Slashdot Mirror
Michael Dell Steps Down as CEO
A whole lot of readers made sure we knew that Michael Dell is calling it quits as CEO of Dell, and has named Kevin Rollins, the current president and chief operating officer of Dell, as his successor. Rollins will retain the title of president, but Michael Dell hasn't left completely. He's still planning on sticking around as chairman of the board.
Someone like Dell will not go quietly into night. Even though his title is changing, nobody believes that he still won't have a profound influence over the company. It is his baby. THis will most likely be like Gates and MS. Sure, his title is different than what it used to be but he certainly still has a tremendous influence.
No trees were harmed in the composition of this; however, numerous electrons were inconvenienced.
This is not a troll, really. I'm just surprised they said something sorta like "Michael will think about The Next Big Thing (tm)" when they are just a hyper-efficient marketing arm/merchandizing facade for Intel. "Dell and R&D" don't go together in my mind, contrary to "Apple and R&D" or "IBM and R&D". Dell is nothing more than a glorified Northgate (or Everex, whatever).
No, IMO, this does not jive. Either M. Dell has other objectives (politics, maybe, I dunno) or there was some sort of back-stage coup.
We all know who the puppetmaster is. You don't have to wear all the hats to still be the man behind the curtain. This doesn't surprise me, Dell's quality has suffered in recent months and it wouldn't surprise me if he was doing this to take some of the pressure off of himself.
I think this is actually a very wise move by Dell, because while this is a guy who started a business on his own and became extremely good at it, I would be surprised (I honestly don't know) if he was that business school MBA who can lead a company over the long run. Plus, if Rollins messes up, he can always blame the new CEO for all the problems.
That's probably not too far from the truth. At some point, I'd probably lose motivation if I had more money than I could possibly spend.
Hell, there are days now when I don't have much motivation, and I'm just a lowly mechanical engineer.
'I ain't a liar, baby, and I ain't proud I just want what I'm not allowed.' -- Violent Femmes, 36-24-36
Anyone know if the new guy is Linux-friendly?
I know Dell claims to be, and pretended to try Linux on consumer systems and gave up claiming "they weren't selling"... but that was because of the systems they chose to list Linux as an option with.
Just because we like an OS that _happens_ to be free (in both senses of the word), doesn't mean we're cheapskates!
How many Linux users do you know who would go out and buy the bottom-of-the-line of anything?
We go for the hotrods, bigger/better/faster/more.
I don't care if that monster notebook weighs 8.5#, I'm not a wimp, I want the power and rediculously-high resolution screen!
Actually - after reading an article on installing Linux on an I8600, I priced one - amazing how cheap you can get a 1920x1200 LCD notebook for these days.
Too bad it requires the MS-tax.
The 1st thing I'd do with it is shrink down the MS partition to as small as it goes (to keep it around to make the diag-drones happy) and install Linux on it. (just like I did with the notebook I'm typing this on, sadly only having 1400x1050 on the LCD).
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
In other words, he's going to keep getting a paycheck but will no longer work for it.
Shareholders elect the chairman. They do not elect the president or CEO. If Dell remains as chairman, he must be working to increase shareholder gains or else they would fill the role with someone who would. (At the next election opportunity, that is, but we'll see...)
Michael Dell does not own enough shares alone to ensure that he gets or remains chairman; it's the shareholders who decide that.
I'd think that the answer is obvious: Rollins will be Linux-friendly if he thinks it will make Dell more money and he won't if he doesn't.
One of the reforms suggested (i.e. not enforced by any code or law) by the SEC as a response to the enron/worldcom pseudo-scandal is that the job of CEO and chairman be split. Note that Disney just did this in the hopes of deflecting some dirt.
In the case of Dell: if your company is doing well but you want to split this job to make the Street happy, well, would you take the job that involves more work or the one that involves less? So the CEO job becomes more like a COO...and guess what? Rollins is the COO right now!
Like other posters I doubt this implies much change for Dell the company or Dell the man.
The Dell vision has been and continues to be to enter markets just before they reach commoditization and to rapidly scale up market share by undercutting on price.
Think they don't have R&D people? Think again -- they've got hundreds. But those hundreds are busy looking for the next market Dell can enter and dominate (think of how they entered the server market and, more recently, the PDA market).
Just because someone spends their R&D dollars on econometric models and market research rather than trying to invent truly new products doesn't mean they're not innovating. Dell taught an entire generation of successful companies how to analyze, parse, enter and dominate markets.
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
And its also why companies like mine choose white box solutions for the most part. However, its worth pointing out that it isn't just about the open source community. Its about choice. If I buy a server that runs Windows today, I want to know that it will run Linux if I choose to migrate a year later. I don't want to have to replace it simply because of a lack of driver support. When companies like Dell, IBM, etc start supporting Linux the result is hardware that is mutlti-OS. In Linux happy notebooks, for example, the OEMs don't choose to include WinModems. In the case of Centrino, they sell you a Centrino system, then replace the Centrino wifi with a Linux supported one. The result is that you no longer have to fear that your platform will only support a single (M$) operating system. And as a result, the customer gets more choice. Yes, we want source code. And yes, we want GPL compliance. But ask any Linux on Centrino user right now if they'd rather have a binary-only wifi driver or to use the NDISwrapper or other hacks and they'll say they want the binary driver.
