Or maybe it is not a miracle at all. The first time I met Michael Dell was at a business meeting
held during his honeymoon. Ten years, four Dell children, and many Dell billions later, this
profile could probably end with that sentence and still give a fair image of what makes Michael
Dell America's top CEO. Here is a man who loves his work and sometimes fails to see where the
business ends and the man begins. After all, it's his name on the building.
或者可能這根本上就不是一個奇跡。我第一次遇見邁克爾·戴爾是在他蜜月期間的一次商業會議上。十年
，戴爾生了四個孩子，賺了若干個億，本簡介也許可以以這句話結束，這種描述依然可以使邁克爾·戴爾成為
美國頂尖的CEO。這個人熱愛他的工作，有時甚至會看不到生意在哪里結束，他在哪里開始工作。畢竟，這幢
大樓上刻的是他的名字。
At the heart of Dell's success is the word "direct." The company sells direct to customers,
eschewing distributors, re-sellers, and dealers. It deals direct with vendors, again avoiding
middlemen. Dell builds no computer until it is ordered by the customer who pays for it, often in
advance. This way Dell holds no inventory, or at least not for long (an average of five days,
according to Dell himself). And since the computers aren't built until they are ordered, the
company likes to say that it has perfect market research and builds exactly the computers its
customers want. Whether this is precisely true or not, Dell's operation is the ultimate
extension of the Japanese ultra-efficient just-in-time production management pioneered in the
1970s. For the most part, Dell doesn't even buy the parts for your computer (or at least doesn't
pay for them) until you place your order.
戴爾成功的要訣是"直接"這個詞。公司直接向客戶銷售，避開批發商、分銷商和經銷商。公司直接和賣主
聯系，避開中間人。戴爾直到付款（通常是預先付款）的客戶訂購才會生產計算機。這樣戴爾不會有存貨，至
少不會很長（按照戴爾自己的說法，平均五天）。因為計算機直到被訂購才會生產，所以公司可以聲稱它作了
完美的市場調查，制造了客戶需要的計算機。無論這究竟是對還是錯，戴爾的運營是二十世紀七十年代首創的
日本超效率準時生產管理的最終延伸。很大程度上，戴爾甚至直到你訂購后才會為你的計算機購買部件（或者
說至少不會為它們付款）。
This hyper-efficient manufacturing operation, with plants in the U.S., Ireland, Malaysia,
and now China, can build PCs that are as reliable and as inexpensive to build as any in the
world, yet Dell has hardly ever been the absolute price leader. The company sells a high-quality
product with great support and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but don't look for a sub-$1,000 PC
from Dell, a company that is fixated on manufacturing efficiency not for its own sake but
because efficiency is the route to higher profit. As the rise and fall of companies like Packard
Bell have shown, low-margin PCs intended solely to build market share don't contribute to
profits. And it is consistent and growing profit that has fueled Dell's success. That's why the
company still sells more than 80 percent of its machines to businesses.
這種高效率的制造過程，其工廠在美國、愛爾蘭、馬來西亞和中國，能夠制造出世界上最可靠和最便宜的
PC，然而戴爾完全不是一個絕對的以廉價吸引顧客的公司。公司銷售高質量的產品，有很強的支持，保證30天
退款，但是不要期待戴爾生產低于1000美元的PC，它關注的是生產效率，不是生產本身，因為效率是更高利潤
的必經之路。如同Packard Bell等公司的沉浮所顯示的，只想占據市場份額的低利潤PC不會獲得利潤的。推動
戴爾成功的是持續并增長的利潤。這是公司仍然把超過80%的機器銷售給企業的原因。
（未完待續）
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