CPQ: Hiccup or death rattle?
From ZDNET article, "When the stock market opened for trading on Monday (4/13/99), investors punished Compaq's stock, sending it down over six points. But during a keynote address to several thousand Compaq customers gathered here for a company-sponsored conference, Pfeiffer suggested that the episode was just a passing hiccup.
"This will not slow us down. We will move forward aggressively," said Pfeiffer, less than a minute into his keynote address. "We fully intend to expand our business and grow market share profitably in 1999," he said."<<<<<
Dell uses a completely different business process that is based around building one individualized product at a time for one customer. CPQ uses an antiquated business process that builds products in batch, and must make a large number in the batch to achieve competitive efficiency. If their customer (retail seller) does not use all the products in a specified time period, it results in stuffing the channel. Hence, vision, forecasting, clairvoyance, the right man for the future, fire the current leader and look for another who is quicker, is the prescription.
The problem is CPQ needs a new business process from the dock man up. This book does not need a new publisher, it needs a new book. This is like a city with narrow streets designed for horses; cars and trucks won't fit. Urban renewal to move the buildings further apart is stupid. It is easier to start over.
The new age of electronic information centered business processes have created an advantage for Dell's business process approach that makes CPQ obsolete as a business. The PC is not dead, the CPQ, IBM, HWP business model is.
Cheers
Mike |
