Oops: Lenovo and the Olympic Torch

You know the Olympic torch that's causing such a furor everywhere it goes? Did you know it was designed by Lenovo, the computer company?

The Law of Unintended Consequences can be a funny thing. Last year, I paid a visit to Lenovo in Beijing. Over and over, I heard the story of how Lenovo entered a competition to design the Olympic torch. The company, with a history of making nondescript PCs, has over the past few years injected more design into its products. It wanted to show off those design capabilities by first winning the torch competition, then showing its torch to the world.

Lenovo is also a sponsor of the Beijing Games -- the first Chinese company to be a major Olympics sponsor. It has had a presence in the torch relay, and the company has had to deal with the PR fallout.

So Lenovo hoped the whole Olympics thing would be a triumph -- and it still could be. But for the moment, it's kind of a mess.

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