Dell's Market Position In Americas example essay topic

History Dell is a world famous computer company, with its headquarters in Austin, Texas. It's a premier provider of computer systems, products and services that help its customers to build their information-technology and Internet infrastructures. Through directly providing qualified computers and services to the customers, and by providing the best customer experiences, Dell has become the leader in the market, which has got 36,000 team members with a total business income of $32.1 billion for the last four quarters. Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, who was the longest tenured chief executive officer in the computer industry till now. He believes that selling computers directly to the customers will let Dell know the customers' needs effectively and clearly, so that they can get solutions to meet the customers' needs immediately. This direct business model gets rid of the middlemen, and it also reduces a lot of unnecessary cost and time.

At the same time, this model allows Dell to make and provide the customers a powerful computer system at a competitive price. Dell also can bring the customers the latest technology by renewing the inventory every four days. Michael Dell Products and Services As a computer company, Dell's products include computers and the related products. For instances, various software, projectors, cameras, memory, printers, scanners, and so on. You can find a lot more on Dell's website web Dell offers the customer premier services. For examples, the service of technology consulting, requiring service, and many other services.

In china, there are 530 free telephone lines in 258 cities, so that Chinese customers can directly connect with every Dell salesperson and purchase personal computers and laptops or servers according to their needs, or they can get the products through purchasing on the Dell's website. Dell's Customers Dell owns his success to the focusing on his customers. Dell people work hard to meet every customer's need. They get customers' feedback from the Internet or phone, so that they can best understand what their customers' need effectively and then they better their products and services constantly, and that keeps their customers coming back again. Dell's customers include: Corporations (large or medium size) Government and related organization Family and small size companies Dell has got several main departments, they are managing department, marketing department, personal department, sales department, financial department, technology researching and developing department, technology-consulting department, transporting department, external relations department, maintaining department, and after-sale service department. Managing Department This department is in charge of making big and important decisions of the company.

For examples: they make the company rules, designate the responsibilities of each department, hold the meeting of the board of directors and etc. Marketing Department Marketing department is responsible for the market developing and extending. They have to think of some activities to promote their sale of new products, and make analysis of the present prices to give their own reasonable prices. Personal Department Personal department is mainly responsible for the transfer of the employees. They may also decide weather increase or reduce the staff. Sometimes they will take care of the interviews of new employees and as well as the staff's welfare affairs.

Sales Department Sales department needs to make all the salespersons know the details of their new products in the first time, so that means they have to organize them and give them a training class when necessary. Sometimes they have to deal with the disputes between the customers and the salespersons. Financial Department All kinds of the financial affairs of the company will be taken care of by the financial department. For instants: they are in charge of paying all the expenses that the company has to spend, they pay salaries to the staff, and submit every official expense account. Technology Researching and Developing Department This department is in charge of researching and developing a new technology, so that the company will produce new and better products constantly. Technology-consulting Department The job of this department is to solve the technological problems for customers and also for the company itself.

For example if the customers meet some technological problems during the usage of Dell's products, they may consult to this department. Transporting Department This department is responsible for the transporting job. They transport the products that the customers buy directly to wherever they want them to be. External Relations Department This department is in charge of coordinating the relationship between the company and the outside world. Maintaining Department The job of this department is to exam and repair the products.

They have to repair the products that the customers brought back. After-sale Service Department The customers whoever buy Dell's products will get some of free services within a certain time. For examples if the products they buy are broken but not by man-made, they can have the products repaired freely. Of course they also can exam the products freely in fixed places if they want. This is a brief introduction of the main departments of Dell Company. In this part of the report you will find the information about Dell's marketplace, its competitors, strengths and weaknesses, and its opportunities and threats.

Marketplace Dell is a worldwide company, so it has got many branches around the globe. Dell's headquarter is settled in Austin and this headquarter is also in charge of the business in United States, Canada, and Latin America. Besides, Dell has got the other three headquarters in Bracknell, England, Singapore and Kawasaki, Japan. The one in Bracknell is in charge of the business in Europe, Middle East, and Africa and the one in Singapore is in charge of the business in Asia-Pacific, and Kawasaki Japan, for the Japanese market. For the last four quarters, Dell's market position in Americas is No. 1 in United States ; No. 2 in Europe, and it is both No. 4 in Asia-Pacific and Japan. (http: // . dell. com. cn) Market position based on Q 2 CY 02 IDC (International Date Company) data About Dell's competitors There are a lot of companies similarly to Dell in their scale or quality, and all of them are Dell's competitors.

For example, Dell mainly sells computers in China's market, but there are many other companies sell computers too, such as Legend, Acer, Haier, TCL, Apple, and so on. So how can the clients choose a better product from so many brands? They have to know about the strengths and weaknesses of each brand, because that will help them to choose a satisfied product. Dell's Strengths Dell set up its Web sites in 1994, and added E-business capability in 1996, which led commercial migration to the Internet.

