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Summary: Dell #1 PC Maker in the World! About time
Review: Glad to see that Dell is now officially the #1 PC maker in the World following up on being the #1 in the World in workstations last fall and #1 in the USA for PCs in October 1999.I was reading a Wall Street Journal article about Dell and was impressed to see the generous compensation that Dell offers it's employees. MD definitely knows that people, including employees have value.Good to see Dells high ranking in Laptops in PC World. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dell topple Sony for the #1 spot in Laptops. Certaintly beating Compaq must be getting boring by now for Dell.Oh by the way, congratulations to Dell for taking the US server market from Compaq too.The book is excellent and a must read for any serious business reader.
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Summary: Good info on running a business
Review: If you are interested entrepreneurs and how they became billionairs, I would recommend this book. If you want to start your own company, then I would definitely recommend this book.Direct from Dell is divided into two parts. The first part is about how Michael Dell gained an interest in computers and decided to become part of the industry by selling computers. The book then shows what risks he took and what he did to overcome the challenges of running a business. It also talks a little bit about the marketing strategies used to get Dell where it is today. You will find out how Dell had to structure the company because it's structure was not efficient enough to handle its explosive growth and how Dell overcame problems such as inventory management. The second part of the book gives a more in-depth description of Dell's marketing strategies. It tells you what he does to make his business more efficient. Reading this will give you a new perspective on managing company resources, developing consumer-focused goals, and making relations with other companies a key to your success. I'm sure that most entrepreneurs will find this part of the book particularly interesting. Overall, this book was very good. Not only does it teach a lot about business management, but it is also entertaining. The most entertaining part of the book was when it talked about Michael Dell's earlier years and business adventures, such as how he ended up making more money than his high school teacher by selling newspapers. I think anyone who reads this will find something interesting. Even people who are not interested in starting their own company can also probably learn how to make work more fun and efficient.
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Summary: Nice Concepts, Too Bad Michael Dell Doesn't Practice Them.
Review: I read Michael Dell's book. Then I bought a Dell Computer. Dell's concepts are nice. Too bad he doesn't really run the company the way he claims. From day ONE there were problems with my Dell laptop computer. The computer would always freeze up during the initiation boot cycle. The computer would simply lock up and you would have to shut down and restart the box again. Sometimes several times. Ongoing conversations with Dell's tech support people never resolved the problem. After weeks of dealing with a faulty computer and dozens of hours on the phone with techs and an unresolved problem, I called Dell and indicated that I desired to set up a tech support session with one of their senior people to finally resolve this issue or to agree that my Dell computer should be returned. After the Dell "specialist" finished changing the internal settings and adding code, my laptop was even more seriously damaged and then Dell refused to stand by their product and support commitment leaving me with a computer that didn't work and thousands of dollars poorer. At the end of all of this, Dell's Supervisor of "Customer Priority Service" refused to help me further because I have had the Dell box over 30 days in spite of the fact that I reported the problems with this box to Dell on DAY ONE and did everything in my power to attempt to give them an opportunity to fix their problem. I have owned at least 6 computers in the past, some better than others. My Dell experience has been one of the worst consumer purchase experiences in my life. I caution you to be very careful in doing any business with Dell. Michael Dell may fancy himself as an author but any connection with the principles he proclaims in his book and the way he runs his business are total and complete fantasy. Dell Computer? Caveat Emptor (Latin for "let the buyer beware")
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Summary: Insightful, but too general...
Review: I found the beginning of this book to be quite interesting, and Dell's experiences in starting his company were quite enlightening. Unfortunately, this book glossed over too many of the details to hold my attention. I work with computers for a living, and I was hoping for some more insight into the technologies and trends of the industry. Instead, I got Dell repeating his mantra about the three rules of Dell Computing over and over...
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Summary: Simple, direct ways to run a successful business
Review: In the world of the CEOs of major IT companies, Michael Dell is like an open window on a Spring day. As a regular reader of the trade journals, hardly a day goes by without my reading about Gates, McNealy and Ellison etc. launching verbal grenades at each other. At times, it appears that their primary goal is to pump their egos rather than run a successful company. However, I cannot recall ever reading a negative comment about others attributed to Michael Dell. After reading this book, it seems likely that there is no memory lapse. While the descriptions are somewhat soft about the true competitive nature of the business of selling computer equipment, Dell explains much about how he views the world of business.
