Reporter: What does it really take to manage a corporation like Dell?
记者：要管理好戴尔这样的公司，都需 要做到些什么呢？
Dell: You have to have a business model that comprehends the rate of change in technology and customer preferences for products and services. You’ve got to have an organization that can deliver around customer expectations; those are fairly easy compared to the final part, which is really executing on the first two. A lot of companies have had products and strategies which sound like they make sense, but the people weren’t been able to pull it off. You really have to put together a model that can be executed.
戴尔：你必须有一个商业模式，那包含 技术的变化程度以及客户对产品和服务 喜好的变化速度。你也必须要有一个组 织，可以满足客户的期望，这些比起最 后一部分是非常容易的事情，因为最后 一部分是对前两方面的执行工作。有一 些公司有听起来很合情合理的产品和策 略等，但公司的员工们实际上并不能够 很好的执行它，所以我们必须要制定一 些能够真正得到执行的模式。
Reporter: What kind of changes have you gone through as a manager to be able to adapt the changes that have taken places as Dell has grown?
记者：随着戴尔的成长壮大，作为一个 管理者，您都经历过怎样的变化以适应 戴尔的不断变化呢？
Dell: Well, the nature of managing an organization at different size or scale have changed.My responsibility is more along the lines of determining what businesses we’re going to be in, and where we，re going to make our investments, prioritizing investment decisions, and establishing the criteria for success in the different businesses that we’re in, and, obviously, prioritizing the opportunities. We’ve always had more opportunities than what we’ve known what to do with, and the key point is which ones we should go after first. As the company was evolving, I was much more into ‘ok，now let’s go do it.，As an organization changes, you go from detailed implementation to deciding which things are going to get done and ensuring that they, in fact，are the right things.
戴尔：在各种不同大小或规模的组织的 管理本质发生了改变。我的责任主要在于:决定我们将要开展怎样的生意，将 对哪里进行投资，确定投资的先后顺 序，在不同的行业领域建立成功的标 准。当然，决定机会的优先顺序。我们 总是会有比我们想象的更多的机会，关 键就在于我们应该首先把握哪些机会。 在公司开始发展的时候，我总是会说： "好的，让我们来做这件事情。"当一个 组织发生改变的时候，我们就从对每项 计划具体的执行，变为我们要决定应该 做哪件事情，并且要确保它们都是正 确的事情。
Reporter: Dell has a tradition of being very responsive to customers and coming out with products quickly. Do you look for a particular kind of employee to hire who manages to fit in well to that culture you’ve created?
记者：戴尔有一个传统，那就是对顾 客们的回馈总是给予很积极的反应， 并且每次更新换代的速度都很快。您 总是特意雇用那些能够很好的适应你 所创造的戴尔文化风格的雇员吗？
Dell: We do look for certain kinds of employees, particularly in the areas where it’s a sales or service orientation. We have a lot of processes within the company that really involve everybody in understanding the customers’ desires. For example, at any Dell operation in any country you might see something we call a customer advocate meeting, which occurs generally every Friday at 7: 30 in the morning. We have a series of people from all around the company, oftentimes 200, 300 people, who talk about the key statistics that describe whether we’re meeting customers’ requirements. If we find that we’re not meeting their requirements, we discuss what’s gone wrong with the process, and what we need to do differently to change that. We have manufacturing folks there, human resources, finance, engineers, of course, sales and marketing. And we invite customers to come to it. I think it sensitizes everyone in the organization to the needs of the customer. It’s a very key part of the way we do our business in terms of exposing everybody to customer concerns. One thing that’s different about our company compared with a number of our competitors is we actually do our own distribution. So, we’re in contact with the customer every day .We take 50,000 phone calls every day and we’re sort of immersed in customer feedback all the time, which gives us a great opportunity to use that to improve our products, and our services, and our processes. We think that’s a really key structural advantage.
