HBR Case Revitalizing Dell Essay

Acer has a degree of control over its prices and a considerable amount of non-price competitions exists, which ultimately leads to price discrimination (University of Phoenix, 2011). As such, Acer should focus on attaining and retaining loyal customers. Their non-pricing strategy should be focused on the development of products that are unique

This case study mainly gyrates the Dell company’s niceties, such as how it comes in the picture, back in 1984, how Michael Dell (founder) makes it to the top, what strategies he used over the time to be there on the top, which markets he selected (target market), what’s the special about the Dell, who are its rivals, how they differ from Dell, what are the reasons that dethrone the Dell from the game by its rivals from the top position, future remedies and so on.

By grafting its system of custom direct sales onto the Internet infrastructure, Dell has transformed these activities, creating an innovative and efficient procurement, production, and distribution network. The innovative advance made by Dell in deploying Internet communication as the foundation of its production network, is a process innovation. Although to some extent, the Internet has enabled Dell to create a new product -- a PC custom-configured through Internet communication -- it is the process of organizing flows of materials and information within its network, from customer order to procurement, production and delivery, by means of Internet communication, that defines the innovation at the Firm. The case supports this notion by stating “While most other PCs were sold preconfigured and pre-assembled in retail stores, Dell offered superior customer choice in system configuration at a deeply discounted price, due to the cost-savings associated with cutting out the retail middleman. Additionally, an important side-benefit of the Internet-based direct sales model was that it generated a wealth of market data the company used to efficiently forecast demand trends and carry out effective segmentation strategies. This data drove the company’s product development efforts and allowed Dell to profit from information on the value drivers in each of its key customer

Present CEO and chairman of the board Michael Dell founded Dell in 1984, as a leading technology provider that designs, develops, manufactures, and supports PCs, software and peripherals, storage and servers, and associated services. With operations in four geographic areas and additional business centers and manufacturing sites in more than 20 locations around the world, Dell is able to reach more than 24,000 retail locations worldwide. Dell’s ability to process in-depth customer knowledge and the tailoring of solutions to the specific customer, through a direct customer sales model, catapulted the company in 2008 to the top PC provider in the United States and second worldwide in terms of sales.

3) Determine what strategies Acer can apply to become the world’s third largest PC company, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

The direct supply chain model that Dell has been using for many years to sell customized PC’s to customers via the internet has been very successful. Dell designed and structured the supply chain to provide customized computers in a quick manner and with a reasonable price. Customers can visit the Dell website and configure the PC they desired and see the cost options they selected. Once the order was finalized, Dell would then start the building of that customized computer to meet the customer’s selection and ship the finished product directly from the manufacturing

Dell has emerged as one of the biggest sellers in the PC market. From humble beginnings in 1983, when Michael Dell worked out of his campus dorm room, to 1996 when we reached $7.8 billion in sales, the source of our amazing success has been our unwavering focus on the customer, termed the “Dell Direct Model.”

Dell Computer Corporation was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell. From the early 1990s until the mid-2000s, Dell was ranked as a PC market leader relying on their distinctive marketing pattern “Direct Model” which undertook direct communication with customers and provided customized products. Recently, the PC industry is facing inconceivable worldwide competition, and Dell is gradually losing their competitive advantages by using its direct model in critical business segments. The company is facing shrinkage of growth, increasing competition, declining quality of customer service, and limitation of expansion. These issues have an enormous impact on Dell’s position as a technological giant in the PC industry.

The company's evolution was achieved by taking away share from business frontrunners and “co-modifying” the product. Rather than being the market leader in other consumer electronic products (such as HDTV, digital cameras, etc.) when the prices for new products are high and consumers are doing research prior to the purchase Dell's home might be to jump into the market as consumer electronic products begin to changeover into merchandises. The company can be prepared to capture the second wave or level of consumers who have not taken on new technologies and products until the prices lower and technology becomes accepted.

The Dell Computer Corporation was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, who began the company by refurbishing IBM clones out of his dorm room for extra money. From the beginning and through the 1990’s, the company grew quickly and was very successful. Dell used a cost leadership strategy and focus on creating products that were already in the market place, but changed the timing of production and the method of distribution that was in place with the company’s competitors by assembling computers to order and selling directly to the customers. The company focused on creating value for customers and meeting their needs, but into the

Essay 1 : Introduction to Dell 3 Parts - Look at the Business Model in Particular (Is it fit for purpose?) – Then the Ecosystem – The Modularization and mention licensing Look the Paradigm of Dell Conclusion

In 2007 Acer bought Gateway in the USA and Packard Bell in Europe and became the Number 3 world provider of computers and number 2 for notebooks, and achieved significant improvement in profitability. Acer has been striving to become the world's largest PC vendor, in the belief that the goal can help it achieve economy of scale and garner higher margin.[9] But such a reliance on the high-volume, low-value PC market made Acer exposed when buying habits

Although both companies have diversified into other industries, PC industry is still their most important source of revenue. For years, these two giants are battling for lead in PC market. When measured by market share, HP has taken place of Dell as No.1 seller in PC market since 2007 (FIGURE 1). When measured by revenue, HP also wins over Dell for almost five years (FIGURE 2). Also, Acer grew rapidly in market share partly because of its merger with Gateway in 2007 (Einhorn 2007), and almost matched Dell in 2009.

The PC industry has seen many changes in the past decade, such that there was a time when Dell was considered as one of the beloved brands of the internet era and now due to competitive and consumer behavioural changes, sales is not as prominent as it once was.

Acer's dominance as a global manufacturer of IT hardware products can be attributed to the company's extensive electronics component expertise, depth of experience managing global electronics component supply chains, and well-planned acquisitions. Through a series of successful acquisitions, the company has four successful brands including Acer, eMachines, Gateway and Packard-Bell (DiDominico, Kartika, Sibeck, 1996). Of these three strategic areas that Acer excels in, their logistics and supply chain expertise across each of the geographies they compete in continue to deliver the greatest time-to-market and cost gains (Honi, Taring, Po-Young, 2000). Acer is organized into two segments, the device business group and consolidated products and services or other business group. This second group continues to be instrumental in the success of the "divide and conquer" strategies that Acer is successfully using relative to Lenovo. It is also a critical success factors in their success with global markets and local market competitive strategy. The combination of their depth of expertise with electronic components and supply chain prowess in the high technology industry also give the company a formidable competitive advantage against Dell and the troubled PC marker Hewlett-Packard (Honi, Taring, Po-Young, 2000). Despite all these strengths however, Acer continues to struggle with the areas of consumer branding and consumer awareness