As Doug McIntyre mentioned last week, Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) didn't hit its most recent quarterly numbers amid continuing higher costs during the quarter. The company "has a lot more work to do" -- so much that it seems the one golden boy of cost control is out of sorts with itself. Founder and CEO Michael Dell did say that "we won't grow at all costs" during the conference call. This was directed at the analysts' mosh-pit that expects growth over every other metric. Because, you know, profits are secondary.

Although its retail effort seems to be going well, Dell fights for shelf space and sales with all of its largest competitors at almost every retailer. Entering into retail was not some kind of exclusivity magic shell-game for the computer maker. It has to work long-term, and it hasn't even been a year since Dell entered retail. The company indeed made moves towards "transforming itself" during the quarter (read: cutting costs). But can it continue to expand its business in the U.S. and overseas without washing itself in red ink at the same time? That's the delicate challenge. Unfortunately, top competitor Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is the strongest it's been in over a decade behind CEO Mark Hurd.

Dell went on to say that "improvements in profitability will take some time," and it will continue to lower headcount to reduce overall costs in addition to designing market-leading notebook PCs for consumers. Both strategies are paying off: one on the costs side and one on the revenue side. Then again, another huge challenge is increasing sales outside the U.S., where Hewlett-Packard currently enjoys roughly two-thirds of its sales. As such, a downturn in any particular market insulates HP from sagging results with the breadth of global sales it has. If Dell can also achieve that level of padding, any consumer downturn that could happen this summer won't hurt nearly as much.

When Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) reported earnings just recently, the world's second largest computer maker showed above-average revenue but profits lagged expectations due to higher costs in the quarter. Meanwhile competitor Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) reported a stellar quarter on everything from revenue to profit to future guidance. It seems as though Dell and HP have completely traded places from where they stood in 2004, no?

Dell brings up the issue of bigger-than-expected costs being a problem in the third quarter as it tries to explain why its profits sunk. Inquiring investors want to know why component prices were a problem for Dell in the back half of 2007 when HP saw lower component costs in the same period?

Your guess is as good as mine, but the questions won't stop there. For a company that built a reputation around being lean all the way around, what happened to Dell's cost structure recently? That has not been answered directly -- yet.

I haven't dug into Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) too deeply lately but I'm hearing noises that investors are beginning to get just a bit impatient with it. That's a bit odd to me considering that Dell has recorded anywhere from 13% to 17% growth for the year 2006. Dell has changed the position of Don Carty and I am yet to see exactly what it is saying in support of that choice. I don't find the placement of Carty to be a strange thing. What I do find a tiny bit curious is the recent quietness from Dell. We need for them to outline its game plan. I want some facts about where it's going and how it plans to get there. The market analysts seem to be saying that Dell needs to expand its marketing attack. What are Dell's plans?

I have long been a fan of Dell. I like the company and I like its products. I'm writing this blog piece on a Dell computer right now. I plan for my next computer to be a Dell also. When I bought this machine I got a lot more than I bargained for. Dell has replaced my modem twice. The first time it turned out that the problem was the fault of my (former) ISP. Dell helped us figure that out. The second modem the company replaced was due to a lightening strike. The fantastic part is this, neither replacement cost me a penny. Dell has gone the extra mile for me, to the point that I sometimes wonder if it made any money on this machine. The fact of the matter is this, Dell has unquestionably won my loyalty. That's one heck of a good way to do business.

Curiously, Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) has hired Don Carty, an old-economy executive from American Airlines (NYSE: AMR), as CFO to help Dell get back to its high growth ways.

Carty is one hell of a nice guy, but was never known as an in-your-face low-cost type of guy. He was best known for smoothing relations between American's management and unions.

Investors seriously have to question the thinking behind this decision. Dell became Dell by developing a massive global logistical infrastructure that was one of the great feats in business history. Understanding this infrastructure and then helping management might be asking a lot from someone new to the industry like Carty -- especially when Dell is receiving serious competition from Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Lenovo (OTC: LNVGY).

Adding Carty to Rollins' team seems to make Dell's executives more reactive rather than proactive. It is hard to get excited about Dell's stock after hearing this announcement.