Rollins on Macs, Michael Dell and more
Published: 19 Jan 2005 13:40 GMT
What would stop you achieving that? Where are the weaknesses?
The weakness in the company is if we fail to execute. What we learned several years ago was that one of our weaknesses would be if we didn't develop enough people with the knowhow to run our company, it would come to the point where we would just stop. There would not be enough talent that's educated, developed and ready to take on the next leadership challenge and it would cap our growth. Now we've put programmes in place not to have that happen but that could be a weakness.
After the IBM-Lenovo deal, how much room do you think there is for further consolidation in the PC market?
I think the economics of our competitors -- the fact that no-one else is making any money -- is going to drive the consolidation. IBM reported in the last three years that they lost $1.1bn in their PC business. That's the reason they got out. I don't know who [else] will get out but I do believe we will see continued consolidation. You cannot have companies where many of the largest ones lose money indefinitely without someone finally waving the white flag, and IBM is the most recent example of that.
Do you think the HP-Compaq merger has been a success and if not, why not?
Well, you would have to say: 'What are the criteria to determine the success of any merger?' It would have to be that the companies are stronger financially, that they took market share and they are on a very steady footing in terms of their performance. I think you have to ask yourself the question of whether those criteria occurred in the case of the HP-Compaq merger. I think they've done a nice job of trying to integrate the companies but they are in a very, very tough industry and at just about the time they got the thing integrated and took all the cost out they were right back in the situation where they don't make very much money.
Would you consider growth by acquisition as a strategy for Dell? Will you be a consolidator?
I think not, and the reason is our organic growth has been very good -- somewhere between 17 and 20 per cent each quarter. And our size: the company this year is going to be close to $50bn so if that's the case, and you can continue to grow that fast, I would rather put my energies to solving customer problems and growing our business than worrying about integrating and laying people off.
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