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Summary: Great book Mike
Review: Michael Dell is undoubtably one of the greatest success stories in modern times.This book is a testimony to what creativity and determination can accomplish.Everyone should read this book. It will make you better at whatever you do.Great book Mike. Thanks, we all needed this.
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Summary: Mike Dell, a leader, not a follower
Review: Someone once said that the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing but expect a different result. Prior to Mike Dell's assault on the PC Industry in the the early 80's, all of the top PC players were pla ying the game called "follow the follower" nothing new or exciting , same old, same old. Then Mike Dell comes along with better products and a better strategy. I see that Dell made a clean sweep in the new issue of PC World with Dell products coming in first place in all categories listed I am not surprised. Dell products are the best. I have used various pc's from the packard bells to the Compaqs, nothingelse even comes close to Dell. Perfect example of Dell's selling Direct strategy in action; eliminate the middle man and use the difference to develop better products and pass the savings on to the consumer. Obviously it has worked incredibly well. I have my own business and found Mr. Dell's book refreshing and packed with simple, but useful strategies. It is no wonder that Dell has turned the PC Industry on it's ear. Read it, you'll benefit. Great book. This book deserves 10 stars, not 5
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Summary: Mike Dell uses the KISS Principle
Review: Back in the 70's I worked with a successful sales and management professional who espoused the KISS Principle (Keep it simple and short)In reading some of the negative reviews, I can see that some people were expecting something out of HarvardBusiness School.What made Dell the incredible success story that it has become is doing the unusual, the new, the different.Going against the norm.And keeping it simple and short.When I was in the bookstore, someone told me that Mike Dell puts too much emphasis on people. Who do you suppose buys those computers? It's people.I like the fact that Mike Dell puts the customer first.Interesting that the Direct Model that Dell innovated with PCs was initiataly criticized and is now copied by the people who were his strongest critics.Is any wonder that Mr Dell is one of the most in demand speakers.Read and apply Mr. Dell's strategies. They will make you more successful in business and in life.And remember the KISS PRINCIPLE.
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Summary: supply chain management
Review: I would like to know as brife about supply chain in Dell business and how he can face with obstucles at first period? and Are there only the words of "cut joint and useless process off" can work well and his charecteristics to make succuss. could you send me briefly of core of stregy in Dell business? pls send back to me ben
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Summary: Explains much about the early PC business
Review: I got into this business back in 1985. My first job was with a little computer dealer and the IBM AT had just been introduced - what a screamer! This was in the days when you didn't need lots of benchmarking software to see how much faster a computer was...you just recalculated a spreadsheet. If it took five seconds on your XT and 3 seconds on your AT, then you upgraded. But I digress. The point is that I was competing with Mike Dell and his company. When we would be confronted with his ads in computer magazines, or customers would ask why they should buy from us when they could get it from these guys at "PCs Limited," we would curse Dell and his ancestors to the pits of heck for all eternity. They were the dark side of the PC business in those days. And, quite frankly, they still are if you're a dealer in this industry. Maybe the cursing part isn't done anymore, but I'm not sure. In any case, it was interesting to read this book because now I understand. When we would see the prices he was charging, we would wonder "How the heck can he DO that? He must be using low quality components, or something!" Happily, enough customers believed in the old adage that "you get what you pay for" to keep me in commission checks. Now I find out how he did it and I am impressed. The book describes Dell's history, but most importantly, it goes into their business model and explains (to me anyway) why they were able to offer such low prices - and it wasn't because they used crummy parts. I was so impressed that I might even entertain the thought of buying a Dell when my current computer reaches the end of its useful life and the budget committee authorizes a new one. And I might even consider a small stock purchase. I must say that I respect what Mike has done. That said, I have to make one observation...the book has lots of issues and may not be worth