Dell, the company, has faltered only when it has veered from the purest form of its direct
model. There was a flirtation with retail sales when Dell machines were sold in Staples stores
and some others. But building speculative retail inventories and then having to share profit
with the retailer wasn't to Dell's taste, and the relationships ended.
戴爾公司只有在它從最單純的直接銷售模式進行改動時才有點動搖。當戴爾計算機在Staples和其它商店
被銷售時感覺這是對零售的一種挑逗。但是建造有風險的零售庫存，然后和零售商分享利潤不對戴爾的胃口，
于是這種關系結束了。
Dell's reluctance to hold inventory was briefly overridden in 1989, when the company bought
millions of extra memory chips in an attempt to stay ahead of an expected shortage. It is a
mistake to speculatively buy commodity products like memory chips that typically go down, not
up, in price. Dell gambled and lost. Worse still, the industry was in transition from 256-
kilobit chips to 1-megabyte chips, leaving Dell with too many of the older chips.
在1989年，戴爾對保持庫存的厭惡遭受了重大打擊。當時公司購買了數以百萬計的外加存儲器芯片，試圖
在預計的供應不足時能夠有一定的存貨。投機性地購買商品，例如存儲器芯片之類價格有下降趨勢、而不是上
升趨勢的產品是一個錯誤。戴爾賭了一把但失敗了。更糟糕的是，工業正在從256K的芯片向1M芯片轉型，留給
戴爾的是過多的舊芯片。
One more goof: After raising $30 million in the 1988 IPO, Dell blew at least $10 million in
1989 trying to technologically leapfrog IBM and Compaq with a super-advanced computer code-named
Olympic. This was a violation of the direct model, in that Dell would have been trying to tell
its customers what to buy--that is, if the project had even made it that far. Olympic produced a
few custom chips and a writeoff for Dell before it was declared a failure and canceled.
另一個失敗：在1988年IPO中獲利三千萬美元后，1989年，戴爾努力以超級先進 的命名為Olympic的計算
機在技術上超越IBM和康柏，他花費了至少一千萬美元。這違背了直接銷售模式，戴爾想要告訴消費者該買什
么－即，如果這項計劃曾經如此設計。在宣布Olympic是一個失敗并最終取消之前，已生產了一些戴爾的定制
芯片和報廢產品。
Since then, the company has made mistakes, sure--the design of its notebook computers got so
off track at one point that Dell canceled most of the line, leading to the company's only
quarterly loss, in 1993. But Dell quickly recovered by again hiring a top gun from outside, this
time raiding the group that designed Apple's PowerBooks.
從那時起，公司曾犯下了某些錯誤，這是事實－筆記本電腦的設計在某點上脫離了常軌，使得戴爾取消了
大多數生產線，導致了公司在1993年一個季度的損失。但是戴爾很快就恢復了元氣，再次從外界雇用了最優秀
的工程師，這次對設計Apple 公司的PowerBook（強力筆記本電腦）的設計組實施了強有力的打擊。
In the 1990s, the bywords for Dell have been "international expansion" and "increased
economies of scale." In the U.K. and Japanese markets, Dell has caused the same ripples among
established manufacturers and had the same quick success as at home. The direct model seems to
work everywhere. Even the mighty Compaq is emulating Dell by building some machines to order.
IBM is trying to share Dell's success by becoming a major component supplier to the company.
Japanese manufacturers are looking to Dell for tips on how to build PCs.
在20世紀90年代，戴爾的綽號曾經是"互聯網膨脹"和"增長的規模經濟"。在英國和日本市場上，戴爾曾在
公認的制造商中掀起了相同的波瀾，并且獲得了和在美國一樣的快速成功。直接銷售模式看來在各處都起作用
。即使是康柏這樣的大公司也在模仿戴爾建立起某種訂購機制。IBM正在努力通過成為戴爾公司的主要零件供
應商來分享戴爾的成功果實。日本制造商在怎樣建立PCs的技巧方面也向戴爾看齊。
（未完待續）
|
