Dell Strategic Planing

The computer industry has benefited from the explosion of home computer usage and has become one of the most competitive industries in the world. With technology growing at amazing paces, many of the computer companies have fallen behind and even out of the industry since the development of the computer. Only the strongest companies have been able to be profitable and efficient. Dell Inc. is one of the few corporations to be able to remain at the top of the market.

Dell began as the vision of Michael Dell. The company began in 1984 with a simple business concept to build computers to order and to sell directly to customers. Dell has a history of achieving double-digit increases in annual sales. To maintain this growth, Dell is faced with many challenges in maintaining it's distinctive capabilities and using objective analysis to ascertain it's strength's, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

"Dell's vision is to work closely with our development partners to provide 100% perceived availability to the application environment." "Dell's mission is to be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve." In doing so, Dell will meet customer expectations of: highest quality, leading technology, competitive pricing, financial stability, and individual and company accountability. From the nine essential components of a mission statement, Dell's mission statement includes: products or services, markets, technology, and concern for survival, growth, and profitability. The most important value to Dell is to satisfy their customers and the second most important value is to be profitable. Dell has three distinctive capabilities which consist of: 1) selling products directly to consumer's which eliminates the markups of resellers 2) build products as they are order, which eliminates overstocked products and 3) having the ability to respond quickly to customers who experience problems with their products.

In order for Dell to compete efficiently in the computer industry, it needs to take advantage of all its opportunities. Dell continues to grow, especially in their line of personal computers. Through its cutting edge, highly dependable products Dell will continue to grow into one of the leaders in this industry. The Company was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, now the computer industry's longest-tenured chief executive officer, on a simple concept: that by selling personal computer systems directly to customers, Dell could best understands their needs, and provides the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs. Dell Computer's values statement is:

"With the power of direct and Dell's team of talented people, we are able to provide customers with superb value; high-quality, relevant technology; customized systems; superior service and support; and products and services that are easy to buy and use"

A strategic plan aligns an organization's goals, values and activities, to create a sustainable competitive advantage. It focuses on the long-range goals of the business and defines how the goals will be reached. Strategic plans include the definition of missions, visions and objectives, which provide the basic direction and

focus of the organization.

Key drivers in developing a strategic plan:

* What business are you in?

* What should be the geographical scope of your operations?

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