Rude, I find it amazing how many are now focused on management of perceptions and personalities rather than management of the business. I'm somewhat surprised that now you seem to be somewhat concerned with this as well.
I've watched MD and gang hold these dog and pony shows for years.
These guys have never been very exciting or articulate.... the stock has been exciting but the mgmt team has at times, come off like uninformed geeks.
I haven't seen anything in MD's verbiage or delivery that suggests
he's any different today than 5 years ago. No one, and I mean no
one complained last year when MD dodged questions on CNBC after
fantastic Q2 earnings. When asked certain questions, MD retreated
to the 'were growing at a multiple of the industry' comeback. In
fact, one time, I believe Mark Haines actually asked MD to stop
making the interview sound like a Dell commercial.
No one seemed too concerned last year when MD testified on MSFT's
behalf and did a big bellyflop when cornered on Dell's willingness
to bundle Netscape on it's machines.
What has changed is the "perception" of the shareholders following
the company... many of them new shareholders who got on for the ride, are now in a hole, and don't understand much about the business or
model to begin with. This new "perception" is also a byproduct of the stock price retreating. When the stock was advancing, MD's posture was one of confidence, now that it has gone down, it's
one of disconnected cockyness. This "perception" will change again
when Dell delivers financial results consistent with management's guideance.
Personally, I thought most of the questions from the audience were
down right embarrasingly ignorant... (except for jbn3 and a couple
others <gg>). There aren't a whole lot of comebacks for "gee, your computers seem to crashing at this one school so try to make better
quality machines for schools... ok?".... OKIDOKI! We'll get right on that! We'll staff an organization internally to make sure only the "good" computers go the the educational segment... yeah whatever. Next moronic question please.
Rude, I respect your opinion as you are one of the few who actually
worked for many years in this industry, so you understand the challenges. As you know, real strategic plans in the technology industry are difficult to encapsulate into simple to understand sound bytes. This is what happens in politics... 'Were going to lower taxes!' But how? Who cares! He gets my vote. 2 years later he's an idiot politician whom everyone would like to run out of office cause public services are being cut due to lack of funding. Win the public
opinion contest on a bogus platform and loose the race.
I expected the shareholders meeting to offer no new earth shattering
news, and it didn't. Dell has communicated all the latest and greatest through a barrage of media leading up to the meeting. Dell's plans and vision are fairly well documented in print for anyone that's willing to invest the time. I believe the ability to consistently grow revenue and profits going forward undoubtedly overshadows any shortcomings in winning popularity contests.
What really blows my mind however is the large number of investors who are disappointed that Dell will be aggressively going for share in the few boring businesses that generate ~ 1 Trillion in revenue yet all but ignoring acquisitions of business who compete in the more galmourous headline generating businesses of < 20 Billion.
When they told me Americans didn't possess the ability to do basic
math, I didn't believe them.... now I do.
MEATHEAD
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