Dell’s Mission and Future
Dell's commitment to customer value, to their team, to being direct, to operating responsibly and, ultimately, to winning continues to differentiate them from other companies. The Background section provides critical information and history about Dell's business world. Look inside; “we think customers, investors and others will find our story to be a unique one.”
At Dell, they are committed to building value not only for our customers and their business, but also for the communities that the company and their employees call home. They strive to participate responsibly in the global marketplace in which they operate.
There are 4 qualities of conduct that dell follows Soul of Dell, Code of Conduct, Board of Directors and Corporate Governance.
Dell and their employees are committed to building technology that helps build communities. With global citizenship programs and the Dell Foundation define the efforts to contribute positively in our communities.
Dell is committed to a culture of environmental sustainability and responsibility. To continually reduce Dell's impact on the environment through product design, manufacturing and operations, product ownership experience, and product end-of-life solutions. And Dell believes that work on sustainable business practices is a journey without end.
Finally, we understand that as a company with an extensive global supply chain, they have a responsibility to work with suppliers to promote high standards of behavior, including sustainable environmental practices, the health and safety of people and fundamental human rights and dignity.
In the next two years Dell has projected increases in $4 Billion dollars to $52 Billion dollars in annual revenue. This would follow their trend of gains in annual growth in annual revenue in the past 16 years. They have continued growth in the US market share for personal and business computers of 32.8% and look to increase .3 to .4% in two years. With low fixed cost and an increasing market, Dell looks to dominate the market segment and will have continued success if they follow their current path and stay on top of the personal computer business.
Organization: Culture vs. Logistics
-Michael
Dell
One of the largest responsibilities of a Corporation is most likely creating a positive outlook of the business through the culture of its employees, customers, and partners. Dell is one of these Corporations that not only stretch throughout North America, but to South America, Europe, and Asia. “Dell has succeeded in the marketplace by fostering a winning culture where Dell employees are highly talented, committed, and reflective of our global customers and recognized as our greatest strength.” (http://www.dell.com , 2005) Dell sees this mission being completed by implementing these procedures through out their Corporation:
- “Influence thinking and behaviors "at all levels".”
- “Foster a winning culture that enables all employees to perform at his or her best and that motivates employees to win with integrity in the global marketplace.”
- “Promote a barrier-free workplace where individuals take responsibility for addressing personal and organizational biases that inhibit successful pursuit of teamwork and business goals.”
- “Partner with multicultural organizations to support access to technology, talent, business and education in our communities.”
Culture can be a hard aspect for a business to incorporate into their business when they decide to leave their local or national borders and seek business in foreign lands. Dell feels it must take a role in every community it touches and calls home. “By matching its passion for providing great customer value with a commitment to its corporate values, Dell strives to be a responsible global citizen and a great global company—a company that: CEOs entrust with their information networks, teachers invite into their classrooms, parents embrace in their homes, and neighbors welcome into their communities.” (http://www.dell.com , 2005) Dell, on a daily basis uses their “direct business model” to guide them in a path to be successful as high quality global citizen.
Figure 1- Dell's Direct Business Model[1]
Now you may ask; how does this effect Logistics? Diversity plays a very large role in relationships Dell makes with its suppliers. “Dell is committed to promoting and facilitating the solicitation and introduction of diverse businesses to Dell's procurement processes, with the objective of providing diverse suppliers equal access to potential procurement opportunities.” Dell takes the opportunity to work with small businesses such as Small Business Concern (SB), Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDB), Women Owned-Small Businesses (WOSB), Veteran Owned-Small business (VOSB), HubZone Business Concern (HUBZone), Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and lastly, Woman Business Enterprise (WBE). After the fiscal year of 2003, Dell was accredited with awarding 278,000,000 Contacts to such businesses listed above. With the focus on small business suppliers, Dell helps spread new economic growth for its third party suppliers. Even though Dell brings their contracts to these small businesses, third parties are expected to uphold very strict standards that are proven with certifications like the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
In Conclusion, businesses that would like to see themselves grow past their local or even national borders must realize that they must incorporate new cultures and values into their system. This can be done by hiring people native to the region and culture who can bring fresh ideas to the table and new ways of attracting a loyal customer base. “At Dell, we know diversity is essential to enhancing the customer experience. And because our commitment to the customer drives everything we do, diversity is key to our success.” (http://www.dell.com, 2005)
Technology in the Workplace
From a technological viewpoint, Dell is one of, if not the most modern and updated computer companies in the world today. One thing that Dell has in regards to keeping its future/current employees updated and familiar with the most recent software applications is their training and certification program. This program was created to make sure that the future Dell employees have the knowledge to work with the most modern application programs like Microsoft Office, Visio, Works and many others. It also has a lot to offer regarding customer satisfaction, offering courses specializing in a wide range of skills including fundamentals for employees, managers, working with upset customers, building customer service teams, and creating customer loyalty.
