my family!

What kept me going at that time was my ambition to be a businessman, to be successful. The second thing that kept me going was my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time. You need somebody who believes in you because you have self-doubts from time to time.

No matter how much ambition you have, when you are picking up the garbage from the floor on that plane you will be thinking, ‘Will I be promoted to a shift leader?' And then the next moment you think, ‘Will this be my life for the next five years?' Not that the job was bad, but I wanted to get ahead. Which was why I was studying through it all.

I completed college in 1992. Then I went off to work in Japan in a job that I got through my father's connections with a company trading in steel. Though I am Chinese, I picked up Japanese at university. This was when I started moving into the corporate world.

Every part of your life you always have a platform. I believe everybody gets opportunities. What really matters is if you recognise them as such and grab them.

From Japan I moved to Beijing for the next four years. It was good getting back to my home country and getting to know my roots. A seven-year posting in Hong Kong followed, then it was back to Beijing in 2004 as general manager of Microsoft, Greater China region. It was in Beijing that I moved to Lenovo as chief operating officer for emerging markets. Last year it was time to move on again, this time as Lenovo's corporate vice-president for the Middle East and Africa.

Over the years I spent in different places, I realised that you cannot work in a region without assimilating with it's customs, culture and art. My wife was pregnant at that time, but she again supported me, urging me to take up the assignment. I remember on my first trip here, instead of looking for apartments I went out looking for hospitals! Our identical twins, Jacob and Jackson, were born last year. They are ten months old now.

Dubai is a very special place for me. Everywhere I go I am an ambassador for this place. People have very different perceptions of it. For the Chinese, Dubai is Burj Al Arab and shopping. Hot and rich! I give them the correct picture of Dubai - multicultural and visionary.

My work ethic comes from my ownership mentality - you must own what you do. If I see a staff member keeping his workplace untidy, I ask him, ‘Is that how you keep your home?' I am not a tyrant, but I am a stickler for such details. It doesn't matter what job you have, treat it like you would your own business. I am not a hard person. I treat the staff like family.

The subjects I studied in college are totally unrelated to my work. I would say what I learned in college was discipline - the discipline of sticking to a schedule, doing assignments on time. I learnt to deal with people and manage them. This world is all about people.

Eighty per cent of my work time is spent in talent management, which involves choosing the right person for the job, and making sure that they are happy doing what they do. I am always looking for good talent, being fair to the team by making sure there is reward as well as discipline. I make sure they are treated fairly and their career is taken care of.

I look out for their best interests in every thing we do. For example, when we were looking for a new office we looked for a place near the Microsoft office in Dubai Internet City as the building would have allowed us to put our logo on top - an important consideration. The building we are in at present, which is also in the Internet City, doesn't allow us to do that. But we chose it because the parking space at the other building would have been problematic for our staff. Here they have their own parking and it's walking distance from the metro. These are little things that make a big difference. We sacrificed branding for our staff's welfare and it's certainly worth it. Little things matter like if the fridge is full in the pantry.

The most perfect work-life balance would be when you do something you are interested in, and when your work personality and real personality are the same. But for most people they have an adapted personality - they adapt their personality to the work they do. That can lead to a lot of grief.

I would say I am a tough boss, I believe in frequent communication with my staff. We set out expectations, and I have zero tolerance for integrity issues. I lead by example. If I don't do it, why should I expect my staff to? I am as fair as I am tough.

A lot of leaders say they are ‘switch on-switch off'. I can't do that. Your two lives are very intertwined. I am the exact same person at the office that I am at home. When I am in Dubai I tend to go home for an hour or two and walk my twins. I want to be around for every stage of their milestones. It's a commitment. That's the key, whether at work or at home.

I am an introvert, that's my basic personality. But because of my work I have to be very people-centric. I've adapted to that personality, but it always is a struggle for me. 

Play

The way to relax is very easy for me. I like to be with my family, both at work and at home. My work families are many, not just in Dubai. They're also in Africa, Saudi Arabia Morocco...

I never really had a mentor. My father, CS Lee, was the one who influenced me, who I looked up to. He had me when he was 50. I still remember when I was young I used to be embarrassed when kids used to ask, ‘Is that your grandpa?' I hated the ridicule. You went through the phases. But at the end you are your father's son.

I see myself like him, not only in my looks, but in the way I look at life. I look at my twins and say I will do for them what my father did well for me. I will also not do some things that my father did that didn't work. He went for ambitions that were unreachable. So we were never very comfortable most of the time. That made me determined never to have to worry about my next pay cheque. He was a role model in many ways. I was an only child, so I was all the more influenced by him.

My mother was a very strong person who took care of both of us. She's still in Canada. Now with my wife bringing up our twins, I realise the sacrifices my mother made.

I've always been a loner, the reason being that because of my father's age I was always around people much older than me, mostly his friends. That, of course, helped me in my business ambitions!

My wife is the backbone of my family. She's from Cambodia, of Chinese descent. She's beautiful and smart, and could have married anybody. But she chose me, and believed in me. Now she's putting that into our kids. Having children changed me completely. From a selfish person fatherhood has opened me up. I was completely married to work. Now I have a life other than that. I've even opened up emotionally. I show their picture to everybody!

My way of relaxing now is playing with my kids. My first love always is art and architecture, but it doesn't mean that I don't have a passion for technology. I love my gadgets. I also feel technology will play a social role in the world. I'd like to see a computer on every desk in school in every village in the world. That transcends every kind of business you can do.

I love to read history, and I am a big movie buff. I also collect antique Chinese furniture. I collect art not as an investment, but art I love. I collect modern Scandinavian furniture too, mostly chairs. I love to see art - travelling to India to see the Stupa of Sanchi, the oldest stone structure in India dating back to the third century BC, looking at miniature Mughal paintings, and reading the history of the Mughal emperors Shah Jahan and Akbar. 

Dream

I don't dream. I am an easy sleeper. The only time I dreamt was after my father passed away in 2004. I had no emotions then; I couldn't cry, though I wanted to. When I dreamt of him, the dam burst and I woke up crying my eyes out.

I have very realistic dreams now. I want to be healthy and responsible for my children and my family.

Where work is concerned I'd like to move towards the human resources side in future. My dream is to be more and more involved with the people side of the business. That I believe will be the key to all businesses in future.