Dell and Rollins – the $41bn
Buddy Act
by David Kirkpartrick. Forbes (Europe edition, 19 April 2004.
Themes
Chairman of computer company Dell, Michael Dell, has just
handed over the CEO’s job to Kevin Rollins, a ‘long-time lieutenant’. The
company sells mostly PCs in the US market.
Dell and Rollins reveal in this interview that they are
‘starting to manage our cultural elements much the way we manage operational
excellence’.
They have a 360-degree appraisal process for the board and
believe in a ‘free flow of information, no intermediaries, no boundaries, fast
reaction times’, according to Dell.
They say they will be looking at much larger markets in the
future with increased demand for technology in Asia.
They have no problem moving capacity to countries such as
India, as this is part of their strategy to gain market share in these
countries.
Messages
It
is a mistake to outsource IT, companies ‘should fix their own IT departments’.
IT
is set for big growth. As Dell says, ‘The world is still very much in the early
stages of people figuring out how to use IT.’
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