Einan said:
It's just the fact that Dell grew quickly and the infrastructure didn't grow as fast as the bureaucracy.
You know, I heard that argument all the time when I was there, and I don't buy it.
It's just an excuse for being lazy.
People can learn the infrastructure, make needed contacts, and have a very effective communication network...but very few do.
When I was there I could accomplish pretty much anything. I shipped $12M worth of server parts to Iraq the first day of the new war, overnight. I shipped trucks full of used monitors to distributors. I was able to correct errors that system sales made before the customer even realized the error. I was able to send everything going to boeing through an alternate warehouse where everything got the 'special boeing sticker' before shipping out. I was always able to expedite anything that was in stock and had visibility to stock and substitutes, so I could order the best part, at the best price, pick a manufacturer, and shoot it out of the warehouse. I knew people in every business (home, ed, gov, bus, HC) and every dept (cust supp, tech, system sales, parts) and the people that directly affected my ability to be effective, like parts planners/buyers, warehouse folks, credit and collections, global export compliance, web site support. I had that set up in just over a year, and when I started, I didn't know anything about computers above word processing...my field was sports medicine for Pete's sake!
They changed the phone queue trickledown so people would wind up in our queue if they didn't hit buttons, or hit 0 a bunch of times...because we solved problems, even if they weren't specifically our problems, because we knew what we were doing, how to do it, and took ownership of all Dell customers (even home users that thought lightning strikes or freezing your LCD in the car overnight should be covered by warranty). A single person can make a huge change in the atmosphere at Dell, and a TEAM of dedicated people, realizing the larger good, can accomplish anything.
The problem is lazy people, especially the people on the front lines. They just want to sit there and answer the phone and make you someone else's problem. They didn't want to learn the tools, the equipment, the technology, the soft skills, nor the infrastructure. They wanted to sit there for 40 hours, do the least amount possible, then collect a fat check and whine about the price of their stock options or their jobs going to India because they sucked. (This is a generalization, there were SOME good people that were thrown out with the bath water.)
That's all In My Experience, of course. That's the only bad thing I've ever said about Dell, and I said it on every internal quarterly survey too.
Compusa thought it was our fault (me and a friend of mine). Had another friend build my next comp and then after that friend #1 and myself built the others. Getting ready to build a new comp soon as soon as I get the parts. Won't ever go back to IBM ever again.
May use it for gaming so I won't have to lug so many books to the gaming sessions....