戴尔：我们的确是在寻找一些特定类 型的雇员，尤其是在销售和服务导向 的领域。在公司内部，每个员工都要 经历很多步骤以更好地了解顾客们的需 求。比如说，在任何一个国家的戴尔运 行中心，你都可以看到，我们在每周 五的早上7点30分都有一次顾客倡议 会议。参加会议的往往有200或300个 人，遍及公司的各个领域，大家分别 拿出关键数据，以表明我们是否满足了 顾客们的需求。如果结论说明我们并没 有满足顾客们的需求，那我们就会接下 来讨论在公司的运行过程中哪一步出现 了问题，我们应该怎样做以改变那一现 状。我们在那有制造人员、人力资源员 工、财务员工、工程师，当然还有销售 人员和市场营销人员，我们也会邀请一 些顾客来参加我们的会议。我想，这能够使我们组织中的每一个人都深刻地了 解到顾客的需求。使每一位员工都了解 顾客的需求，是我们运行公司的一个关 键的部分。我们与很多我们的竞争者之 间一个很大的不同还在于，我们的分销 工作是公司自己来做的。所以我们每天 都在与顾客们接触。我们每天能够接5 万个电话，所以实际上我们每时每刻都 沉浸在顾客的反馈信息之中。那给我们 提供了一个很好的机会，以更好的提升 我们的产品、服务以及公司运行的每一 个步骤。我想那是我们公司的一个关键 组织架构优势所在。
Reporter: Do you view competition as a battle?
记者：您将竞争视为一场战争吗？
Dell: That’s a good question. Sometimes it’s a battle, but sometimes we，re clearly working with a number of companies to grow an industry.I think the leading companies tend to be able to grow together. In fact, in the computer industry, it’s really required that they work together because the products are so interconnected. Our products must interface with software and hardware from companies that we are related to in some way, or compete with, or cooperate with. That’s the nature of computers and dectronics. There’s more opportunity for us to work with others in the industry, and that’s an important part of the growth.
戴尔：这个问题问得好。有的时候竞争 是一场战争，但是有的时候，我们也是 在与很多其他公司进行合作，来发展一 项产业。我€，一些带头的公司都趋向 于共同发展。事实上，在计算机领域， 公司之间进行合作是很有必要的，因为 很多产品实际上都是相互联系的。我们 的产品必须要与一些软件和硬件结合， 而这些软件和硬件往往来自于与我们进 行合作或者是竞争的公司。这是计算机 和电子产业的本质所在。在这个产业 中，我们有更多的机会与这一产业中的 其他公司进行合作，这是公司成长过程 中一个很重要的部分。
Reporter: Did you envision that Dell was going to be this successful?
记者：您曾经预想过戴尔会取得如此大 的成功吗？
Dell: I was 19 years old, so I thought about next weekend. The planning horizon was not very long when I started the company. But, as the company grew, it became obvious what the opportunity was and we started to plan a little more long range.
戴尔：那时候我只有19岁，所以我只 有一些近期目标。当我创办公司的时 候，并没有公司的长远规划。但是当公司逐渐发展壮大的时候，我们的机会就 变得很明显，我们就开始制定一些较远 期的计划。
Reporter: Do you still think about next weekend sometimes?
记者：您有时仍然会只想眼前的利益 吗？
Dell: Yeah, yeah. Not quite in the way I did when I was 19, but...
戴尔：是的，但是与我19岁时思考的 方式不一样。
Reporter: Is running Dell something that you want to do for your whole life?
记者：运行戴尔集团是您想要一生从事 的事业吗？
Dell: Well, I certainly like doing it. I think I’ll keep doing this for a long, long time.As long as I keep enjoying it, I don’t see any reason to stop.
戴尔：我喜欢这个事业，我想我还会做 很长时间，只要我还喜欢这个行业，我 就没有理由放弃。
Reporter: What’s it like to work at Dell?
