No one felt surprised at the return of Michael Dell to the helm of affairs of being the `cost- cutter' once again. However, everyone is asking what he can do to resurrect Dell's recent poor run.
These words, coming directly from the horse's mouth, tells a lot about the state of affairs at the world's largest Personal Computer (PC) maker. Michael Dell who returns once again as the CEO of the company he founded 20 years ago and the role he relinquished about two years back promises tougher actions in his memo he sent just after taking charge. "The result is that there will be no bonus this year", he said in his memo, making it clear to the ranks and files of the cost-cutter, as it has all along been referred that everyone has to work hard.
Michael Dell is the man the Round Rock, a Texas-based firm needed desperately some market analysts felt. Since he founded his namesake firm in a dormitory of his college some 20 years back, passed on the baton to Kevin Rollins as Dell's CEO in 2000, the company has been humbled by competitors quarter-after-quarter. HP, once bruised and battered by Dell has made a smart comeback as the world's number one PC maker, the position once held by Dell for over a decade. Lenovo, which made waves when it acquired IBM's PC division back in 2000, is fast being seen as a force to reckon with in the PC industry globally. And nimble rivals like Taiwanese Acer and Toshiba of Japan, both of which notched up good sales growth during the fourth quarter of 2006 (33.1% and 24.5% respectively) too look set to make life further difficult for their bigger rivals; many PC industry insiders have always believed Acer to be a potential PC superpower, though it is yet to prove itself. |
