Reply to post: Dell got where it is by being a fast follower

My Dell merger wish list

Timo

Dell got where it is by being a fast follower

The thing that made Dell the powerhouse (in the 1990's this is) was that they followed the major PC companies and then applied their supply chain optimization to produce clones of clones at much lower cost.

Dell may have had R&D spending, but it was focused on manufacturing and supply chain, not on computer tech and moving the industry forward. So they saved on a lot of R&D and risk, letting the majors invest in tech and take risks with products out in the open for all to see. Dell would come along and take the safest path with their products now that the market had been sorted and/or the trail had been blazed by someone else.

When IBM veered off into services Dell lost one of their main sources of tech innovation and places to monitor product data. HP eventually caught up with them on cost and so Dell's major advantage was minimized.

Don't get me wrong - Dell did do some really good things in the market but I posit that it was mainly around the supply chain more than the tech itself.

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