【正文】 ed in decision making at Dell than you might find at other panies, because a lot of people here own Pamp。ve been able to simulate failure in our minds —Rollins: before it happens —Dell: and avoid extinction or disastrous consequences because we39。s a divideandconquer element. You can39。s this going to work? How big39。re not convinced, we don39。ve led the market in the areas of innovation we believe will be important to customers like the Internet, the moditization of servers and storage, and converting from CRT monitors to LCDs. In our industry, there39。d gotten rich from stock options and considered themselves volunteers meaning they39。t do it with the stock price, because the stock had busted.Dell: We knew we couldn39。d have to find if 50% of our people left the pany. We couldn39。t need it because we never gave it to them. We thought, If you need to have someone tell you you39。t get it. That was a mistake, because obviously everybody needs positive feedback, 。m actually suspicious when I get positive feedback.Rollins: This was a blind spot for both of us, because personally we39。s the datadriven answer: We did the math.Rollins: We looked at how many people we39。t, I39。t be able to keep growing.Historically, working at Dell was about money being a Dellionaire not about working for the best pany. The Tell Dell survey indicated that 50% of our people would have been willing to leave the pany for a parable job elsewhere. That39。t done acquisitions. We39。s decision making? Rollins: We39。s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the latest technology development, so Kevin and I ask a lot of questions. When someone runs into our offices saying, We39。s expertise lies more in technology. My expertise lies more in the institutionalization of running a big pany. But we both do strategy, we both meet with customers, we both manage the Pamp。s judgment.Dell: Leaders have to show that they know the way, even if they have no idea what to do. The truth is that we probably have a lot more fear than we39。t matter what part of the pany it39。re not getting enough phone calls, they know they have to do something: run a promotion on the Web, starting at 10:15, or change their pricing or run more ads. They can39。t tell your boss or your peers, Stay out of my business. Openness and sharing are part of success at Dell.Dell: We also have a huge number of people inside the pany with incredibly accurate and detailed information about a whole range of things. That level of transparency makes it difficult to hide a problem.Rollins: Like many panies, we39。s what we think is wrong, here39。t spending much seniormanager time on people development. That has changed dramatically. Our promotions to VP and director have shifted from about 75% outside hires and 25% promotes from within to about 30% outside and 70% within. We now understand this yields better results. There39。L.Sometimes our managers think that what we39。s wrong, and fix it. Or ask for help.Dell: We all make mistakes. It39。re the only real men in the world, but we set expectations very high.Isn39。t pay us to sit around and lose money.If you39。t e from us, it came from our people seeing for themselves how much better their businesses worked when they didn39。 we39。ll win our fair share of the market. This is how Dell defines standards. We think standards should be set in the marketplace, not in the patent office. Given our customer relationships and worldwide market share, it39。 products. For example, we have a petitor that39。D strategy is shareholder focused. We don39。D, we get about six dollars back in profit. When Samsung puts in a dollar, it gets three or four dollars back. Those are both pretty healthy ratios. Microsoft earns about $18 billion in operating ine on about $ billion in Ramp。D model. In fact, if you look at the products that still represent most of the industry39。t make your own chips and disk drives. Although we39。s radar screen. Dell changed the game.Rollins: We started talking about return on invested capital (ROIC), which focuses you on high returns at very low asset intensity. Before that, the market believed heavier asset intensity was better because you could charge huge margins for a proprietary product. We said, No, that39。ve worked together to refine Dell39。L management, an emphasis on ingenuity rather than on investment, and a culture of accountability. MICHAEL DELL FOUNDED the puter pany that bears his name in 1984. Eight years later, at the age of 27, Dell became the youngest CEO in the Fortune 500. Soon the business world was abuzz with talk about the Dell business model, which allows the pany to bypass middlemen, sell directly to customers, and achieve superior management of information and working capital. The Power of Virtual Integration, HBR called it in a 1998 interview with Michael Dell. Since then, the pany has continued to gain market share while delivering better shareholder returns than any of its petitors. Initially capitalized with $1,000, Dell is now worth more than $100 billion.The secret of Dell39。s sustained petitive advantage is due to more than its famous business model. Consistent execution requires realtime Pamp。s headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. In this edited interview, the two describe how they39。t execute as well as we do.Dell: Culture plays a huge role. As our industry transitioned to a standardsbased model from a proprietary model, with its 40% gross margins, protected franchises, and tiered distribution, a whole new set of business disciplines became important. Things like customercentricity, supply chain logistics, and cash flow management had been pletely off the industry39。re not a real pany if you don39。ve undersold our Ramp。D spending will generate the best return.For every dollar we put into Ramp。s less than 1:1. OK panies are about 1:1, and successful panies exceed 1:1.Dell: Our Ramp。t use them with other panies39。re successful in selling their ponents to as many panies as possible, because that drives costs down fo