Dell’s strategy is to provide the best possible customer experience by building to order and selling directly to the consumer. Accordingly the company focuses on highly productive supply chain management, cost-saving manufacturing and standard-based technologies. Furthermore Dell possesses a wide product portfolio including notebooks, desktops, printers, servers, storage products, accessories, etc. Dell’s strategy of selling exclusively over the internet allows them to avoid middlemen and even more importantly reduces cost and time. Consequently Dell has gained a competitive advantage by achieving unique speed to market. Moreover their customised products and custom-tailored services guarantee a superior customer service which leads to an increase in customer loyalty. This is a very important point against the background of shorter product life cycle times throughout the industry. In addition Dell disdains inventory through their build-to-order strategy which can be seen as another key success factor. Besides Dell has absolute command of the supply chain. The components are made by suppliers and then assembled by using comparatively cheap labour. Another essential aspect is that Dell unlike some competitors does not spend a lot of money for developing innovative technologies. Due to their perception that today’s technology will be tomorrow’s commodity, Dell waits until the price for a technology falls to a certain extent where they can offer it at an affordable price. Although Dell is operating globally, its procedure is always the same. First they zoom in on the major profit pools, then enlarge the product portfolio and finally emphasise on improving the supply chain by building manufacturing facilities closer to the evolving customer base. Overall one can state that D ...