Without a doubt, his story is one to pay attention to. At 19, he dropped out of school and started a company that is now worth over 30 billion dollars. This tremendous growth in value was also based on sound business practices and not just due to a ride on the dot-com elevator. Those principles are elegant in their simplicity and effectiveness. Creating and supporting a quality product that is needed is always a way to success, although so many seem to have forgotten that over the last few years. Furthermore, although Dell clearly wishes to promote his company, the book is not a collection of marketing blurbs, but an honest look at the problems that incredible success creates. Always sounding like someone who really believes that the customer must be treated well, his statements never contain that false tone so prevalent in material churned out by marketing types.
Now that the dot-com bubble has burst, all companies doing business on the web appear to be facing hard times. With his practical approach and focus on the delivery of a quality product, you find yourself rooting for Michael Dell to continue to be successful. His is a company that should be a model for how to do it right without feeling the need to constantly stab at your competitors.
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Summary: A book about one thing RESULTS!
Review: Dell's book isn't motivation it simply is cold hard basic know how with the one thing that counts in business - Results. He talks about several issues from the ill fated Olympia program to cutting out the stores. (Becha didn't know that Dell used to sell in stores around ten or so years ago!) He talks about simplifying processes in a basic manner. This isn't "fuzzy math" as a matter of fact it's fast reading. Highly recommended
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Summary: Be careful reading this if you consider working there...
Review: From a Dell employee: Consider yourself warned if you think you can read Michael's book and think you'll know what it's like at Dell. I'm paraphrasing, but among other things, Michael says Dell is a non-political environment. Hah! He also says that performance reviews (and bonuses) are based on 360 degree review. Hah! They are, in reality, based on the kind of subjective, curve-based direct manager reviews that Michael so righteously rails against in the book (look it up). Either Michael is out of touch, or someone else wrote that book.
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Summary: Proven strategies - from the world's richest person under 40
Review: This book's materials have been written by a person who has proven that the strategies do work. How come? He is the world's richest person under 40 worth at around US $21 billion in September 2000 (According to the Fortune magazine). The materials are very practical and inspiring. However they tend to be mentioned quite repetitively. Dell's business model can be broken into its 3 golden rules: 1. Disdain inventory 2. Always listen to the customer 3. Never sell indirect The book is divided into 2 parts: Part 1: places the context of Dell's history chronologically - Chapter 1 and 2 outline Dell's early experiences with business opportunities (not just computers) and the early days of Dell Computer Corporation - Chapters 3 and 4 outlines Dell's first setback (due to growing too fast) and how it has learnt from it (by expanding its focus from just growth to profitability, liquidity and growth) - Chapter 5 shows some key lessons that Dell learnt during the early 90s, including understanding that facts are your friend, getting outside help (Dell got Bain's help) for objectivity and emphasising the planning function as a key element of its strategy - Chapter 6 outlines further lessons such as dividing the company into profit centres by segmenting customers meticulously. Once profit and loss of various parts of the business are known, Dell understood that it should enter into the server business, which they then did - Chapter 7 outlines Dell's extension into the internet and how that has been successful Part 2: summarises the lessons learnt from Dell's history that could be applicable to other industries - Chapters 8 and 9 outline the importance of choosing the right people and how to reward & motivate them (by linking reward to objective profitability measures; this can only be done once P&L of various segments of the business are worked out) - Chapters 10 and 11 outline the importance of getting close to your customers - no matter what! - Chapters 12 and 13 outline the importance of working together with suppliers to bring inventories down - focus on win-win partnering and not just 'screwing' the suppliers! - Chapters 14 outlines the importance to be understand what differentiates you from your competitors - Chapter 15 summarises Michael Dell's thoughts on the future state of the computer industry and the internet
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Summary: Honest narration and sharing of Dell's success
Review: I love the underlying honesty in the book which seems to represent how Michael Dell is as a person. His narration/discussion style contains lots of abstracts, is pretty detailed, and seems to tell things 'as it is' with almost none of those 'big' talks as shown in other books of the same nature. The book is a good, intellectual read in itself.
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Summary: a treasure trove of information for business leaders
Review: This is a terrific book for anyone who aspires to run or lead a business. Dell writes entertainingly about his childhood adventures -- not many teenagers were enterprising enough to research how to find all newly married couples and all people who took out mortgages in order to sell newspaper subscriptions! He was making an annual salary higher than most of his teachers just from his summer activities. His parents should have known they were in for trouble. The first part of the book is devoted to how he founded his business with $1000 of start up money and then all the ups, downs, and mistakes they made along the way. It is encouraging to read that it's not the mistakes that matter, but how quickly you acknowledge and address them that count. The second part of the book has tremendously practical advice for almost any company. Why make the same mistakes that you could avoid by following his model for success? I daresay there is enough solid information here for any informed person to put into practice what Dell did to make a successful business. After having read a series of books on leadership, I can say that this is one of the most practical and hands-on ones as well as one of the most interesting.
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