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Dell Computer:
Competitive advantages and strategies, innovation, sustainability and strategy effectiveness
When evaluating the competitive advantage of Dell Computers in relation to its competitors, virtually every market analyst emphasizes its mastery of its supply chain. Dell is not known as a particularly innovative company in terms of its product line -- unlike Apple, it has no signature iMac or iPod that is uniquely 'Dell.' R&D occupies only 1.3% of Dell's revenues compared with 15% for its competitors Intel and Microsoft. Unlike Apple, Dell does not nurture potentially profitable long-term research projects. It practices a "ruthless form of corporate Darwinism" within its organization, "killing off its own straggling product lines with savage speed" (Schrage 2002:1).
At Dell, the goal has always been "to offer computers at irresistible prices -- and to leave the cost and the risks of innovating to others" (Jones 2003). Its careful micromanagement of its inventories has been the cornerstone of its success. The Dell Direct business model involves dealing directly with customers and building the customer's computer to order, thus reducing...
In 2003, during the height of its profitability, "operating costs soaked up just 10% of Dell's $35 billion in revenue...compared with 21% of revenue at Hewlett-Packard, 25% at Gateway, and 46% at Cisco" (Jones 2003).
Inventories are a notorious drain on any technology industry, given how quickly they can become obsolete. By giving the customer precisely what he or she desired and eliminating retailing middlemen, Dell could slash costs when and where its rivals could not. The Internet made direct-to-consumer advertising even easier for Dell. Dell also tried to make its products as attractive to customers because of their flexibility: "Dell machines stick with the de facto industry standards, like Intel microprocessors and Windows or Linux operating systems, which don't lock users into any particular hardware," versus the proprietary technology favored by Intel (Jones 2003). Dell fused customer service, the use of new technology (including communication technology between distribution hubs as well as between consumers and sellers) and paired it with the concepts of 'just in time' manufacturing to create a radical and profitable…
References
Johnson, Keith. (2008). Dell's green payday. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 17,
2011 at http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/08/06/dells-green-payday-going-carbon-neutral-helps-bottom-line/
Jones, Kathryn. (2003). The Dell way. CNN. Retrieved September 17, 2011 at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2003/02/01/335960/index.htm
Mintz, Jesse. (2008). Tech spending slows, Dell profits drop. Huffington Post.
Retrieved September 17, 2011 at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/01/tech-spending-slows-dell_n_122895.html
Schrage, Michael. (2002). The Dell curve. Wired. Retrieved September 17, 2011 at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.07/dell.html
(Microsoft Solutions) Constraints to Success Achievement As mentioned earlier, Dell Computers was just another second-tire personal computer maker in the early months of the year 1994, and like all other PC makers, it had to order all the components in advance, and therefore had a large inventory of components. Then Michael Dell decide to implement his brand new business model, wherein the initial process by which he would use a build
Dell Corporation Dell computers Company Background Michael Dell is a global icon, especially on his college-based business of building personal computers using available parts, which he used to create a global business. The Dell Computer Company officially became a global corporation in 1984 (Dell, 2009). The priority of Dell Corporation was the build to order strategy, whereby clients ordered computers; their orders routed via credit check, and then the manufacturing followed (Qurechi and
Dell Computers presents a useful company to perform a strategic management analysis upon. The personal computer industry has changed and evolved considerably in the past years and the market conditions today are also presenting new and exciting problems for this organization. The purpose of this essay is to examine Dell and its industry in terms of its current strategic outlook. The essay will present information on the personal computer industry,
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Thus far, Dell has largely ignored the consumer market since the company views the margins in this market to be insufficient. Yet, if Dell can develop an effective route to market for consumers and/or streamlines its ordering process, Dell can expand its customer base substantially. It is already finding that consumers are coming to it after buying their first computer elsewhere, so the market is clearly ready for Dell
In particular, Wyse gave Dell a better foothold in the sprawling segment of cloud computing. This area has helped companies save money through the delivery of affordable services and software over internet-based infrastructures (Ignatiuk, 2008). Dell will also benefit from the prior experience of Silver Lake expertise that has revived several tech companies such as Skype. This wrenching would typically change Silver Lake to be tricky for a public corporation