【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 course, the first kind of culture is easier to live in than the second.Rollins: I39。m not saying we39。re the only real men in the world, but we set expectations very high.Isn39。t there more to creating a highperformance culture than setting high expectations? Rollins: It requires discipline and consistency. We know, down to our toenails, that our model works. When Dell fails to execute, it39。s either because the GM is applying the model wrong or he39。s not the right GM. In either case, Michael and I are to blame.Over time, we39。ve steadily improved the managerial talent at Dell. Our team of general managers is now very strong. They39。ve learned the discipline, they have what it takes, they understand the model. So when they miss, it39。s just a failure to execute. And we39。re pretty hard on people who missnot just the two of us but the whole pany. When you fail to execute, our culture says, Fix it. Find what39。s wrong, and fix it. Or ask for help.Dell: We all make mistakes. It39。s not as though at any given time, Dell doesn39。t have some part of the business that39。s not working for us as it should. But we have a culture of continuous improvement. We train employees to constantly ask themselves: How do we grow faster? How do we lower our cost structure? How do we improve service for customers?Is it as tough as it sounds to be a general manager at Dell? Rollins: It39。s really tough. To succeed as a GM here, you have to be smart and you have to be tough. You have to be a team player, and you have to understand the Pamp。L. You39。re in trouble if you don39。t understand the Pamp。L.Sometimes our managers think that what we39。ve asked them to do is irrational. But the fact of the matter is our general managers have succeeded time and time again. When we hold somewhat irrational expectations and convince them they can do it, they e up with fantastic breakthroughs. We challenge our people to substitute ingenuity for investment.Dell: In the late 1990s, we were growing really fast and bringing lots of new talent on board. We used to just throw people in the deep end and see if they39。d sink or swim. If they couldn39。t swim, we39。d get someone else.Rollins: Now we believe we owe our managers more than that. Part of the problem was we were hiring the wrong people people who weren39。t going to be able to swim at Dell. I think we39。ve gotten better at picking people. We39。ve also gotten better at developing them.Five years ago, we weren39。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。s less risk than in hiring random executives from outside. You39。ve seen your own people. You know what they can do. And you know they39。ve already got the DNA.So we now give lots of swimming lessons. But if you still can39。t swim after the lessons, then this is going to feel like a tough place to work.Are you managing by fear? Or by truth telling? Rollins: We39。ve tried to create a culture where openness and honesty are encouraged.I think there was a time when people were afraid, but even then, the fear of not telling the bad news was greater than the fear of telling.Dell: The worst thing you can do as a leader at Dell is to be in denial to try to convince people that a problem39。s not there or play charades. A manager is far better off ing forward and saying, Hey, things aren39。t working, here39。s what we think is wrong, here39。s what we39。re going to do about it. Or, even, Hey, I need some help. Will you help me? That manager won39。t have a problem. The manager who covers up and says it39。s really not as bad as it looks he39。ll have a big problem.Rollins: Our culture has evolved from a fear of the consequences of not telling, to where you just know you have to tell. It39。s the way we all operate. Everybody sees everybody else39。s numbers and gets to help with suggestions about their businesses. Here you 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。re organized in a matrix of sales regions and product groups. Then we break each of those groups down to a pretty fine level of subproducts and sales subsegments. Dell has more Pamp。L managers, and smaller business units, than most panies its size. This not only increases accountability to the customer, it helps train general managers by moving them from smaller to larger businesses as their skills develop.Our matrix organization has a third level our business councils. For example, we have a smallbusiness sales group in each country, along with product development people who bee very familiar with what smallbusiness customers buy. In addition, we have a worldwide smallbusiness council made up of all our smallbusiness GMs and product managers. Everyone in these councils sees everyone else39。s Pamp。L, so it provides another set of checks and balances.Dell: Our performance metrics are the same around the world, which allows us to identify the best practices on any given dimension: generating leads, increasing margins, capturing new customers. If a council sees that Japan has figured out a great strategy for selling more servers, its job is to learn how Japan is doing that and transfer the lessons to other countries.Information is our most important management tool. Our salespeople know the margin on a sale while they39。re on the phone with the customer. This financial data is in real time, so our people know if there39。s a problem. If the folks in our consumer business notice it39。s 10 AM and they39。re not getting enough phone calls, they know they have to do something: ru