First off, I'm not annoyed by your comments (biblical or otherwise), I'm amused because you haven't supported a single comment you made. Secondly, the point behind my comment about HP vs. TI is not that higher quality wins out, it's simply that differing marketing strategies that can be equally effective. Third, you make the mistake of confusing the ease of assembly of a single product with lack of technology and expertise required for mass production.
Dell has constructed a manufacturing/assembly system that has become the standard in the industry. It is the paradigm! Now, other companies such as CPQ and AAPL want to emulate that approach. Still others, like GTW, find that they don't know how to make the plan work (GTW had major inventory problems). The jury is out with respect to CPQ, because we have insufficient evidence of how well it has executed the plan. So to breezily dismiss the model by saying that a host of other companies know how to do it is specious.
Perhaps you think that Dell's advantage is temporary. That may or may not be true, but let's wait until we have some real data. But regardless of what you feel, you should recognize the following: avoiding retail channels and using BTO allows companies to maintain lean inventories, which in turn leads to high ROA's, and thus allows (financially, at least) for very rapid expansion of the business.
Paul |
