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Michael Dell Returns to CEO Role at Dell
head_dunce writes "It looks like Michael Dell is jumping back into the big chair at Dell because his company is slipping under the direction of Kevin Rollins. I wonder if they should be looking outside the company for new ideas, or if going back to basics is what needs to be done?"
On hearing Michael was returning to Dell, a reporter asked Steve Jobs what he would do if given the opportunity to run Dell.
His reply: "What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,"
Joking aside, how things have turned around hey? Although to be fair to Dell, prior to getting his CEO role back, Jobs also said about Apple "If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth -- and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.")
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
It looks like Michael Dell is jumping back into the big chair at Dell because his company is slipping under the direction of Kevin Rollins.
Dude, Dell's gettin' a Dell.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
It worked for Apple, didn't it...?
dPod
dPhone
dBook
etc...
Task Mangler
The first priority of Michael Dell should be to improve Dell's lousy customer service and in-source it to US again.
If you are selling PC's by mail-orders (sort of), you better have more than good customer service that customers can depend on.
Even a premium corporate customer care at Dell su8ks big time.
Apple's phenomenal customer support is the main reason iPod and iMac's still rock.
If i call Apple and am under warranty, the dude am talking to knows the business and take me step-by-step to solve the problem. (am not even comparing store-based support, since Dell doesn't have many stores to sell from).
If Michael Dell can bring customer support back to what it was long back, then am sure Dell will rock.
Corporates love Dell because of its uniform ugly black boxen.
My bank switched to HP after Dell's customer support was unresponsive for the last time....
And also ditch the Dell DJ Music Player. Seriously.
To plagarise Jobs: "Move on from MP3 players. The battle was won long back by Apple.".
Get back to core business of assembling high-quality PCs and phenomenal customer service.
Is that difficult Mr.Dell?
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
While yes, proprietary hardware is a shrewd business tactic, and it brings in more revenue stream, it is quite contrary to the hardware industry standard. It is one of the sole reasons I stay clear from dell hardware, and I am probably not the only techie to do so because of proprietization of the hardware.
Now, Michael Dell is the "Dell main director" guy. Kevin Rollins was just a temporary alternative. So, Kevin Rollins was the "Dell alt control" guy. Alt+control+del=reboot. So he is gone now. ;)
-- Rastignac was here.
There is little of R&D and added value in Dell products. After all, building a PCs and pre-installing HDD with useless crap is not rocket science. I don't see much oportunities for Dell in the future, unless they invent completely new product-area compatible with internet-world we all live in already. They are basically in the same position as pre-iPod Apple. My take: SELL.
839*929
Ok, ignoring umpteen dozen levels of complexity, I'd like to focus on one particular thing that Dell could do to stop losing customers at an epic rate.
For the love of god, stop loading up PCs with useless bloatware.
I've actually been buying Dells for a couple of yeaes now. My laptop and my last two desktops have both come from them. Since my student days ended and I got a job, I've found myself relatively cash rich but time poor. As a result of this, I've lost the patience I used to have for building my own PCs and ironing out the kinks and have come to appreciate the option of paying a little more to have somebody do it for me, while still being able to pick which components I want. I take it for granted that when I buy a new PC from Dell, it will, out of box, be slow, unstable and full of 30 day trials for software that only a gibbering moron could ever want to use. I therefore backup the drivers folder, format the hard disk and reinstall XP (I find that the amount of crap Dell are bundling is growing so fast that even the decrappifier doesn't cut it any more).
However, this is not the experience that a lot of people are looking for when they buy a new PC and many people don't have a clue how to go about reinstalling an operating system. All they know is that their new Dell PC, which they've probably paid slightly over the going rate for, is slow as hell, to the point of being painful to use. The further from the cutting edge the system you buy, the worse the problem seems to be, as Dell give no thought to performance in deciding which particular crap to inflict - they just pile it all on.
Case in point - my parents bought a new laptop last year, to keep in a villa they own. It's only going to be used for 6-10 weeks each year, for web-browsing and a few basic office-type apps. Therefore, they picked up one of the bargain-basement Inspirons. A few days later, I get a call asking for help with it. This laptop (a Centrino 1.4, if I remember, with 512 RAM) was taking *6 minutes* to start up completely from the moment you hit the power switch. Fortunately, I was able to talk them through reinstalling XP over the phone, at which point the startup time came down to about 90 seconds.
Not everybody is going to have access to somebody who can talk them through this. In most cases, people are just going to make a note never to buy another Dell again. I fail to see how the small premium that Dell gets paid for crippling its systems like this can even vaguely resemble a valid long-term strategy.
The register has an interesting analysis on what this actually means. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/01/dell_brain _one/
In summary, nothing, as Michael Dell has been actively involved in all decisions anyway, and is at least equally responsible for Dell's downfall.
Interesting post.. but it seems inaccurate to me.
For example, Dell has been using motherboards manufactured under the Intel brand name by Foxconn since as far back as I can remember. They've been using Lite-On optical drives, and various power supplies -- often HiPro. All of these companies are still in business and doing quite well (better than Dell even).
I do think that Dell shot themselves in the foot, however in an entirely different matter. Dell started the PC price wars. The competition followed their aggressive pricing, and now the budget PC market (which Dell had cornered) is littered with companies barely surviving on razor thin margins.
Dell attempted to correct themselves: they purchased Alienware, they have put more focus on their higher end models, but frankly, I don't think they'll ever recover unless they re-brand themselves much as Apple has.
Just once I wish some large manufacturer somewhere would adopt the stance that HP used to have, back when Hewlett and Packard were running the show. Back before Queen Bitch of the Universe took over:
Uncompromising quality.
Damn near everything they did was done right, and when it wasn't, they went to great lengths to fix it.
