David Rabin, Lenovo’s CMO for the Solutions and Services Group (SSG), is like the guy in a high-stakes poker game who looks at everyone else frantically tossing chips around and says, “Let’s not lose our heads here, folks.” He’s seen more martech trends come and go than most of us have had bad lattes. But unlike those who get whiplash from chasing every new shiny tool, Rabin has built a career on cutting through the noise with the sharp edge of common sense. And maybe a little bit of old-school customer obsession—just a bit.
Now, don’t get it twisted. Lenovo, for many, still conjures up images of your dad’s indestructible ThinkPad—a trusty but somewhat clunky laptop built like a brick. But Rabin’s not here for your outdated perceptions. He’s the guy tasked with shifting Lenovo from just “that hardware company” into a serious contender in the end-to-end technology solutions game. He’s been hustling at Lenovo for 18 years, and if anyone’s equipped to shake things up, it’s this guy. As Rabin puts it, Lenovo has been undergoing a “landmark transformation,” pivoting from hardware-focused to full-scale tech services powerhouse. And no, he doesn’t need another ThinkPad meme to remind him of where they came from.
But Rabin isn’t here to play nice or tiptoe around the obvious. One of his biggest gripes with B2B marketing is execs who don’t know how to stick to a strategy. “Pick a direction, stick with it, and give it time to work,” he advises, like the marketing Yoda we all need. It’s the equivalent of your personal trainer telling you to stop switching workout routines every week and actually give one a chance to, you know, do its job. Marketing doesn’t yield results overnight, and Rabin has no patience for executives who panic at the first sign of uncertainty and start changing lanes like a NASCAR driver hopped up on Red Bull.
Speaking of change, Rabin is very clear on one thing: data is crucial, but if you’re trusting it blindly, you’re cruising for a bruising. “Find the truth in data,” he says, but with a healthy dollop of skepticism. He’s seen too many marketers get duped by pretty numbers that don’t hold up under scrutiny. In Rabin’s world, gut-checking isn’t just optional—it’s required. If the data says one thing and your instincts scream another, it’s time to dig deeper. Marketers, he warns, need to triangulate their data like a survivalist with a compass, a map, and an SOS flare.
And then there’s the AI conversation—because of course, there is. While plenty of marketers are still wringing their hands over whether AI will take over their jobs, Rabin’s already making AI work for him. Lenovo’s use of AI in content creation has slashed costs by 70%, while speeding up production time by 4x. That’s not a typo. Four times faster. And here’s the kicker: Rabin doesn’t think AI is here to steal jobs. Instead, he believes it’s going to “reframe the work we do” and make smart marketers—those who actually know how to leverage AI—more valuable than ever.
But Rabin’s not all sunshine and rainbows about technology. He’s well aware of martech’s potential pitfalls. His mantra? Less is more. Lenovo consolidated its sales enablement tools from a bloated mess of dozens down to a single, streamlined platform. He’s not interested in fluff—if it doesn’t work, it gets tossed out like last year’s iPhone. As he puts it, “We get paid for impact, not outputs.” Translation: just because you’re churning out a ton of content doesn’t mean any of it’s good or useful. Rabin is the guy who will look at your 10-page marketing report and ask, “Yeah, but what did this actually do?”
When it comes to the future, Rabin’s vision is clear: AI is going to allow for hyper-personalization at speeds we couldn’t dream of a few years ago. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be a smooth ride. He anticipates a landscape of deeper fragmentation—more tools, more AI, more specialized solutions. In other words, the marketer of the future will need to be a bit of a tech-savvy juggler. And just in case you thought you could get by with today’s tactics, Rabin leaves you with a final thought: “If you don’t keep up, someone else will happily take your place.”
In a nutshell, Rabin is the no-BS CMO who’s seen it all, done most of it, and still has the energy to tell everyone else how it’s done. If you’re a marketer prone to shiny object syndrome, his advice is simple: calm down, focus, and get your act together before the competition eats your lunch.