your investment. Most of the useful information could have been condensed to a nice article in some business magazine. This work is full of the most amazing collection of cliches, platitudes, sweeping generalizations and jargon that I have ever run across. I would prefer not to lay the blame at Mr. Dell's feet. I hope that, busy as he is, he probably gave co-author Catherine Fredman a few interviews and she padded them until she had a book. In many cases, the prose reads like marketing literature. There are the broad, unsupported statements and the attitude that you'll find in most brochures. There ARE some tasty nuggets, but you will have plenty of opportunities to practice your skimming skills. And there were parts that become just too painful to read. But I wanted to continue because I kept coming up with the occasional interesting observation or useful hint. Dell built their business in what was, at the time, a little used approach for the PC industry. Customers bought their machines directly from Dell. They called an 800 number, discussed their order with a rep, and then Dell built the machine to the customer's specifications and shipped it. They have maintained that model, with one brief foray into selling through the big chain stores, and have become one of the top companies in the PC and server business. Dell attributes that direct model to their success...on almost every frickin' page. This approach DID set them apart and give them some significant advantages. They were able to interact directly with their customers, learning their needs, being in real-time contact with the market place, and being able to quickly adapt to changes in demand. Because they built to order and had that real-time information, they could keep incredibly low inventory levels (that was the real key to their lower prices...low inventory). Since PC technology changes so rapidly, keeping low inventory was critical. Unfortunately, the authors seem to be of the opinion that Dell invented this approach. In fact, in one passage, he implies that he revolutionized the computer industry and pretty much came up with direct selling. Never mind that IBM and the other computer companies had been doing this since way before Dell was born. I'm hoping that this, and several other mistaken opinions, are the work of his writing partner. While beating the drum for the moral superiority of the direct model, he ignores the fact that the indirect model has worked well in many industries. It just hasn't worked so well in the computer business, because of the rapid change in technology and low margins. However, in more stable businesses, or ones that require a lot of independent thought and customer support, the direct model is not as advantageous. Another organizational tactic that they used, which also isn't new, but is interesting, is segmentation. They organized their company by the markets they served, not by products. And as markets got bigger, they re-segmented and more narrowly focused. This makes a lot of sense, since it allows you to have a big company that keeps maintaining a tight focus on the most important thing - the customer. And it allows them to maintain high rates of growth, since the smaller actual business units can grow more quickly than a larger organization. Because of the direct model, and the development of technology, like the Internet, that allowed an electronic link between the customer, Dell and Dell's vendors, they've been able to tightly integrated their entire supply chain and get inventory costs even lower. I really do think that, in this type of business, that direct customer relationship, integrated into a really good electronic order, accounting, marketing and customer management system, can provide a lot of value. However, such a company has to have the technical expertise, and the executive will, to take advantage of this technology. Dell talks about how this will be the way all business will have to organize in order to succeed, but I'm not sure that's correct. I think it's going to be a function of the speed of change in the business, the importance of face-to-face relationships, and the nature of the commodity. Also, in Dell's case, they had enough leverage with their vendors to force them to do things like build plants near Dell's manufacturing operations. Most of us can't make that kind of demand on our vendors. As one would expect from someone at the heart of the computer industry, Dell is a tireless and fanatical believer that the Internet is absolutely necessary to every business's survival. If you don't provide access from every one of your users' desktops, you'll be gone. I disagree. But I wouldn't expect any other statement from him anyway. And he does make a decent argument for some of the benefits of the Internet(and intranet). He just glosses over some of the problems. One final quibble. Either Dell or Fredman likes the word "metric." There was one section covering one and a half pages, where they used it at least four times, two times in one paragraph. ...