In the following year, Dell became the first company, whose online sales reached to 1 million US dollars. And customers order Dell's products directly on the Internet, which also produces an easy and safe way to purchase their products. Dell has its Web sites written in 27 different languages or dialects, and every customer can get Dell's quoted prices in 40 currencies or order Dell's products by reading their mother languages. Now there are about 750 million people searching on Dell's Web sites per quarter at 80 country sites. Dell also has free telephone lines for every kind of consumers, which include technology-consulting and customer services.

Dell has led its competitors in many fields, for example, balance growth with profitability and liquidity, and it also brings its shareholders a high return, and Dell did all these again in the year 2002. Weaknesses Dell has to make more effort on Asia-Pacific's market, because it is on the dominated position, so it may defeat by other competitors. Dell has got a good service system, that's true. However, it has got a higher price too, at least in China's market. A same configured computer of any brand is always cheaper than Dell's. So that makes some customers choose other brand if it has a good service too.

Opportunities To be more competitive in this fast-changing world, one has to strong and prefect itself constantly, and so dose Dell. That means Dell has to gain more opportunities by entering new markets and producing new products and services. So Dell has a list of its aimed markets: Telecommunication Services Banking / Taxing/Financial Market Government Organization Transnational Corporation Education / Research Institution Threats Dell is a successful company in general, so the only threat to it maybe the more and more strong competitors, so dell has to better itself constantly. The information above is all I found about Dell's business environment. Every company needs to communicate with its people, and so does Dell. I will list seven communication channels that Dell uses.

Face-to-face There is no time between sender and receiver if you use face-to-face communication channel, and the speaker can easily control the receivers' attention too and also can get help if there is a misunderstanding or when confused. However, sometimes face-to-face may bring you troubles as well, since you may easier to offend someone if you are directly talking to someone, and it is hard to set up meetings if someone lives far away. So this type can be used to give detail information effectively. For Dell, if there is a new product come up, they could use face-to-face channel to show the staffs about it, for example, a presentation or a group meeting.

Telephone To talk with someone on telephone is both fast and easy, but you may have to call a lot if there is a phone tag, and you could hardly give very detail information, as you could not get the receivers' attention effectively. Memos Memo is usually a short message for someone or oneself. For example, one writes something important down to remind others or oneself to do it on time. Letters Letter is widely used in our daily life, and it is very important in business. For example, people use application letters to apply for a job in a company and usually there is a letter to inform a staff that he / she is fired. Fax Fax is used when something needs to be received immediately with detailed information.

However, you cannot have the feedback as soon as you send your message, and you cannot control the receivers' attention effectively either. E-mail E-mail is like fax, it is fast when deliver the information to the receivers, but you have to wait for their feedback. For example, if a staff wants a rise or promote in the job, he / she may e-mail his / her manager and tells the manager the reasons, but he / she has to wait for the answer, maybe for days. Teleconference Teleconferencing is very useful and convenience for those far-away people who want to have a face-to-face communication immediately. However it is costly, since it needs a lot of equipment.

Those are some of the communication channels used in Dell. In this part of the report you will find how many staffs Dell has and what skill they possess. There is also a job description and an advertisement for a job-hunting. The Number of Staff and the Skills They Possess Dell is a worldwide company, so it has many branch-companies all over the world. They are in Americas, Asia-Pacific / Japan, and Europe, Middle East and Africa. In Americas Dell has got 22,950 employees, 4,150 in Asia-Pacific, 700 in Japan, and together 8,200 in Middle East and Africa.

As for the types of skills the employees possess are various, that to say they have to possess as many skills as their position required. For example, the employees who work in sales department should have good communication skills and some sales skills too. And if the employees who work in financial department should have the skills to deal with money, and some of them may have to work with an accountant diploma. The Ways Dell Recruit and Retain Its Staff The most common way that a company will use when recruit staff is that to advertise on newspaper or on the Internet. So it is with Dell.

Dell's job advertisement includes job position with a description, and their demand for the people who want this position, including their gentle, age, and maybe their diplomas or skills as well. Dell has many reasons to retain its staff. For instance, Dell gives its staff reasonable salary and insurance. Since Dell is very famous for its high-tech and good products, it reaches the first market position in Americas, second in Middle East and Africa, and both forth in Asia-Pacific / Japan, so there is no reason that people are not willing to get a job in such a reputable company. A Job Description (An Accountant) An accountant in Dell is required to have an accountant qualification, and one has to finish at least one's college education. As accountant's job is to count all the materials that involve in Dell's accounts, so it is an important and hard job.

