CFO Magazine profiles Dell Computer and its good enough technologies. What’s relentless about Dell and others like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com are their constant focus on cost and associated price reduction.
According to Dell CFO Jim Schneider:
“I don’t think there is ever a limit to reducing costs. If we can take out even a few cents per unit by tweaking our manufacturing processes and supply chain, the sheer magnitude of units we sell adds up to a billion dollars of savings pretty quickly. Our attention to controlling operating expenses remains relentless.”
On the other hand, unlike my CIO friends who seem to buy almost everything from Dell, I’ve never bought anything from Dell. Nothing, nada. My Micron desktop retired a few moons ago, not to be replaced. My laptops are exclusively from Sony and Apple — I appreciate the design excellence these two bring (well, sorta, in the case of Sony!) to their products. But I also benefit from and appreciate that, behind the scenes, Dell’s relentless focus on low cost and price is driving Sony and Apple to do the same!