I. Research background and significance

Founded in 1984, Dell Company is an American computer manufacturer that distributes personal computers by direct sales, and its business scale has rapidly developed to the current sales level of more than 12 billion US dollars. Dell is an enterprise operating in the form of network organization, which is connected with many manufacturers who supply computer hardware and software for it. There are some suppliers, and the computer display screen is very good. First, Dell made great efforts and investments to make this supplier only have 1, defective products per million products, and after it was confirmed that this supplier reached the required level through performance evaluation, Dell completely assured that their products were directly branded with the "Dell" trademark, and cancelled the acceptance and inventory of this supply. Similar practices also occur in the supply of other outsourced parts of Dell. The practice of Dell Company is that when the logistics department learns from the electronic database that the company will put forward a certain type of computer from its own assembly factory one day, it will send the supplier the instruction information on how many display screens to allocate in the morning, so that by the evening of that day, groups of computers can be packaged and distributed to customers. In this way, not only can the inspection and inventory costs be saved, but also the delivery speed can be accelerated and the service quality can be improved.

ii. Dell's business strategy

Dell implements a customer-centered market strategy, wholeheartedly provides quality services to customers, and has a professional sales and technical team. Provide services to customers in different fields, such as enterprises, * * *, finance, education and scientific research. Have an accurate market positioning. Dell's business model is mainly direct selling.

Dell assembles products according to customers' orders, and then sends them directly to customers. The essence of this model is to abandon the middleman and retailer links in the traditional commercial sales chain, save costs and reduce product prices. Low cost has always been the survival law of Dell and the core of "dell model", and low cost must be achieved through high efficiency. Dell's production and sales process is famous for its precise management, smooth flow and super efficiency, which effectively controls the cost to the lowest level.

Another way for the company to win is to accurately find the entry point of the high-tech product market and quickly seize the market share of its competitors.

Dell usually intervenes in a certain market when the market is mature, the industry standard has been formed and the supply of accessories is sufficient, and quickly seizes the site at a low price.

Dell's efficient management has made it always put forward the posture of "the legendary swordsman", and the adjustment of price range has also created "Hot Dell".

As we all know, Dell is dominated by the direct sales model. The direct business model aims to establish direct contact between manufacturers and consumers. After receiving the ordering information from consumers, manufacturers will organize production, installation and delivery, assist customers in installation and provide after-sales support. For family and small and medium-sized enterprise customers, most of them sell directly by telephone; For large-scale industry users, face-to-face direct relationship is established through on-the-spot sales. No matter what kind of customers Dell is targeting, Dell emphasizes the direct customer experience.

the biggest feature of the direct business model is that it realizes seamless "virtual integration" between manufacturers and consumers without going through any agents, distributors or terminal retailers, so that manufacturers can maintain low-cost and high-efficiency business execution, and ensure a unified price system, avoiding the market price confusion caused by some distributors blindly selling at a reduced price in pursuit of sales volume. And consumers can effectively avoid all kinds of traps in the channel and realize on-demand and personalized customization.

III. Advantages

With the rapid development of science and technology, the speed of computer upgrading is also accelerating, which brings fierce competition in the global computer market. In this market, Dell has always maintained a high income and increased its market share. In 1999, Dell's share in the American computer manufacturing market reached 16%, ranking first in the United States; In 22, the annual after-tax income of Dell has reached 38.2 billion US dollars. In the global personal computer market, Dell's share has risen to 15.2%, making it the second largest company in the world. Unlike other computer manufacturers, Dell does not produce any computer accessories, but only engages in personalized assembly of the whole machine. However, it has defeated many companies with strong technical strength, such as IBM, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.