However, an accountant has got a satisfactory salary. Advertisement Job Position: Sales Manager Job Description: Deal with all the matters in the Sales Department. Job Requirements: Graduate from a computer major or other relative ones College degree and certificate of CET-6 Five years' working experience and three years's ales experience Have the ability to seize the market trends and develop new market Work well in team, hardworking, and have good communication skills In this part of the report you will find out the information about Dell's marketing mix (products, price, promote, place). About Sales Marketing Dell communicates with its clients by mailing and telephoning them. Dell believes that it is of great importance to keep in touch with its clients after they buy its products, because it is a good way to improve their products constantly. Dell also sends information about its new products or notice of discount to its members.

The company has not got a sales force, since their products are well sold. There is no advertisement on TV about Dell's products, but it has many posts in stores, and advertisements on the Internet. It is very convenient to buy Dell's products over the Internet. Dell's Marketing Mix Products As a worldwide computer company, Dell has not only got the products for big companies and also got the products for small companies and personnel use. For companies it has got: Dell PowerEdge Servers, Dell PowerVault and EMC Storage Products, OptiPlex desktops, Power Connect Switches, Latitude Notebooks, and Dell Precision Workstations. For individual use and some of small companies, Dell has got Inspiron Notebooks, Dimension Desktops, and Dell Monitors for all users.

Dell's products also include common personnel computers and the related products. Price Dell's products have got a higher price in general. For example, when the same products with a same performance, Dell's will cost more higher than others. However, Dell has a good service and high quality, so it still stands a high and stable place in the IT market. Promotion A smart company has the ability to choose a good time to promote its sales. Dell is a smart one indeed, because it chooses every summer and winter vocation to promote its products.

In China, many parents and students buy computers during the vocations, since there will be a sufficient time to choose one from so many brands. Then Dell gives a nice price with its satisfying quality and services, it certainly will get a generous return. Place Dell has got a sales network all over the world. In China, Dell has got companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen g. And there are Dell shops nearly in every big store in Beijing. Products As a computer company, Dell's products include computers and the related products.

For instances, various software, projectors, cameras, memory sticks, printers, scanners, and so on. You can find a lot more on Dell's website web New Products IT industry has developed dramatically these years, and Dell believes that it will have a promising future at the new IT stage. Since the Internet has become a part of our daily life, so that Dell should prove its services on the Internet. A well-known computer company Acer has launched the first convertible Tablet PC recently, and in pace with this new product appeared on the market, the IT market is given a fresh impetus to a new generation.

Therefore, if Dell wants to remain competitive in the world markets, it should bring more new and advanced products to the markets. The Tablet PCs is the hot topic at the present as I mentioned before. This kind of PCs like laptops in appearance, but it has a special function, which allows people to write whatever they want directly on the screen. After a few years, the Tablet PCs will become the old topic, and the pocket computers made by Dell will be the hot cakes in the IT markets.

The pocket computer is small in size, but it has the same functions as the desktops. I think this kind of computer is what Dell will be selling in 10 years. The pocket computer is just the same size as an ordinary dictionary, and you may ask how to type on such small a keyboard. In the matter of fact, you do not need to worry about that, since the computer has a folded keyboard, so that you can type on it just as you are typing on a normal keyboard.

As this kind of computer is even smaller than a laptop, so it is more convenient to take with. For example, students can put it into their schoolbag and take it to the school. Dell is growing with a high speed. I believe it will make a great progress in 10 years' developing. You will get a surprising discount around the coming New Year! There is an analysis about the different business culture between China and America in this part of the report, and how it would affect exporting the new product.

To make the pocket computers selling well on the international markets first Dell should do is that to choose a developed country in which to export it to. I choose America to export this new product. There are many differences between China and America. They have different cultures, believes and ways of conducting business. We should first learn about the American ways of conducting business if we want to export our new products to this country. Different business culture In America when business people meet each other the very first time they exchange their name cards, and after that they will put the cards into their wallets or pockets without reading it.

However, in China after people exchanging their name cards, they will first read it and then put it into the pockets. Chinese people consider this as a polite way to receive a person's name card, and they never take the same way that of the American people use. However, when the Chinese people do their business with the Americans, they have to follow their counterpart's rules, since it is the way that they think is of respect. We just take another example to show the difference in the business culture between these two countries. Chinese people would like to talk about the business matters during they are having meals with their cooperative friends. In most of the cases, Chinese people like to settle the problems in business or make a decision during meals.

However, American people would prefer talk the business matters during the working hours. If they invite you to dinner that means they just want to have a dinner with you, and no business at all. As far as I am concerned, American people have more tendency to accept fresh ideas and new things. Therefore, our new product may have a promising market in America. A successful international trade needs people learn about the different business culture first, and that is of the great importance in communication skills..