Ding dong Dell

My Strategic Management lecturer didn't agree with my 'Dell is doomed' analysis but I will stick with it for now. My thinking? Dell is great at supply chain efficiency and wringing the cost out of selling and building a known - well known - product. However that core competency dooms you to always arriving late to the party, playing catch-up to the innovators. Whilst you can derive a good business out of the top and tail of the life cycle, you must also continue to spread the net ever wider, until you have extended yourself too far. Meanwhile your core business has either declined or evolved, and you again have to chase. I'm not saying Dell can't survive at this game, just that it will reach limits. Has Dell reached its limit?

This Wharton interview with Michael Dell is interesting, if only for the insight into Dell's reliance on a future services business and relatively old hat ideas like Dell Connect. Can services save Dell? Hey I work for IBM, and my opinion is my own and not my employer's, but I still won't comment further!