so this is where you should start to have your own ideas

Referring to the class I had this morning. It is another one of those capstone courses where you're suppose to take all the book stuff you've learned in the last few years and apply them to real companies. I had some real life experience I can throw in there, which is cool. I mentioned something that the company we are studying is doing... and people just went along with it. Here's the thing, it's great that Dell went ahead and started selling retail to try to gain back some market shares, but it doesn't mean it's a good place to expand on. Here are a few reasons:

1) look at what happened to Gateway. There needs to be a capability to have a solution and deliver it. Gateway tried it and failed, look where they are now.

2) It's a good thing they started selling at BBY. It gives them direct comparison with the products in the same category. People get to play with it. People get to pick it up right away. They don't need to build an infrastructure for it, it is already there in BBY. True they are adding a middleman in this business and cuts into profit, but that's not the goal here. The goal here is to build brand equity. There are different things that builds up a competitive advantage. This is not part of their core business, it is merely an outlet to capture those people who walks in every fricking week and ask... do you have any Dells?

3) Going retail goes against the company strategy. Going retail means having a much higher turnover time and depreciation of inventory that does not sell. This erodes on the one month inventory lead time that it has over its competition.

So those are my two-cents. I got so tired to listening to people in class today. I don't mind giving other people a chance to talk in class, but if they're not prepared and contribute to a conversation that has some substance to it, stop wasting my time. Anyway.... learning process I guess. I think I'll be walking over a lot of people in the work place. I have my ideas, I prepare, and I assert them. It works, try it sometime. =p