Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Management - Essay Example Operations, quite differently from other major organization’s functional areas such as financing, marketing, accounting etc, are more directly related to an organization’s day-to-day quest of its main business (Summers, 1998, p. 1). Operational efficiency and effectiveness are critically important two terms in the contemporary business literatures, not only since they are of greater importance in strategic management but also they represent the most reliable aspects of growth and profits. This report chooses Dell Inc and describes examples of its strategic managerial and operational activities for critically analyzing the operational efficiency and effective systems to explain how they are aligned to deliver its performance objectives. Dell Inc: An Overview Started as a very small lucrative business in 1984 by Michael Dell, the company has now grown to become one of the largest computer manufacturer and multinational companies with strong strategic vision and operationa l emphasis on ‘going direct business model’, supply chain and build to order process, virtual integration and customer focus. As Holzner (2006, p. 5) noted, Dell was placed as 25th in the list of computer manufacturers in 1990s, but eventually, its operational efficiencies and technology advantages helped the company prospered while all other 24 companies have gone out of the list. It also achieved significant place in fortune 500 companies in 1992. With more than 63,000 employees, Dell Inc operates in more than 150 countries holding considerable market share in almost all the countries it markets its products and services. With a view to eliminate middlemen markups, it has created a strategic formula of direct marketing to help it maintain substantial cost advantages (Magretta, 1999, p.193). Michael dell has long been concentrating on operation efficiencies to be attained through strategic emphasis on ‘going direct’ model, effective supply chain process, v irtual integration and customization process etc. As shown in the depiction above, Dell in 2011 has been placed as third largest PC maker and marketer in the world just behind HP and Acer. Dell represented 12 percent market share in the worldwide PC market. Dell, though the recent market share and business performance has been accounted as quite below as compared to its previous years’ records, has been fostering on innovation, technology and efficient operation that in turn helped the company maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. When it comes to the business operation and operational objectives of Dell, it is very evident that the company has implemented superior managerial operation and most effective supply chain technique that have ever worked for Dell (Bozarth, 2005, p. 22). Various operational techniques such as going direct model, supply chain, customization, customer focus etc are analyzed below to review how these are deployed in Dell to achieve its organiza tional performance objectives. Going Direct Business Model For Dell Inc, the going direct marketing model has long been the