Abstract
Founded in 1984, Dell Corp. has achieved phenomenal growth since then, and by 2000 had topped $25 billion in sales and over $2 billion in net income. Engine of this success is Dell's Direct Model, which primary contains low costs for the manufacturing process and a direct customer relationship.
In the 4th quarter of 2000, however, the PC industry's average 30-year growth rate crashed to a negative 10%. Dell must make difficult decisions on how to sustain its profitability in light of its broad product portfolio-PCs, workstations, and servers on storage products for a broad cross section of customers in the United States and worldwide. Should it stay the course or fundamentally change strategy (try to penetrate other markets and adopt an acquisition strategy, far away from Dell habits)?