Quality costs money, but you know what? I buy for the long term. I'd rather pay 2-3x up front for something that'll last a lifetime. I'll do that even for equipment that might be obsolete in 5 years because at least I'll know that it simply won't fail in those 5 years because it's built right.
Computers are harder to do that way, of course, because of the rapid pace of technological advancement, but a good design could make replacement of those bits easy while allowing you to retain the rest. Things like keyboards, mice, cases, power supplies, etc. can be built solid and built to last a very long time because the technology behind them doesn't really change much. As an example, I'm sure many of us here still make use of old IBM buckling-spring keyboards, the kind that are 15+ years old and work as well now as they did when they were new. That's the kind of quality I'm talking about.
And yet, you basically can't find anyone who builds things that well anymore. It's not "profitable" or some such crap. But I say that's bullshit. HP managed to get away with it until its founders let go of the reins. They had their up times and down times during the reign of their founders, but their customers were loyal because HP could be relied upon to do it right.
Maybe I'm just looking at things through rose colored glasses, but I still have my HP 41CX and 11C calculators as proof that the equipment they built really was built to last. But who builds things that way these days? Nobody I know of. Not even HP.
That's something that I think needs to change. I just wish someone would step up to the plate...
Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
I think one of the reasons Dell has been slipping (and I believe it has a lot to do with many corporate failures) is that the executives forget what made the company successful in the first place. The company has become so wrapped up in acquisitions, promotions, and partnerships that they forgot all about building computers. They no longer ask themselves "Which components would make this PC powerful and affordable?" Instead they ask "Which components can we build a computer from, using only our partners' components, that will not compete with any of our other divisions, and is consistent with this month's slogan?" It's a lot like Microsoft. At a certain point they got so wrapped up in their ISP (MSN), web sites, content portals, partnerships, search engines, the whole idea of building an actual Operating System was completely beyond them. For all the jokes people made about Windows back with Win 3.1 and Windows 95, all of it would have been forgotten if they had kept their eye on the prize. Instead, they get distracted by every trend, buzzword, and internet start-up that happens by. Dell has the money, reputation, and manpower to build great computers. Unfortunately they lack the all-consuming vision that makes a company succeed to start with.
Completely wrong. Dell's largest customer base is enterprises and government. The consumer buying is a much smaller percentage of all Dell's sales.
Quality costs money, but you know what? I buy for the long term. I'd rather pay 2-3x up front for something that'll last a lifetime. I'll do that even for equipment that might be obsolete in 5 years because at least I'll know that it simply won't fail in those 5 years because it's built right.
I understand the sentiment, but I won't pay much more at this point. I turn over laptops every 18-24 months, and *for my needs* it's just not worth putting too much extra in for a better built unit. Others will of course have different needs. There are things that I miss on the cheaper units (built in keyboard light, touchpad and button mouse, decent speakers) but if the unit is $500 I'll live without.
. . . and reinstall Windows.
Everyone knows that fixes ANYTHING that's wrong with a Dell - just ask their customer support team!
What?
I bought my first Dell product in November and I could see Dell had some real problems. I bought a well reviewed and highly regarded 2007WFP monitor for $400. After buying it I read that Dell is using a "panel lottery" and they swapped out the Philips S-IPS panel for a Samsung S-PVA that is quite inferior. Many people were upset by this because the swap really made it a different monitor since S-IPS and S-PVA have different characteristics and many photographers and graphics pros seek out the S-IPS. Dell's began to hide the panel info and told people complaining in its forums that as far as Dell was concerned "a 2007WFP was a 2007WFP".
I finally sent my monitor back to Dell but arranging that return was nightmare. From one service rep to another they lose track of issues. Mailing labels to be sent never were; emails they were to send me were never sent; credits due were never sent. I have 2 notebook pages of case numbers just for a monitor purchase and return. It's been six weeks and still I have not been sent a credit even though reps I call say it has. I can't get anyone to follow through on the simplest task.
I don't think Dell is a bad company but its obvioulsy a real mess over there.
1.Don't assume all customers are idiots, especially when they call for support.
2.Hire technical support people that know something about computers. And let them have the power to do real technical support instead of insisting that they follow the checklists.
3.Don't use proprietary hardware. More specifically, all components inside the machines should be standard as much as possible (for example, use standard PSUs with standard pinouts and not proprietary ones with custom DELL pinouts). Would make it easier for DELL to just switch suppliers if they e.g. decided that brand x power supplies sucked and brand y were better. This gives DELL negotiation power over suppliers (whereas if they had a custom PSU, the company that makes them has more leverage since the costs to have another company continue to make the custom PSU are expensive relatively speaking)
4.This also extends to software. Do not use any proprietary drivers. All hardware should use the same drivers as you would use if you bought the hardware in a box from a retail store. All drivers should have separate installers included directly with the machine and/or be available to download from the web site such that it is possible to install a normal non DELL non OEM copy of Windows on the DELL machine and not have hardware that wont work right because the only way to get the drivers is to install the special DELL version of windows.
5.Tone down the crap that is pre-installed. All spyware should be removed completely. All demos and time limited software should have uninstall options and also any limitations in the software (such as anti-virus programs with shorter subscription lengths than retail boxed copies have) should be clearly documented.
"Effective supply chain management" is a bullshit buzzword used by consulting companies. If your logistics costs dominate your expenses, it makes sense to minimize them, but there is only so much you can gain. Anyone can have a good supply chain. Far from anyone can obtain Dell's volumes.
Without the volume, you have zero leverage on your supplier. Think about it. If Supplier A sells 70% of their product to Dell, Dell will have 100% of the leverage and the others will have nothing. No company would ever say no to a customer responsible for 70% of their income. Dell can basically dictate prices and schedules. The same model is used by Wal-mart. Focusing on supply chain issues is myopic at best.