DELL'S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Case Study: Restoring Dell's Competitive Advantage

Case Study: Restoring Dell's Competitive Advantage

Introduction

This paper discusses the case study of Dell Company with respect to the impacts of its lost competitive advantage in the global market among its rivals. The company has been the topmost manufacturer of the components of computers since its inception. For a particular period, the company had to face decline in its achievements and market position in the global market, which was because of its unique supply chain as compare to the competitors. The company HP (Hewlett-Packard) had left the Dell Manufacturers behind at the second place in the global market shares. Moreover, Dell was still facing threats of further decline as Acer was the next competitor. The competitive advantage of the Dell Company is evaluated in detail by considering the initials taken in this regard, and then the ongoing strategies for restoring the lost competency are discussed in this paper.

Discussion

The company Dell was initiated in 1983, by Michael Dell. It used to provide the hard drives to the business oriented companies. It was his efforts that the company earned 6 million dollars in a year. The efforts of the respondents of the Dell Company have led the company to the peak of success. Meanwhile, there were some flaws or vulnerabilities in their marketing strategies, which provided other companies a chance to step ahead in the global market (www.dell.com).

Replacing Inventories with Information

This phrase is applicable to the strategy of Dell Company as they have replaced their inventories with the information. The case study reveals the fact that the company's management is greatly involved in the daily marketing, which keeps them updated about the concerned matters. This approach of the company makes them capable of transforming their plans accordingly whenever there is a need from the customer's side. Therefore, the company secured great level of competency and likelihood among the consumers in the market.

The need of inventories associated with the services or goods or dealing with the retailers for the selling of products was eliminated. This reduced the cost consumption of the manufacturing process and generated the revenue of about 70 million dollars to the company. The approach of built-to-order had served the company remarkably as shifting the revenue from 6 million dollars to 70 million dollars. With the same approach of avoiding the inclusion of inventories and focusing on the direct selling, the revenue of the company had climbed up to almost 25 billion dollars by the end of 2000 (www.ventureoutsource.com).

These strategies being the result of innovative efforts of the workforce led the company to the dominant position in World's PC market. The pronounced aspect of the company's procedure is that if the customers post their required products that are not in the stock or the queue, then the company provides another compatible product but at the lower cost. This maintains the customer's reliance in the company and causes the company's success in market. It never leaves its customers and uses the cost saved from avoiding ...