If It Weren’t for Those Pesky Customers, Mr. Dell

In the NYT’s article this week about Dell’s recent decline, what struck me most was how far Dell had strayed from its original obsession with customers.  My sense had always been that Dell’s  low-cost fanaticism was in many ways similar to Wal-Mart’s — their mission was to deliver the absolutely lowest prices, so they were willing to work like crazy, and perhaps even torment their suppliers to get there.

But the details in this article, including a cover-up of faulty motherboards and evasive maneuvering with customers, is completely at odds with that genesis.  If true — and the article makes a pretty compelling case — then Dell would be following in a long tradition of organizations that stumble when they start to view customers as obstacles to their own corporate performance.

Dell became Dell for its operational excellence in the service of customers.  The company ushered in a whole new way of serving by delivering variety, speed, and prices that had never before been seen in its industry.  It was truly revolutionary.  And truly focused on end users.  But something different, and not that uncommon, seems to have happened in recent years:  Dell began to find itself more interesting than its customers.

It’s as if companies like Dell wake up one day, excited and surprised by what they’ve become, and start suffering from the self-distraction of a teenager.  They’ve gone from boy to man, and it’s heady stuff.  And the media fawning and magazine covers make it that much more difficult to resist themselves.  Along the way they seem to forget that what made them great was their customers.  In Dell’s case, it was the relentless and creative focus on finding better ways to serve them.

But like a nagging parent, Dell’s customers were eventually treated like a drag on the company’s bright, shiny future.  My advice to Dell management — and to any other company on a similar ride — is to have some respect, remember where you came from and make customers the center of your universe again.  The correction shouldn’t be that hard for Dell.  Looking up to customers is in their corporate genes.