Got this article in email today … you can read it at http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/2010-10878_11-6155242.html?tag=nl.e019

One of the observations made by Michael Kanellos which I found interesting and a bit humorous was the following: “First, it (Dell) hired too many former management consultants like Rollins himself. Back in 2004, a group from CNET News.com visited the Round Rock, Texas, headquarters. Nearly everyone we met had recently parachuted in from places like McKinsey and Co. I met only one guy with any authority who had spent time on the front lines of sales, i.e. setting up cardboard end caps at retailer outlets.

Management consultants typically have very impressive credentials. Unfortunately, most of them also associate only with their fellow Wharton graduates so they are often culturally disconnected from their customer base, which can and often does include 13-year-olds, IT managers at corporate branch offices, and people who skip the crossword puzzle in favor of Junior Jumble. In other words, the rest of us”

And here is one more: “Dell has no style. Remember the WebPC, an all-in-one (sort of) computer back in the late 1990s? It looked like a peasant woman from Uzbekistan …… What is one of Dell’s most consistent advertising venues? The back of Parade magazine in the Sunday paper. “