Never forget the most important question: what business are we really in?
Then, decide categorically which activities, metrics and best practices have the potential to generate profitable long-term growth and which do not.

For Acer, making the right choice has made all the difference, in the same way as the company's courage to change and take risks without ever losing sight of its final objective and without ever straying from its mission.

The company took an ‘unpopular’ decision – to stake everything on mobility – and then organised itself to make this decision work: abandoning production activities in favour of Research and Development, specialising in sales&marketing and investing everything on an indirect sales strategy.

When the going got tough, Acer took yet another courageous decision that would forever change its destiny. It acquired three companies: eTen allowed Acer to enter the smartphone segment, while Gateway and Packard Bell led to the development of Acer’s multibrand strategy, one that has proven successful in other markets but was unheard of in IT.
The result is that Acer is now ranked third worldwide. The Acer Group.

Up to this point, this is common knowledge.

Cultural transformations are the essential phases of development. For this reason, the Acer Group changed the rules of the game, focussing on innovation as the answer to the challenges introduced by the social and environmental changes of recent years.

“A company grows and develops as long as its approach is flexible and shows that it is capable of adapting to volatile situations,” comments Gianfranco Lanci, Acer Inc CEO and President. “Connectivity and mobility will continue to expand over the next few years and in all probability this growth will drastically change the profile of our industry. Only those prepared for this transformation will be able to manage it and, as a consequence, will be in a position to evolve and renew themselves.”

Acer's ambition has always been to make mobile Internet access attractive and immediate for everyone. Today, Acer is the only vendor to cover all mobility profiles: notebooks, netbooks (or ‘two-hand devices’) and smartphones (or ‘one-hand’ devices).

This ambition has taken shape over the years, adapting to user needs and evolving over time.

Innovation both inside and out
A brand is not simply a logo, but rather everything it implies, the emotions it evokes, its capacity to think 'outside the box'.
This is why the Acer Group was the first to transform its image on the market: with highly diversified solutions for equally diversified needs that speak the language of the consumers they target.
The Acer brand name is always on the cutting edge, highly innovative and capable of “simplifying life through technology” and in style; while those of Gateway in America and Asia and Packard Bell in Europe are synonymous for fashion and trendiness.

And as a result, the entire corporate structure was innovated.
The reference market was segmented into four channels: retail, telco, distribution, and education, each with its own identity, language and offering under a specialised and distinct organisation.

A need dictated by the profound transformation of the user – whether business or end users –, driven by new appetites and fresh enthusiasm and eager to seek out simplicity in a sea of possibilities. Then there was the need to optimize internal processes and eliminate any overlaps as well as rigid, sluggish procedures, thereby facilitating communications with clients through improved decisional and operative efficiency.
The identification of the new telco segment in particular highlights how the Acer Group continues to maintain its sharp focus on mobility that, together with connectivity, represents the company's future of innovation.

In order to maintain its competitive edge during the current economic-financial crisis that continues to condition international markets, the Acer Group has dramatically revamped its corporate structure, adapting it to the new global and consolidated market model.

Talented resources have always been one of the leading factors in creating company value.
The quantity and quality of talent that the company can count on are key indicators for dominating the significant cultural and social transformations, as they allow the company to transform challenges into opportunities.
The Acer Group is well aware of this, and for years has recruited nothing but the best with a particular programme called Fast Track, while collaborating with the Milan Polytechnic business school for managerial training through the Acer Academy.

Fast Track was introduced in times when unpaid internships seemed to be the only way to enter a company. It immediately broke away from the pack.
The Acer Group proposed a secure and well-paid job position through 36 months of on-the-job training in a sort of Acer boot camp so that, upon conclusion of the orientation period, the new graduates were well-prepared to meet the challenges of the IT market head-on.

The Acer Academy training opportunities enabled managers to master the theoretical and practical tools required to compete effectively on international markets, spurring them to reach quality objectives and reacting with extreme flexibility to the dynamics of a market under constant evolution.

The same flexibility can also be found in the Group service, where innovation is represented by a diverse approach.

Acer call centres and repair centres are company-owned, demonstrating Acer’s total commitment and preference for local investments as opposed to the growing tendency to choose more economical solutions abroad. The enormous advantage of this is the ability to adapt to market flows and guarantee 100% service in real time simply by moving repairs from one overloaded centre to a freer one or by transferring technicians from one nation to another. In the era of globalization, it is not important how or where things get done, but rather how fast answers are given, challenges are faced, and services are offered, without compromising on quality.

Hence, all-around innovation inside and outside of the business, in every single cell of the Group: innovation in technology, in products and design, in marketing, in human resources and training, and in services.

This is a group that sees the future. One that looks ahead and evolves with courageous and winning decisions in a continual process of transformation. A journey that began in 2007 with “A Step Into The Future” (Acer Group 2007), continued with “Shaping The Future” (Acer Group 2008) and now comes full circle with “A Future Of Innovation” (Acer Group 2009).

A company that chooses and knowingly creates its own future. A future of Innovation.

The driving force behind the Acer Group pushes it to become the global market leader for notebooks. A promise for 2011.