How's Dell doing on customer service these days?
Customer service has been a challenge, but I think if you watch the scores now, we have hit the trough, and that's now coming back up. The whole company is focused on the customer experience, first and foremost. So we think we've got that one now under control.
What is next for Dell in terms of expansion? A new manufacturing plant?
We will announce, in the next month or two, new capacity here in the US In the next few years, we are going to need new capacity in Europe and Asia, too... because we don't outsource our manufacturing. Those will be desktop and server factories and notebook factories.
Why not be like others and build products overseas?
Well, we don't operate the way everybody else does. We haven't outsourced our manufacturing. We still own it, and that's because our model requires that we own the value chain. We have to know where our suppliers are, where customers are, and we have to integrate those for just-in-time delivery.
The issue has become one of logistics. The cost of moving a PC around is much more expensive than the labour cost (of building one), and so we locate close to customers.
Now that you're CEO, what are some of the things that you think Dell needs to do?
[Former CEO] Michael [Dell] and I have been running the company [together] for a long time, so in July when I became CEO, it was really not like, "Ah, now I can get to do those things that I've wanted to do."
Are there things you think Dell needs to do better?
Well, one of the things we have been doing is changing and maturing our culture. The Dell model is fantastic. Our ability to add products and capability globally is great. But the restrainer has been -- and will be -- people. In the last two years, that's been a focal point for Michael: getting the talent engine running as well as getting the cultural engine running.
What about competitors? HP isn't growing as fast as Dell. Why is it falling behind?
Everybody says they're doing wonderful... with a fantastic turnaround.
Do you agree with that assessment?
No. I agree they took a lot of costs out, but I don't think they strategically moved the needle on the company's strengths.
What's your recipe for HP success?
I don't know that there is a recipe that can turn it around. I wouldn't go there first off. I wouldn't go run that one. I look at the standpoint of profitability -- I don't care about how much cost they took out; I don't care about how well they integrated. What was making money beforehand is what makes money now, and the same businesses that were struggling before the integration are still struggling. So I ask: what has changed?
