Read the case from the attached textbook from pages [C-90 to C-99], and answer the following questions. (See part 5, long cases, case 7)
What were the foundations of Dell’s success during its first two decades?
Why did establish manufacturers not switch to Dell’s direct selling strategy in the 1990s once the emergence of the WWW demonstrated its considerable utility?
Using the competitive forces model, analyze the economics of the market for PC hardware as it seems to have operated for most of the 1990s and 2000s. How did the economics of this market start to change in the late 2000s and the early 2010s?
How did Dell’s strategy start to shift in the 2010s? Why was Dell not immediately successful?
Why did Michael Dell elect to take Dell, private? Was this the right thing to do?
