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1、Title: Execution Without Excuses. Authors: Stewart, Thomas A.OBrien, Louise Source: Harvard Business Review; Mar2005, Vol. 83 Issue 3, p102, 10p, 2c Document Type: InterviewDells sustained competitive advantage is due to more than its famous business model. Consistent execution requires real-time P&
2、L management, an emphasis on ingenuity rather than on investment, and a culture of accountability. MICHAEL DELL FOUNDED the computer company that bears his name in 1984. Eight years later, at the age of 27, Dell became the youngest CEO in the Fortune 500. Soon the business world was abuzz with talk
3、about the Dell business model, which allows the company to bypass middlemen, sell directly to customers, and achieve superior management of information and working capital. The Power of Virtual Integration, HBR called it in a 1998 interview with Michael Dell. Since then, the company has continued to
4、 gain market share while delivering better shareholder returns than any of its competitors. Initially capitalized with $1,000, Dell is now worth more than $100 billion.The secret of Dells success goes beyond its famous business model. High expectations and disciplined, consistent execution are embed
5、ded in the companys DNA. Dell is more than an efficient factory - its an organization that can turn on a dime and that has demonstrated impeccable timing in entering new markets. The company now employs 53,000 people and operates in more than 80 countries. Last month, its founder and chairman reache
6、d the ripe old age of 40. Kevin Rollins, a former Bain & Company consultant who began working with Dell back in 1993 and joined the company in 1996, was appointed CEO last year. Chairman and CEO work in adjoining offices. The wall between them is glass, and it has a large door in the middle that is
7、never closed.While providing extraordinary rewards to its shareholders, Dell has created a culture that expects great performance from its people. In order to double its revenues over a five-year period, the company has had to adapt its execution-obsessed culture to new demands, as Rollins and Dell
8、reveal. To discuss how the company has sustained its advantage over two decades, Thomas A. Stewart, the editor of HBR, and Louise OBrien, an HBR consulting editor who served as Dells VP of strategy from 1999 to 2002, met with Rollins and Dell at the companys headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. In thi
9、s edited interview, the two describe how theyve worked together to refine Dells business model, management-development structure, and culture.The elements of the Dell business model are no secret: going direct, information over inventory, world-class manufacturing, and superior customer information.
10、 Everybody knows these, so why havent other companies been able to copy your model or beat you at your own game? Rollins: The same reason why Kmart cant imitate Wal-Mart. What Wal-Mart does isnt rocket science - its retailing. Why cant everybody be Wal-Mart or JetBlue or Samsung or whatever the best
11、 company in their industry is? Because it takes more than strategy. It takes years of consistent execution for a company to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. So while Dell does have a superior business model, the key to our success is years and years of DNA development within our teams that
12、 is not replicable outside the company. Other companies just cant execute as well as we do.Dell: Culture plays a huge role. As our industry transitioned to a standards-based model from a proprietary model, with its 40% gross margins, protected franchises, and tiered distribution, a whole new set of
13、business disciplines became important. Things like customer-centricity, supply chain logistics, and cash flow management had been completely off the industrys radar screen. Dell changed the game.Rollins: We started talking about return on invested capital (ROIC), which focuses you on high returns at
14、 very low asset intensity. Before that, the market believed heavier asset intensity was better because you could charge huge margins for a proprietary product. We said, No, thats not the way the world works. Asset reduction, inventory reduction, speed and time consolidation - these became more impor
15、tant than how much you spend on R&D. High R&D spending, when you do it to create proprietary products, leads you into a niche strategy, not a broad-based strategy. Yet many companies continue to argue that the winner will be the biggest R&D spender.Dell: That paradigm belongs in the Smithsonian with
16、 the dinosaurs.Rollins: Dell changed the strategic success factor for our industry from R&D spending to being the lowest-cost producer of standard technology. No company in the history of mankind thats been a low-cost provider has been a loser. But staying low cost is tough, especially when you have to keep improving your product.Dell: Proprietary, vertically oriented technology companies believe that youre not a real company if you do
