Acer Boss Lanci Takes Aim at Dell and HP

With new netbooks, laptops, desktops, and, yes, a smartphone, Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci explains why he expects to soon overtake No. 2 PC maker Dell

By Bruce Einhorn

Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci. KEITH BEDFORD/REUTERS/LANDOV

Asian companies looking to rev up their performance by bringing in a Western boss don't have the best track record. Carlos Ghosn made some headway fixing Nissan (NSANY), but the Brazilian has never managed to close the gap between Japan's No. 3 automaker and its better-performing rivals Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC). After buying IBM's (IBM) PC division, Chinese computer maker Lenovo poached William J. Amelio from Dell (DELL) to make the company more global, but he lasted barely three years before leaving in February. And Sony (SNE) CEO Sir Howard Stringer certainly hasn't had much luck righting all the wrongs at the Japanese consumer electronics giant.

As an Italian at the helm of a Taiwanese company, Acer Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci, 54, is also an outsider. But so far the former Texas Instruments (TXN) executive has a much better shot at success. Acer has become the world's No. 3 computer maker by market share, thanks largely to Lanci's focus on low-cost portable PCs, and the company is now closing in on leaders Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell. The Turin-born engineer, who splits his time between Milan and Taipei, says being the first European to run Taiwan's premier electronics group isn't as difficult as you might think. "It's a global market," says Lanci. "To run a company in any region of the world, in the end you use the same logic and the same rules everywhere."

Lanci certainly seems to have mastered them. Acer is the industry leader in netbooks, the tiny laptops that many companies have rolled out in the past year. By moving faster in netbooks than rivals, Acer gained ground in a hot segment at a time when the PC business was otherwise tanking. The company's stock price is up 40% so far this year. Now Lanci is making his next move. On Apr. 7, the company unveiled a range of new computers, both laptops and desktops under the Acer name as well as the Gateway and Packard Bell brands that the company acquired two years ago. Acer also has a compact new desktop and, with an eye toward Apple (AAPL) and the iPhone, Lanci is launching a line of smartphones. He recently spoke with Bruce Einhorn, BusinessWeek's Asia regional editor, about the company's strategy. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

With the new products, will Acer soon pass Dell for the No. 2 spot globally?

I think it's going to happen. With the new announcement, we will probably be six months ahead of most of the competition. When we say something, we make it happen.

How do you respond to people who say the focus on market share is misguided, since profits are more important than top-line growth?

We are always looking at profitable growth. In this industry, without growing market share, in most cases you cannot grow and if you cannot grow you cannot be profitable.