At least to me, open source is about choice. Its about choosing my OS. This is why I avoid Sun. At least with Wintel, I can run Linux, Netware, or Windows. But to run Solaris, I have to pay for SPARC or use the slower x86 version that they don't support as well and that one year they give away for free and the next year they say its being discontinued. I use open source because I can choose the best tool for the job. I just migrated a customer from an IMAP/SquirrelMail solution to MS Exchange. Why? Because all their users were Outlook power users and Exchange was the best tool for the job. But at least I know the server I spec'd will also run Linux so if they get tired of patches, viruses, etc., I can migrate them back... perhaps to Suse's OpenExchange server. Companies like Dell and IBM supporting Linux is like software coders compiling for different platforms. I user OpenOffice and Mozilla on all my Windows and Linux systems. Why? Because they're virtually identical on all platforms. I can switch OSs, but keep my profiles and files in sync.
I won't argue that the open source community bitches a lot. I think you have a valid point i this regard. But the reality is that if you took M$'s "we proudly use and recommend Windows" discounts out of the equation, companies like Dell (companies that are focused on the almightly dollar) would be more likely to support Linux. Heck, Dell would be better off just saying "we've tested our h/w offering for xxx line on RedHat x.x, Suse x.x, Debian x.x, etc. We don't provide technical support for Linux distributions, but our h/w will play well with Linux". The reality is that most of us that would look for a Linux happy system from Dell already know how to install it and use it. And for those that don't, there's Wal-Mart $200 PC's with Lindows.
Im sure this is happening because Dell's once bright image is fading into darkness and they are quickly becoming the next Packard Bell, selling junk computers and worse support for them.
Um? Why would a Ford dealer sell a competitors car?
Last I checked DELL makes PCs/laptops/etc. They don't actually make the pieces.
However, since they only sell Intel procesesors with their computers they are doomed to follow Intel [up and down]. Say the next P4 [say the P5? oh shit they already made that... um P4-II?] is a bomb. What does DELL do then?
Really it makes good business sense to offer at least one alternative [say AMD and ideally they should offer Crusoe for laptops]. That way if one supplier bombs they're not shit out of product.
The correct analogy would be similar to Hertz only renting Ford cars or something.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Mr. Dell is cashing out because he knows the PC market is TOAST!. PCs are such a commodity now days that Dell doesn't have an advantage anymore. Just look at the sub $200 PCs at Walmart! And with China and Korea quickly sucking up market share, it won't be long before you can nab a highend PC for $200.
I'm not saying this is bad. It's just that Mr. Dell is smart and KNOWS the market is about to crumble. In fact, Dell doesn't make anything anymore, they just rebrand the laptops made by Samsung. Soon, Samsung will cut out the middle man and sell the laptops themselves.
Also, you can forget about fixing and repairing PCs as job security. That goldmine has ran out. Why pay someone $100 just to patch up an older PC when you can get a new one for double that amount (and comes with warranty)?
Life is not for the lazy.
It was all the rage in the dot-bomb era, but as usually reality comes crashing back in, demonstrating that there really IS a reason businesses run the way they do. So kudos to MD, who went out on top, unlike Eisner who had to be forced out. But the difference between the two is that MD is looking out for his company, and Eisner is looking out for Eisner.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
So Michael has this fabulously fast machine, one that rivals the computing power of God Himself, and he uses it to...
- Play games? No time. He's an executive.
- Compile sophisticated code? Hahahahaha....
- Find the billionth digit of pi? You've got to be kidding.
No, most likely he simply...
- Types emails in Outlook (perhaps with bold text)
- Writes memos and other executive-type papers in Word
- Surfs the internet
- Uses Dell's in-house accounting software
- Makes pretty presentations in PowerPoint
But then again, probably 80%* of the desktop population has many magnitudes more machine than they require. I'm waiting for the day when a computer company realizes that a computer does not have to be the end-all electronic appliance in a home. A glorified toaster for Office, web browsing, and email would suffice for the masses, if they can get their gaming fix from a console. Those of us with real computing needs can get the real computers.
* Warning! Made-up statistic!
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
The problem being that to do the job of chairman effectively you usually have to have been the ex-CEO. So michael Dell is only following the normal practice for a founder, giving up the day to day running of the business and keeping the long term governance position.
The dotcom startups were not really abberations here. There is not much point in having a chairman in a company that is only a few years old. if the management team are crooks or jerks then the truck is going to hit the wall and all the investors will lose their money in any case.
What was an abberation was when the long established companies started running themselves in this way. Michael Eisener did not create Disney, he should not have unfettered control. He should not be paid so much for such mediocre results.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/