"Having Dell as our global supplier simply eliminates many of our IT supply and integration challenges so that we can

focus on our strategic architecture rather than tactical logistics." -Bill Johnson, chief information officer, Stoneridge "The Dell PowerEdge blades and enclosure worked so well together that it didn't take long to set them up, and we were able to get rolling on our work that much faster." - Michael Todd Smith, systems administrator, Soho VFX "The processing capability that Dell provided made it possible for us to go from just offering a device to delivering a complete remote health monitoring service." - Terry Duesterhoeft, vice president of sales and marketing, Honeywell HomMed Enabling human potential thats the ultimate benefit of technology and the driving force behind everything we do at Dell. We believe with access to the right tools and skills, people, organizations and communities can achieve just anything. This core philosophy drives the way we approach and engage our communities, our people and our planet. Across the globe, we strive to make being 'green' easier for our customers and provide underserved youth access to technology, education and training so they can unlock their true potential. Learn more about our citizenship efforts and join us in finding new and even better ways to make a positive difference in our world.

Workplace diversity. We want to help our customers do and achieve more. Thats why we are committed to being a place where our team members can combine their varied experiences and creativity to achieve innovative solutions for a diverse customer marketplace.
Our employees are incredible force focused on building a greater level of involvement in our global diversity practices across our business. Employee Networking Groups connect employees who share common ethnicity,gender, nationality, lifestyle or sexual orientation. They provide personal and professional development through mentoring, volunteerism and community involvement.

Problems facing
A recent interview published in the McKinsey Quarterly caught my eye. The interviewee is Romi Malhotra, who runs Dell's India operations, and his insights are as interesting as they are numerous. I have paraphrased some salient points below. When offshoring, companies have a choice in outsourcing the customer service work, or operating their own call centers. Malhotra goes into how Dell decides which route to take:

There is a seasonality to the customer service work load that Dell handles. The seasonal call center capacity is met by outsourcing, which enables them to quickly ramp up and down additional capability. Dell also outsources because it enables them to benchmark and fix their costs. Outsourcing allows Dell to learn from the experience gained by the outsourcers while working with other companies. Furthermore, outsourcing gives Dell the ability to spread call centers geographically, thus mitigating natural disasters and other interruptions.

While India is the single most noted destination for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), companies are opening call centers as close as Canada, but also Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Malhotra's recommendation is to look for talent first, when choosing a location. Talent, in turn, is the largest determinant of quality. Secondary considerations include infrastructure, and the cost of operations which further breaks down into salaries and local tax considerations. The challenges that Malhotra sees are that the war for talent is not only raging in India, but is continuing to gain momentum. This is true with agents, but particularly with middle managers. Furthermore, there are the considerations of language, cultural dimensions, and understanding the process. But many of the latter issues are dependent on reducing staff turnover, because they can be overcome by carefully selecting and training the agent base. To reach this point, Dell knows that it has to become the local employer of choice; once this point is reached, productivity, standardization, and the rest can follow. Question 2\

I believe good leaders are just people who have mastered basic leadership skills. Theres no magic to leadership and its certainly not mystically pre-ordained. Anyone with enough motivation and reasonable smarts can become a successful leader. If someone tells you differently, follow my lead and chart your own path. Heres a quick summary of the top leadership qualities Ive learned, and outline in my book Building a Winning Business: Leaders: 1. Think and act positively. 2. Match their words and actions. 3. Plan goals. 4. Insist on results. 5. Solve problems. 6. Delegate. 7. Give others credit. 8. Correct people correctly. 9. Show others they care. 10. Accept the importance of communication. 11. Give meaningful feedback. 12. Tell the truth. 13. Listen. 14. Communicate strategically. Of course, mastering these skills takes effort and motivation. Learning from others who have successfully gone before people like Jim Collins, Bill George and Patrick Lencioni can save you time and frustration. I also hope my modest business treatise will help point you in the right direction. But, at the end of the day, never forget that you can be a leader if youre willing to do what it takes to get the job done! More data of question 2

What is the CEOs main duty? Setting strategy and vision. The senior management team can help develop strategy. Investors can approve a business plan. But the CEO ultimately sets the direction. Which markets will the company enter? Against which competitors? With what

product lines? How will the company differentiate itself? The CEO decides, sets budgets, forms partnerships, and hires a team to steer the company accordingly. The CEOs second duty is building culture. Work gets done through people, and people are profoundly affected by culture. A lousy place to work can drive away high performers. After all, they have their pick of places to work. And a great place to work can attract and retain the very best. Culture is built in dozens of ways, and the CEO sets the tone. Her every actionor inaction sends cultural messages (see "Life Under a Magnifying Glass"). Clothes send signals about how formal the workplace is. Who she talks to signals who is and isnt important. How she treats mistakes (feedback or failure?) sends signals about risk-taking. Who she fires, what she puts up with, and what she rewards shape the culture powerfully. A project team worked weekends launching a multimedia web site on a tight deadline. Their CEO was on holiday when the site launched. She didnt call to congratulate the team. To her, it was a matter of keeping her personal life sacred. To the team, it was a message that her personal life was more important than the weekends and evenings they had put in to meet the deadline. Next time, they may not work quite so hard. The emotion and effect on the culture was real, even if it wasnt what the CEO intended. Congratulations from the CEO on a job well done can motivate a team like nothing else. Silence can demotivate just as quickly. Team-building is the CEOs #3 duty. The CEO hires, fires, and leads the senior management team. They, in turn, hire, fire, and lead the rest of the organization. The CEO must be able to hire and fire non-performers. She must resolve differences between senior team members, and keep them working together in a common direction. She sets direction by communicating the strategy and vision of where the company is going. Strategy sets a direction. With clear direction, the team can rally together and make it happen. Dont underestimate the power of setting direction. In 1991, at Intuits new employee orientation, CEO Scott Cook presented his vision of Intuit as the center of computerized personal finance. Intuit had just 120 employees and one product. Ten years later, its a billion-dollar company with thousands of employees and dozens of products. Worldwide, it is the winner in personal finance, bar none. The success is due in no small part to every Intuit employee knowing and sharing the companys vision and strategy. If vision is where the company is going, values tell how the company gets there. Values outline acceptable behavior. The CEO conveys values through actions and reactions to others. Slipping a ship schedule to meet quality levels sends a message of valuing quality. Not over-celebrating a teams heroic recovery when they could have avoided a problem altogether sends a message about prevention versus damage control. People take their cues about interpersonal values trust, honesty, opennessfrom CEOs actions as well. Capital allocation is the CEOs #4 duty. The CEO sets budgets within the firm. She funds projects which support the strategy, and ramps down projects which lose money or dont support

the strategy. She considers carefully the companys major expenditures, and manages the firms capital. If the company cant use each dollar raised from investors to produce at least $1 of shareholder value, she decides when to return money to the investors. Some CEOs dont consider themselves financial people, but at the end of the day, it is their decisions that determine the companys financial fate.

Question no 3

The dell is contemporary type of organization