Dell’s bright idea
Michael Dell has moved swiftly to reassert his authority over Dell, the PC maker he founded in 1984, after retaking the CEO reins in January from Kevin Rollins. Rollins, hand-picked by Dell in 2004 to succeed him, was forced out last month because of the company’s poor financial performance.
Since resuming control, Dell has fired managers, including CFO James Schneider, and brought in fresh blood in an effort to reinvigorate the company. He has also promised to reduce inefficiency in the organization and listen more closely to consumer demands.
Dell’s most interesting move so far has been the launch of a website, Dell IdeaStorm, where the company is asking customers to tell it what they want. “You can suggest new products or services you’d like to see Dell develop or tell the world how you feel about major trends in technology and society,” says the website, dellideastorm.com. “Our commitment is to listen to your input and ideas to improve our products and services and the way we do business.”
Dell IdeaStorm copies ideas from social news sites such as digg, where people vote for their favourite news items. The most popular items are escalated to the front page. The more popular an item, the higher it is ranked.
There has been considerable response. Consumers are demanding that Linux operating system be preinstalled on new PCs sold by Dell. The most popular post to Dell IdeaStorm says: “Offer the top free Linux versions [Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Fedora] for free preinstallations on all Dell PCs.”
Comments suggest that consumers don’t want to have to pay the “Microsoft tax” – the additional cost of a PC because it comes preinstalled with Windows. Most PC makers don’t offer an alternative to Windows.
Open-source software is a theme that runs through the most popular items on IdeaStorm. For example, consumers want:
• OpenOffice.org, a free office suite, instead of Microsoft Works and Microsoft Office;
• A laptop that ships with Linux that has been fully tested to work with free operating system;
• Mozilla Firefox preinstalled as the default web browser instead of Internet Explorer on Windows machines; and
• A guarantee that all Dell hardware will work with Linux.
Dell responded last Friday, promising to work closely with Novell, a Linux vendor, to certify its corporate client products for Linux. “In addition to working with Novell, we are also working with other distributors and evaluating the possibility of additional certifications across our product line.”
The company has also promised to make more PCs available without any operating system preinstalled.
It’s bad news for Microsoft. If Dell follows through with its promise then Linux, which has suffered, at least in part, because of consumer apathy about switching from the operating system that comes preinstalled on their PCs, could finally become popular on the desktop. But it’s not bad news for Dell: by taking advice from consumers in this way, the company will be well-placed once again to displace Hewlett-Packard as the world’s top-selling PC manufacturer.
SA companies, particularly those that are consumer-focused, would do well to look closely at what Dell is doing. Imagine if one of SA’s big banks, retailers or telecommunications companies created a similar website, asking their customers what they’d like, and then followed through with those ideas. I guarantee they’d win market share.
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