Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) welcomed back its founder, Michael Dell, a little over two years ago after ousting then-CEO Kevin Rollins. Rollins' goal of hitting $80 billion in annual sales never panned out as the company was getting pounded by larger competitor Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) and was completely missing the boat in consumer sales and customized PC products.Fast forward two years. Is Dell any better? Sure it is -- it has entered the retail market in just about every way, offered cool new designs and product types and has tried feverishly to shed the "PC commodity maker" status it has held for almost its entire history. Just as early as last year, the company re-focused its entire organization around the customer type instead of geographical boundaries. Who knew focus around the customer was the right way to operate?
Michael Dell may have moved fast to reverse his company's fortunes when he returned, but then the consumer -- which Dell began centering around in retail and with the red-hot laptop market -- stopped buying PCs to a large degree late last year as the recession started affecting consumers. Has it been enough? The company has gotten better, but better may not be good enough. It's on a sound financial footing and it is still the second-largest PC manufacturer in the world. The market, though, is demanding more. Can Dell continue to improve? If you hold DELL in your portfolio, what is your take on the company's prospects for the next two years?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-05-2009 @ 4:39PM
Kilee said...
I have an Averatec I bought 8 years ago that runs circles around this slug of a Dell that I purchased 1 year ago.
It has been impossible to get help that actually helps and I am forces to converse with overseas dialog and "canned responses to me" and still no fixes for this piece of junk! I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER DELL.