Dell is the most successful computer comapny in the world leading the way in growth and profitability. Founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, the company dominates the direct selling of business and personal computers. Dell builds computers to order, at prices retailers can rarely match. In Business the Dell Way, Rebecca Saunders examines this remarkable success story and draws out the universal lesson any business can learn. Dell began with a brilliant business model – creating mass–customized computers and selling them direct to consumers. But this was not enough. The model has been supported by management excellence, the relentless pursuit of improvement and a constant flow of ideas and input from customers. In recent years Dell has maintained its market–leading position by positioning itself at the heart of the internet revolution. Business the Dell Way reveals how any manager, entrepreneur or investor can learn from the Dell story. It is at once an inspiring story of success and an invaluable source of lessons for the next generation of winners.
At nineteen, Michael Dell started his company as a freshman at the University of Texas with $1,000 and has since built an industry powerhouse. As Dell journeys through his childhood adventures, ups and downs, and mistakes made along the way, he reflects on invaluable lessons learned. Michael Dell's revolutionary insight has allowed him to persevere against all odds, and Direct from Dell contains valuable information for any business leader. His strategies will show you effective ways to grow your business and will help you save time on costly mistakes by following his direct model for success.
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER From Michael Dell, renowned founder and chief executive of one of America’s largest technology companies, the inside story of the battles that defined him as a leader In 1984, soon-to-be college dropout Michael Dell hid signs of his fledgling PC business in the bathroom of his University of Texas dorm room. Almost 30 years later, at the pinnacle of his success as founder and leader of Dell Technologies, he found himself embroiled in a battle for his company’s survival. What he’d do next could ensure its legacy—or destroy it completely. Play Nice But Win is a riveting account of the three battles waged for Dell Technologies: one to launch it, one to keep it, and one to transform it. For the first time, Dell reveals the highs and lows of the company's evolution amidst a rapidly changing industry—and his own, as he matured into the CEO it needed. With humor and humility, he recalls the mentors who showed him how to turn his passion into a business; the competitors who became friends, foes, or both; and the sharks that circled, looking for weakness. What emerges is the long-term vision underpinning his success: that technology is ultimately about people and their potential. More than an honest portrait of a leader at a crossroads, Play Nice But Win is a survival story proving that while anyone with technological insight and entrepreneurial zeal might build something great—it takes a leader to build something that lasts.
Globalization, technology and an increasingly competitive business environment have encouraged huge changes in what is known as supply chain management, the art of sourcing components and delivering finished goods to the customer as cost effectively and efficiently as possible. Dell transformed the way people bought and were able to customize computers. Wal-Mart and Tesco have used their huge buying power and logistical skills to ensure the supply and stock management of their stores is finely honed. Manufacturers now make sure that components are where they are needed on the production line just in time for when they are needed and no longer. Such finessing of the way the supply chain works boosts the corporate bottom line and can make the difference between being a market leader or an also ran. This guide explores all the different aspects of supply chain management and gives hundreds of real life examples of what firms have achieved in the field.
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own landscaping business? Have you been hesitant to put your plans into action? This comprehensive guide contains all the necessary tools and strategies you need to successfully launch and grow your business. Using a friendly, entertaining approach, Owen E. Dell shares his experiences and down-to-earth advice on every aspect of setting up and running a thriving home-based landscaping business. He shows you how to purchase the right tools, estimate start-up costs, price services, and stay profitable once in business. From painless recordkeeping to cost-efficient management techniques, Dell’s step-by-step methods are practical, innovative, and easy to understand. Special features and workbook pages include: - Business Plan Worksheet - Material and Labor Records - Cost Worksheets - Tips on social media, SEO, and making the Internet work for you - Profit-and-Loss Worksheet
The best thinking and actions in the fast-moving arena of collaboration and knowledge management The New Edge in Knowledge captures the most practical and innovative practices to ensure organizations have the knowledge they need in the future and, more importantly, the ability to connect the dots and use knowledge to succeed today. Build or retrofit your organization for new ways of working and collaboration by using knowledge management Adapt to today's most popular ways to collaborate such as social networking Overcome organization silos, knowledge hoarding and "not invented here" resistance Take advantage of emerging technologies and mobile devices to build networks and share knowledge Identify what can be learned from Facebook, Twitter, Google and Amazon to make firms and people smarter, stronger and faster Straightforward and easy-to-follow, this is the resource you'll turn to again and again to get-and stay-in the know. Plus, the book is filled with real-world examples – the case studies and snapshots of how best practice companies are achieving success with knowledge management. Praise for The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management is Changing the Way We Do Business “You may think you know knowledge management, but this is new—how knowledge initiatives can incorporate social media, mobile technologies, and learning, for example. This book integrates the new knowledge management with the best of the old, such as communities of practice and measurement. KM still matters, and this book tells you why.” —Thomas H. Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of IT and Management, Babson College "Over the last decade, knowledge management has emerged as a key success factor for the modern corporation, driven by tremendous advances in business analytics. This book studies the best practices in knowledge management and how leadership companies are applying them today." —Virginia M. Rometty, Senior Vice President and Group Executive Sales, Marketing and Strategy, IBM “APQC has been on the leading edge of knowledge management for almost two decades. O’Dell and Hubert have captured those best practices and created a road map to transform the way people work. Reap the benefits of their experience.” —C. Jackson Grayson, Chairman and Founder, APQC and co-author of If Only We Knew What We Know “The New Edge in Knowledge is a useful how-to manual that takes best practice sharing and organizational capability building to the next level: Web 2.0, social networking, mobility, and communities of practice. National and international examples show how companies can create strategic alignment and systematic management to transfer knowledge rapidly and effectively.” —Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor and author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good "What has made our KM program strong is sticking to the fundamentals-- that's exactly what this book outlines. It provides trusted advisor guidance on how any company or organization can take the concrete steps to create and implement a world class KM strategy." —Dan Ranta, Director of Knowledge Sharing, ConocoPhillips “Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert have written an amazingly down to earth, useful and practical book on knowledge management and its importance to modern business. Starting with the distinction between information and knowledge, they provide a viewpoint that leaves IT in the dust. Read it to prepare for tomorrow's world!” —A. Gary Shilling, President, A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc. “A practical business approach to knowledge management, this book covers KM's value proposition for any organization, provides proven strategies and approaches to make it work, shares how to measure KM's impact, and illustrates high level knowledge sharing with wonderful case studies. Well done!” —Jane Dysart, Conference Chair, KMWorld & Partner, Dysart & Jones Associates “This book is a tour de force in the field of knowledge management. Read every single page and learn about best practices from the leading firms around the world. All of this and more from the company that leads the way in the field: APQC. I highly recommend it for your bookshelf.” —Dr. Nick Bontis, Director, Institute for Intellectual Capital Research “Food for thought from two of the pioneers. Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert have been in the trenches with many of the organizations that have succeeded in leveraging KM for business benefit. They recognized early the symbiotic relationship between knowledge flow and work flow and have guided practitioners in the quest to optimize and streamline both.” — Reid Smith, Enterprise Content Management Director, Marathon Oil Company “Carla O’Dell and Cindy Hubert take knowledge management from vague idea to strategic enabler. In so doing, they clear up the not only the whats, but the whys and the hows. This book establishes knowledge management as an organizational discipline. The authors offer a straightforward set of execution steps, coaching readers on how to launch their own knowledge management programs in a deliberate and rigorous way.” —Jill Dyché, Partner and Co-Founder, Baseline Consulting; Author of Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth “The authors and APQC have put together an excellent ‘how to’ manual for Knowledge Management (KM) that can benefit any organization, from those experienced in KM to those just starting. The authors have taken their years of experience and excellence in this field and written a masterful introduction and design manual that incorporates industry best-practices and alerts readers to the pitfalls they are likely to encounter. This book needs to be in the hands of every KM professional and corporate senior leader.” —Ralph Soule, a member of the US Navy
Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
It used to take years or even decades for disruptive innovations to dethrone dominant products and services. But now any business can be devastated virtually overnight by something better and cheaper. How can executives protect themselves and harness the power of Big Bang Disruption? Just a few years ago, drivers happily spent more than $200 for a GPS unit. But as smartphones exploded in popularity, free navigation apps exceeded the performance of stand-alone devices. Eighteen months after the debut of the navigation apps, leading GPS manufacturers had lost 85 percent of their market value. Consumer electronics and computer makers have long struggled in a world of exponential technology improvements and short product life spans. But until recently, hotels, taxi services, doctors, and energy companies had little to fear from the information revolution. Those days are gone forever. Software-based products are replacing physical goods. And every service provider must compete with cloud-based tools that offer customers a better way to interact. Today, start-ups with minimal experience and no capital can unravel your strategy before you even begin to grasp what’s happening. Never mind the “innovator’s dilemma”—this is the innovator’s disaster. And it’s happening in nearly every industry. Worse, Big Bang Disruptors may not even see you as competition. They don’t share your approach to customer service, and they’re not sizing up your product line to offer better prices. You may simply be collateral damage in their efforts to win completely different markets. The good news is that any business can master the strategy of the start-ups. Larry Downes and Paul Nunes analyze the origins, economics, and anatomy of Big Bang Disruption. They identify four key stages of the new innovation life cycle, helping you spot potential disruptors in time. And they offer twelve rules for defending your markets, launching disruptors of your own, and getting out while there’s still time. Based on extensive research by the Accenture Institute for High Performance and in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, investors, and executives from more than thirty industries, Big Bang Disruption will arm you with strategies and insights to thrive in this brave new world.
This work shows executives how to grow profitably by finding and focusing on their core business. It shows how they can increase the odds of successful expansion once their core business no longer provides sufficient new growth.
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