Recently, IBM China Chairman Chen Xudong became the focus of attention due to an open letter from an internal employee. A report letter shows that an IBM China employee reported Chen Xudong for multiple violations, including violating company policies, accepting bribes, and violating confidentiality agreements. On the 13th, IBM responded that it is currently investigating.
The employee made serious accusations against Chen Xudong in the report letter, citing issues such as receiving gifts from channels, privately leaking company secrets, making mistakes in decision-making, forming cliques, nepotism, and retaliating against disobedient employees. This public letter is 15 pages long, rich in content, and also includes an English version.
The letter is signed by Li Hongyan, an ordinary IBM employee in China who deeply loves IBM. He is the former General Manager of IBM's Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation (DAA) business in Greater China and has been with IBM for 26 years.
According to Economic Observer Network, on October 13th, IBM officially confirmed the existence of this internal letter and responded, "We highly value and thoroughly investigate any behavior that may violate the company's code of business conduct. We do not discuss employees' personal situations and will continue to focus on serving customers in Greater China
The trigger for the incident was that the employee's labor contract was suddenly terminated by the chairman. The employee stated in the report letter that on September 30th, while busy with work at the end of the quarter, they suddenly received a notice from Chen Xudong announcing that they had decided to terminate the contract with the employee because their third quarter performance did not meet the standards. The employee believed that he had consistently performed well in the company and was dissatisfied with the sudden dismissal. Therefore, he wrote an open letter angrily condemning the chairman's misconduct, leaks, bribery, and retaliation.
On the early morning of October 8th, Li Hongyan sent a letter to all IBM colleagues in China, stating, "We will report Chairman Chen Xudong's potential erroneous actions and improper behavior in good faith." Li Hongyan said that he would leave IBM and choose to become an ordinary teacher. Meanwhile, the IBM employee also stated that they reserve the right to report potential violations to government agencies.
According to public information, Chen Xudong joined Lenovo Group in 1993 and has held various positions including Senior Vice President, President of China, President of China and Asia Pacific Emerging Markets, President of Lenovo Mobile Business Group, and Chairman of Motorola Management Committee.
Chen Xudong resigned after working at Lenovo for 24 years. On May 17, 2017, one day after leaving Lenovo, Chen Xudong took over as Senior Vice President of Sanpower Group, responsible for overseeing Sanpower Group's global 3C retail and new unique business.
Less than a year later, in March 2018, Chen Xudong joined Meituan Dianping Group as Senior Vice President, responsible for the B2B business unit of the large retail business group. Chen Xudong worked at Meituan for one year and one month before leaving in April 2019 to join Tsinghua Unigroup as Executive Vice President.
In March 2022, IBM appointed Chen Xudong as the General Manager of Greater China. At that time, as the CEO of IBM Asia Pacific, Paul Burton praised Chen Xudong for starting his career as a software engineer, calling him an experienced business leader.
The official official account of IBM China once sent a self report of Li Hongyan in March 2023. In the article, Li Hongyan recalled his 25 year growth experience after joining IBM, stating that he developed the value system of "technology for good" at IBM.
Li Hongyan described himself and his colleagues at IBM as "a process of inspiration and being inspired, a journey of mutual improvement". She said that IBM is still building new dreams, and she will also go with it.
The open letter has drawn attention to internal management issues within IBM China, and the incident is still brewing before the official investigation results are released.