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?"

Comments

Here's some suggestions for Mike

[Centurix]

dPod
dPhone
dBook

etc...

Re:Here's some suggestions for Mike

[Lars T.]

dLusions - of granDell

Improve Customer Support

[freedom_india]

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?

Reboot ?

[Rastignac]

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. ;)

Wish Dell or someone would go where HP used to be

[kcbrown]

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...