How does a company with a mission to conquer the world sidestep the communication and cultural barriers that stand in its way? For Chinese computer firm Lenovo, becoming a truly global business means re-examining the way communication takes place throughout all levels of the company, and across domestic and foreign units.

As in any organization, all effective change begins with an assessment of one's environment. According to CEO William Amelio, the language barrier between Chinese and American managers at Lenovo has not been too troublesome thus far. That's because Amelio's Chinese colleagues believe that to thrive in a multinational company they have to "speak the global language of business, which is English". This includes Lenovo's chairman, Yang Yuanqing, who in less than two years has progressed from hesitant to fluent English, giving presentations and cracking jokes in his adopted tongue.

Mr Amelio views the communication between himself and Mr Yang—a Chinese Bill Gates—as a measure of how well Lenovo is putting together two very different business cultures. In 2004 Lenovo bought the personal-computer business of IBM to pursue Mr Yang's dream of building China's first successful global brand. To win his board's backing for this deal, after some ill-fated attempts at growing organically abroad, Mr Yang agreed to hire an experienced American as chief executive. When first choice, Steve Ward, of IBM, was forced out in December 2005, the job went to Amelio.

Mr. Amelio's relations with Mr Yang, with whom he had been competing head-to-head, and who is hardly the sort to take the backseat, might easily have been difficult—especially with that initial language barrier. Instead, Amelio feels he has experienced a "great alignment with the chairman." Even so, Lenovo faces major challenges as it aims to meld "two uniquely different cultures". According to Amelio, the Chinese part of the firm, beset by deeply hierarchical and deferential behavior, needs to get people to talk more openly to each other—even if that means confronting a superior.