Michael Dell sent a memo to the staff of the company he founded, Dell (DELL).
According to The Wall Street Journal, it had some banal insights.
"The Direct Model has been a revolution, but is not a religion," Mr. Dell said in the memo. He added, "We will continue to improve our business model, and go beyond it, to give our customers what they need." As if Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Apple, and Acer have not figured this out already.
The memo also takes a jab at competitors who "drive complexity and needless cost into customers’ environments," in an attempt to sell costly services with large numbers of consultants."These so-called "service divisions" create a never-ending cycle of activity with unclear return on investment," Mr. Dell writes. "We intend to break this cycle. We will build different kinds of services and offer key technologies that will help customers escape this complexity trap and unlock the true potential of technology."
Perhaps this is cynical, but does Dell have any special corner on "unlocking the true potential of technology". They may have a lot of competition on that.
Leaked memos like this do big companie no good. They make turnaround efforts seem like easy, quick fixes based on being able to repair things that competitors have already figured out.
Keep quiet, and get the job done.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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