When it comes to Dell's success, everyone almost unanimously boils down to the "direct selling model". In fact, Dell's success stems from its extraordinary efficiency of logistics management-that is, it has established a high-speed and effective supply chain. "We only store stocks that can be produced for five days, while our competitors store stocks for 3 days, 45 days or even 9 days. This is the difference. " Dick, the company's vice president in charge of logistics and distribution? Hunter hit the nail on the head

excellent logistics

1. Flexible and low-cost distribution system

reduces investment in fixed assets and accelerates capital turnover. Enterprises need to invest a lot of money to buy logistics devices and build professional logistics devices such as warehouses and information networks. These resources are a heavy burden for enterprises that lack funds, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. If the third-party logistics company is used, it will not only reduce the investment in facilities, but also liberate the capital occupation of warehouses and fleets and accelerate the capital turnover.

2. Dynamic supply and demand balance of the supply chain system

Customers and suppliers who are stable can ensure that they can cope with it at any time, so that they do not have the phenomenon of tight supply or slow sales.

3. Electronization runs through the whole supply chain process

The general network of large enterprises is also relatively large, and the network management is very detailed: there are servers responsible for certain business systems, those responsible for switching routes, those responsible for network security, etc. The situation of each enterprise is different, but basically it will be divided into two aspects: network and host. The software and hardware related to servers and storage are generally in the host, while switching, routing, firewall and load balancing are general.

IV. Problems

Dell's efficient management has made it always put forward the posture of "the legendary swordsman", and the adjustment of price range has also created "Hot Dell".

Problems

1. Dell's direct sales model is weak in emerging markets such as fourth-and fifth-tier cities and small and medium-sized enterprises

2. The direct sales model is not suitable for emerging markets, small and medium-sized enterprises and consumer markets

3. Inside Dell China: I always hope for channel change; Dell headquarters: has been hesitant; The fourth president, David Mai: Denying firmly will change the direct mode of Dell China.

4. The brain drain is serious, and Dell's PC market share in China is declining

5. The page of the website is too single, and the product introduction is not detailed, systematic and clear.

6. The direct selling model has not opened up a big situation in China, because the credit system in China has just begun, and there is no remote payment means. Moreover, computers are a big consumption for China people, who like to see the goods before buying them, and establish a certain system maintenance "contract" with the seller. For the time being, Dell's sales method of invisible people is difficult to be generally accepted. Even in the United States, the shortage of Dell's after-sales service has had a quite negative impact. Many people complain that the Indian operator hired by Dell can't understand American English. Today, Dell uses the Internet to further promote its direct ordering model and is once again in the leading position in the industry. In 1994, Dell launched the Dell website, and in 1996, it added the function of e-commerce to promote the development of business to the Internet. Today, based on Microsoft's WindowsNT operating system, Dell operates the largest Internet business website in the world. The sales of this website account for 4-5% of the company's total revenue. The Dell website operated by Dell PowerEdge servers includes sites in 8 countries, and currently more than 4 million people visit it every quarter. Customers can evaluate multiple configurations, get quotes in real time, get technical support, and order one or more systems.

v. People's comments on Dell

In my articles on PC competition, I found that everyone had too high expectations for the new Lenovo, or were too disdainful of Dell's potential, or lacked profound insight into the overall PC competition situation. Whether writing for Lenovo, or talking about brand success, admiration or other things, in fact, we borrow a sentence from Mr. Welch, the former CEO of GE, "Don't deceive yourself, in fact, this is the case", and the reality is not optimistic.

1. Dell is a global enemy

Why does the world exclaim that "it is easy to shake a mountain, but difficult to shake Dell"? Why is the new Lenovo and the new HP hanging by a thread? If we don't deeply analyze dell model, it's easy to get into dogmatism, brand for brand, marketing for marketing, and technology for technology.

what makes an up-and-coming embroidery, which started at the same time as Lenovo and was much later than IBM and Compaq, flourish in the PC industry all over the world? The answer is dell model. Many researchers in the world are discussing dell model, and come to various conclusions, but the core of the model is that many people understand the direct selling model as depressing, low-cost, high-quality and standardized. Let's analyze them one by one.