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Summary: USE GREAT COMMUNICATIONS FOR FANTASTIC SUCCESS
Review: This book adds a valuable case history about coupling lean manufacturing (custom-built, high quality products, rapidly built using just-in-time inventory -- see Lean Thinking) with great communications (to and from customers, employees, suppliers, technology developers, and product planners). I have read every published article I can find about Dell Computer and every published speech by a Dell executive, and I learned a lot about what Dell did (and when), why, and what the results have been. I came away with a much higher opinion of Dell Computer as a communciations model for other companies. They reduce errors because they listen and act quickly. This is one of the biggest weaknesses of most organizations. Recently, I had the chance to spend a day at Dell on a site visit and came away even more impressed with how well they communicate. Everyone I met had a thorough understanding of the company's vision, strategy, and business model. I have never experienced that before in any company of any size. You may be tempted to ignore Dell Computer now that their growth and that of personal computers is slowing in 2000. That should affect your stock investing, not your best practices learning. To the Dell model, you can further improve by considering best practices that Dell does not do enough of yet such as scanning the business environment to locate best practices that it does not yet use. You can also consider the ideal best practice, which is to replace your product with a service that is better and less costly to the customer. In Dell's case, this would mean turning the network into the computer without the need for a computer in the first place. Since Dell recently announced it will be doing more with servers and services, that may well be in the company's future. Dell Computer has also been very effective at overcoming the other sources of stalled performance at most organizations: Tradition, Misconceptions, Disbelief about new thngs and ideas, Bureaucracy, Avoiding the unattractive (such as angry customers), and Procrastination. You can use an 8 step process involving measurements, anticipating the future best practice, exceeding that future best practice using best practices in new combinations, identifying the ideal best practice and approaching it, employing the best employees and incentives to create the results you want, and repeating this process. Then you will run rings around Dell Computer, unless Dell Computer begins to use this process before you do. Buy, read, think about, decide how to apply the lessons of the book, and act. You will be glad you did. Michael Dell spends 40% of his time with customers. A lot of the rest goes into designing improved ways to listen to customers. Should you be doing the same?
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Summary: Direct From Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industr
Review: I found this publication to be an easy to read book about a young man's extraordinary successful business adventure. This young man was Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Computer Corp. The book demonstrated that fast growth is not always the best road to travel, in the computer industry. Michael Dell can very much attest to this statement. He began his computer business within the four walls of his dormitory room, at the University of Texas in Austin in 1983. Over ten years his corporation grew tremendously! This growth was not without hardships, which Michael and his team did endure. Dell developed a customer-focused philosophy, which I believe played a critical role in his business's success. He not only formed strong alliances with employees and customers, but also with suppliers within the industry. Dell has been a very successful business as was witnessed in its growth from a $159 million company to an $18 billion company. I enjoyed this book immensely, and I found it energizing and invigorating. It was a good success story.
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Summary: Direct from Dell
Review: Customer! Customer! Customer! Customer! Hats off to Michael Dell. I like his motto of doing the perceived impossible. Being a business major I enjoyed Direct from Dell. Being a biography of Michael Dell's life a person would tend to think that the book would be uninteresting (to put it nicely). I feel this is a dynamic book. Michael Dell has grown a multi-billion dollar company with an original investment of $1000. His strategy is a strategy that all business could find useful. He found out what customers wanted by listening to their input and gave it to them directly. He always believed that the middle man was not needed and he proved that from his first business venture of selling stamps. He is also a great motivator. He keeps his employees involved in the business by empowering them with the authority to make decisions. The breakdown of the company into smaller segments that concentrated on certain customers enabled Dell to focus on the needs of those customers. Selling computers on the Internet? Michael Dell brought the Internet to life by selling computers on the Internet - yet another successful perceived impossibility. Almost every move Dell made was a huge success. I would recommend this book to any one who deals in business or who enjoys a good success story. The business model created at Dell is a model that can be used in every industry. Congratulations to Michael Dell on making his mark as one of the greatest innovators who ever lived.
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Summary: OK
Review: This book was just OK. Nothing special, but not horrible. Michael Dell is a great story, but I was looking for a little more.
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Summary: Introducing "Virtual Integration"...
Review: A nice overview of an effective e-business model for aspiring "virtualpreneurs." Michael Dell might be the "Webpreneur of the Century." This book extends the concept of "Virtual Integration" that was described in a recent Harvard Business Review article. A must read!
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