When it comes to Dell’s main competition (IBM, HP, and Sun Microsystems Inc), Dell has done a very good job with forcing them to keep their prices down low and creating partnerships to try and offer additional value to their customers. They have accomplished this by a consistent strategy to put industry-standard technology into all of the many products they have to offer. They have also strove to create a computing environment that can handle any and all sizes of enterprise applications.
Back in 1999, Jerry Gregoire who was the CIO, spoke on a few things regarding Dell’s technology strategy, most of which they still use today. The “G2” strategy, as he called it, capitalized on preventing “the layering of problems around a broken core. Basically by using the best of breed applications, custom designed technologies with competitive advantages, and interfaces for quick implementation, Jerry saw information technology as providing a huge "value addition" to Dell's operations. He wanted more servers to make the size of things not an issue anymore, technology selection decisions to be made on an application-by-application basis, interchangeable databases, extended life of legacy systems by wrapping them in a new interface, and to focus on in-house development.
From a management point of view, Dell is one of a kind. Their staff in top management makes sure that anything and everything that they are dealing with in the computer world can be handled and taken care of. They deal with enabling hardware and software components of an enterprise IT architecture to be more easily supported throughout their lifecycle. Their business strategies are very well planned out and the management department is mainly responsible for it. They are definitely well managed, offering arguably the best customer service in the computer world, with low prices, fast delivery and reliable PC equipment.
Human Resources and Diversity
Balancing human resources and civilization can be a challenging task. This task is met head on by Dell. The tasks includes managing, recruiting, educating and networking with diversity in mind. Dell strives to achieve these things through implemented programs. Diversity is part of our civilization and is very beneficial when carried over into the workplace. With the world being so diverse it is necessary to maintain a diverse group of employees. This allows all view points to be shared, analyzed and carried out properly. Dell uses multi cultural teams to direct and manage the company. Dell also educates its employees with many available programs. Dell recruits with diversity in mind and networks with a diverse population. All these efforts by Dell satisfy the interaction of human resources and civilization. Most importantly these efforts help civilization as a whole, not just the company.
One of Dell’s key tools for diversity in the workplace is their team approach. They have a variety of committees that provide forums for employees with a way to reach management and tell them what will help the work environment. This allows management to stay close with their employees and the diverse group will allow them to receive many different views to keep things balanced. With all the diverse groups of employees at Dell managing them can be difficult. At times clashing views between cultures can make administration difficult, with managers trying not to side with anyone yet needing to make a decision.
Still allowing employees to voice opinions only goes so far. Dell has noticed this and provides education to its employees and management. One of their programs is called “Managing current diversity challenges for managers.” This program helps the managers overcome the obstacles to managing a diverse group of employees. “Career quest” is a program fro employees to help the reach out to fellow employees. Also Dell offers mentor programs so that the learning does not stop after the initial classes. Still these classes require a willing employee, which is a huge obstacle for Dell. To nurture the diverse workplace Dell recruits from a variety of places. Dell has great interest in the qualified minority and women markets. Another thing the company focuses on is network groups that span cultural lines. This helps create a better product due to a variety of inputs. An example or a networking group is “Women in Search of Excellence or W.I.S.E.” Dell wants not only to improve their workplace and products but wants to make life for their employees and the communities that their employees live in better. The obstacles to a good human resource and civilization relationship are many, but Dell is trying to overcome them with a strong commitment shown through a variety of programs aimed at helping better their employees and environment in which they live.
Works Cited
http://www.dell.com. 16 February 2005.