2. Terrible dell model

Dell's direct model is not the same as direct sales model, which is just an attempt to flatten sales. Dell's direct model has two meanings: one is directly facing raw material suppliers, and the other is directly facing customers. In this model, Dell has established a set of standardized management of global supply chain systems and processes, as Zhang Ruimin said, "In Dell, every product has an order, and it integrates the order every 2 seconds through a mature network". In this mode, Dell has built a strong customer cohesion ability through its standardized management, which is the killer of its rival suppliers. Usually, Dell can sell at least 5 million computers a year, which requires purchasing 5 million monitors, 5 million hard disks, 5 million network interface cards, etc. Such a large order is a very big cake for any supplier, not an edible one. In this case, Dell is in a strong position, requiring suppliers to follow Dell's standards, such as "on-demand, delivery at any time", and Dell does not purchase 5 million parts at a time, but purchases in small batches, such as 5, or 1, at a time, but the overall purchase volume remains unchanged, and requires suppliers to deliver goods completely according to orders. In addition, Dell must require suppliers to make mandatory cost reduction and quality improvement every year, or they will be disqualified. In order to meet Dell's "zero inventory", suppliers must also set up warehouses near Dell's factory to quickly respond to Dell's strong customer cohesion and huge order resources. Moreover, the ownership of raw materials in transit belongs to the supplier before they enter Dell's processing plant, in other words, all expenses are still borne by the supplier at this time. For logistics providers, the requirements are equally demanding, for example, the products must be delivered to customers in the safest way at the lowest cost within 2 days.

3.

What is embarrassing in the future is that while Dell is growing rapidly, Lenovo, our national pride, has made big strategic mistakes more than once, from losing in diversification to returning to PC. Michael said, "Dell can succeed, not because we are good, but because our opponents are always making strategic mistakes." Of course, not only Lenovo, but also Compaq, the original PC boss, bought DEC and HP bought Compaq. Who hasn't made an old strategic mistake more than once? Make the mistake of technology for technology's sake. In fact, when Compaq acquired DEC, all the competitors said with confidence how Dell was a worthless company with no technology. When HP acquired Compaq, HP CEO Carly even said that "Dell is a poor company, and its volume is just a sales company"; When Lenovo Liu Chuanzhi read "Lenovo Flag Flying Forever" at the swearing-in meeting in 2, he said that Dell was just an opponent selling computers and had no technology. Today, Compaq has disappeared on the stage of history. Hewlett-Packard not only lost its PC, but also its printer business, the core of its profit, was threatened by Dell's low cost. The blue giant IBM quit the PC forever, and Lenovo has been struggling in China for 2 years. I can't help but sigh, "Who is the hero in the world, who is fighting for the peak with the sword in hand?"

VI. Solutions

1. Product innovation mainly starts with product types, quality, functions, packaging, services, etc. Of course, the product is regarded as a whole product, including all the innovations of goods and services that can meet customers' needs. All the innovations of enterprises come down to product innovation, in order to provide more and better products to meet the needs of society.

2. factor innovation

includes the innovation of production equipment for production materials, the adoption of a new production material, and the renewal or transformation of production equipment.

3. Innovation of factor combination

That is, the innovation of employees' different time and space coordination methods and the innovation of different time and space combinations of production factors, so as to improve the utilization efficiency of raw materials and factors.

4. enterprise alliance strategy: a strategic alliance refers to two or more economic entities, generally speaking, enterprises. If some departments between enterprises reach an alliance relationship, this definition is also applicable to any long-term joint and cooperative agreement in the form of equity or non-equity to take risks and enjoy benefits.

VII. Conclusion

Enterprises can do without advertising, brands or even products, but enterprises can't do without channels, and channel construction is the foundation of enterprises. Market competition, channel winning, channel competition and management are the most important.

be efficient. It is necessary to establish the concept of "time waits for no one, seize the day", have a strong sense of timeliness and a pragmatic and resolute work style, so as not to shirk, dispute, procrastinate, perfunctory or stay overnight. It is necessary to effectively implement the responsibility system of first inquiry and the time-limited closing system, establish a statement and establish a bank, do urgent things urgently, do special things specially, do important things quickly, and complete various tasks on time and in accordance with quantity and quality assurance. We should pay attention to exploring and grasping the characteristics and laws of office work, and form a working mechanism with high efficiency, coordinated operation and standardized behavior.