记者：在戴尔工作，您感觉怎样呢？
Dell: You sort of get in a rhythm, in a pattern and you find what works for each person.You have to have mechanisms to relieve some of the day-to-day issues that come up in the business. Like exercise. That can be pretty helpful .We encourage it inside the company and it certainly works for me. We have a fitness center and, generally, we have an active, athletic kind of workforce.
戴尔：你就像是进入了一个有节奏的模 式之中，你会看到每个 人都是怎样工作的。你 必须要有一定的机制， 以减少每天出现的一些 日常问题。就像是运动 一样。这是非常有帮助 的。我们鼓励员工多运 动，那也确实发挥了作 用。我们有一个健身中心，我们也有积 极的、有活力的员工。
Reporter: That would seem to be a way to building a sense of community in the organization?
记者：那好像是在公司建立了一个社区 感？
Dell: Well, absolutely. I mean, I think people look to the company as a place where they want to build a career and a life and not as a place where you come here for a little while, then leave and go somewhere else. We definitely want to build that sense of belonging and being a part of something. And, with a company like this that’s growing rapidly, there’s every opportunity to do that, and I think you’d be really foolish not to take advantage of that kind where you can get very helpful for our of enthusiasm and excitement in the people that are building what we expect will be a great company.
戴尔：是的，当然。我的意思是，公司 的员工都希望公司成为他们发展事业和 生活的一个场所，而不仅仅是上班时在 公司待一会儿，到了下班时间就离开， 然后去别的地方。我们希望我们的员工 能够有一种归属感，并且公司成为他们 生活的一部分。作为一个发展迅速的公 司，我们有机会那样做。我想，如果我们不真正的利用员工们的那种热 情和兴奋劲头的话，那就是不明 智的，因为正是员工的那份热情 才使我们能够成为一个大公司。
Reporter: Does the feeling of community helps people work together as a team?
记者：员工们的那种归属感有助 于大家像一个团队一样的合作吗？
Dell: No question about it. What also works well is sponsoring sports teams that employees can be a part of. Any kind of activity people together and communicate is business. You have to break down barriers and promote informal communication. You build friendships within the company, people begin to understand that we're all in this together. I think that electronic mail is very helpful in that regard also. It promotes this very free flowing, horizontal communication. It’s a very unstructured kind of device and people really don’t have ranks or titles on electronic mail.lt allows anybody to communicate with anybody else. It serves as a “de-layering” device.
戴尔：毫无疑问。我们也通过赞 助运动队的方式增加大家的归属 感，因为公司的员工们可以参加 到这个队伍当中。任何一项能够把大家 聚集到一起并且进行交流的活动，对于 我们的企业都是有帮助的。我们必须 要消除隔阂，促进大家之间的日着交 流。在公司内部建立友谊可以促使大家 开始明白，我们是属于一个团队的。我 想，在这方面，电子邮件也是很有帮助 的。它能够促进人们之间自由平等的交 流。那是一个没有阶层区分的方式，在 电子邮件中大家不需要称呼彼此的阶层 和头衔。它允许每个人与任何人之间的 交谈，同时也起到缓燃剂的作用。
Reporter: Do you think that your original involvement from the very start in the nuts and bolts of building PCs has stood you in good stead as a manager?
记者：您认为，您最初涉足计算机领域， 奠定了您作为一个经理人的地位吗？
Dell: This is a business where you really have to understand the products.You can’t just manage people and numbers and expect to win.The business is technically complicated enough where you would make too many wrong decisions if you weren’t really understanding the core product.When you looked at the industry, you see distinct patterns of companies that understand and the leadership really understands and uses the product.
戴尔：在这个领域你必须了解产品。你 并不能只是管理员工和数字，然后就期 待着去贏。这个产业从技术方面说很复 杂，如果你不理解核心产品的话，那你 就很有可能作出错误的决定。所以当你 去这个产业看一下的时候，你会看到， 很多公司都是能够了解那些产品的，公 司的领导阶层也是能够很好的理解并使 用产品的。