I am not thinking of sticking Michael Dell on the fast track to replace Steve Jobs, but if the company does go under or throws the man out, he’ll be looking for a home. I don’t think he will be able to get the industry out of his blood, and he’ll land somewhere. It may be that the best place to have him would be on the board. After all, if Larry Ellison can serve with Al Gore and some Googlage, that’s one well-run crowd. He’d be able to help direct the company without a hands-on role that might damage the balance and the creativity that seems to be in place.

Oh, no. Please say you’re not serious. What, just what, would Michael Dell bring to the table that Apple needs? Even assuming that Steve Jobs retires and the company needs a new head honcho, what would Dell add to the mix-- besides stirring up the memory of this “give money back to shareholders” comment of years past?

No, this is not a good fit. Dell’s a tough nut executive, yes, but has no culture or style or vision. Efficient builder of boxes, perhaps. But an Apple guy? I’d sell my stock, and I bought in the $40s.

Dell’s not likely to go under. They’re a massive company with plenty of resources. They lost their way after Dell mostly retired. The same happened to Gateway and the founder had to come back, clean house, right the ship again. Or, all PC companies are leaking and sinking. Whatever.

Sorry, Danny Boy, but I am. Michael Dell is many things, often things associated with evil, rudeness, and similar traits. However, he does know how to do the one thing Apple never has done well: Customize. Yes, I can go to store.apple.com and pick and choose this, that, or the other alteration to any base model, but I think Michael Dell has ideas Apple could use (probably in a heavily modified form) to improve its sales channel.

Note that I am only saying “if” in my comments, and this was in response to a question regarding which CEO was next on the chopping block. The company may well survive, though its fundamentals are foundering. Michael Dell, I maintain, will not be so lucky in his tenure there.

Ironically Dell used Apple’s/NeXT’s WebObjects to build their online store. I think recently they may have moved to some AJAX abomination, but up until very recently it was still WebObjects. I would argue, though, that a lot of Dell’s success in customization relied on their complete abandonment of the retail store. If you can assemble inventory JIT from on hand components, you can keep your inventory levels in a much more reasonable state.

Rather than, say, shipping Best Buy three of each iMac color.

Andrew Purvis - 07 March 2007 12:41 AM

I am not thinking of sticking Michael Dell on the fast track to replace Steve Jobs, but if the company does go under or throws the man out, he’ll be looking for a home. I don’t think he will be able to get the industry out of his blood, and he’ll land somewhere. It may be that the best place to have him would be on the board. After all, if Larry Ellison can serve with Al Gore and some Googlage, that’s one well-run crowd. He’d be able to help direct the company without a hands-on role that might damage the balance and the creativity that seems to be in place.

Based on Michael Dell’s recommendation that Apple shutter the doors and give money back to the shareholders, I’d suspect it’ll be a cold day in hell before he sits on Apple’s board of directors.

It remains to be seen what Dell can do to fix his own company. Dell’s market cap is barely $60-billion, while AAPL’s approaches $100-billion. Apple is rocketing along with all engines blasting and Dell is struggling; beleaguered even.

Andrew Purvis - 16 March 2007 09:37 PM

Sorry, Danny Boy, but I am. Michael Dell is many things, often things associated with evil, rudeness, and similar traits. However, he does know how to do the one thing Apple never has done well: Customize. Yes, I can go to store.apple.com and pick and choose this, that, or the other alteration to any base model, but I think Michael Dell has ideas Apple could use (probably in a heavily modified form) to improve its sales channel.

Note that I am only saying “if” in my comments, and this was in response to a question regarding which CEO was next on the chopping block. The company may well survive, though its fundamentals are foundering. Michael Dell, I maintain, will not be so lucky in his tenure there.

Dell’s customization was simply a result of his laziness to figure out what the customer wants.  The fact of the matter is that you don’t need endless variations of a computer.  Most needs can be met with a few options.  Since Dell wasn’t even going to bother to build it till you ordered it, he could just wait and make you make all the choices.  I would just as soon let the engineers make those tough choices, not me.

Dell’s main ability was to cut costs, cut costs, and cut costs.  If it was up to Dell, the computer you would buy today would look exactly like the computer could have bought 5 years ago.  Sure the guts would have changed (processors, RAM, drives, etc) but there would have been no design innovations.  This lack of innovations is what has hurt Dell (IMHO).  Their products are just boring and bland.  They’re the FORD Fairmont of computers - only the government and corporations buys them because they’re a little bit cheaper.  Its my contention that Macs get used because they work and they make a statement about the user.  What statement does a Windows PC make about its user?  “I’m a sheeple and I wanted the absolute cheapest computer I could get and was taken in by the $299 computer lie”.

Dell working at Apple would be a disaster.  Apple would be better off with Bill Gates than Dell…