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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JRI who wrote (161703)	10/5/2000 8:01:53 AM
From: GVTucker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

John, while I have been rather vocal in my criticism of M Dell, we all need to stop and think about who he is. He is an entrepreneur who got where he was because he is ambitious and highly optimistic and refuses to take no for an answer. Time and time again, I have seen the founders of start ups refuse to hear bad news. They focus on the positives, and remain convinced that things will work out until the bitter end. Thus, Dell continually believes that Dell's growth will cure all problems, and doesn't acknowledge the problems until forced to. This is nothing new about Dell. The only caveat is that because there have been few problems until '99, this side of his personality hasn't been all that exposed. (The currency speculation 'problem' in the mid-90's comes to mind.) This is why most people who start these companies have a hard time staying with them once they become this big. Dell is an exception to this rule (along with Gates). Much more common are people like John Morgridge (he didn't start CSCO but was the chief architect of its growth) or Richard Egan. I'm not suggesting that Dell step aside. I am suggesting that if Dell wants to do what is good for the company, he'll stop appearing in the spotlight at every opportunity and leave that responsibility for people who can handle expectations management a lot better. Note, for example, that Bill Gates has not appeared on MSFT conference calls for a very long time, and also does not ever issue even remotely specific guidance for analysts to focus on. Dell needs to let the numbers people take care of the numbers and stick to the vision thing. We'll see if his ego permits that.