Dell to Focus on Long Term?

Can Michael Dell Refocus His Namesake? - New York Times

The Toyota Way philosophy preaches a focus on the long term
business objectives or as stated in the book (and summarized on
wikipedia):

“Base your management decisions on a long-term
philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial
goals.”

I’ve written before here about how Dell isn’t a Toyota Production
System “Lean” company, although many people use the lean word to
describe Dell. Why have I always made that argument? Because of
Dell’s management approach being so different than Toyota, it has
nothing to do with supply chain efficiency or build-to-order
approaches.

This new profile on Dell, the company, and Michael Dell, the CEO
says:

“The company was too focused on the short term,
and the balance of priorities was way too leaning toward things
that deliver short-term results — that was the major root
cause,” explains Mr. Dell..”

Straight from Michael, himself. I’ll give him bonus points for
referring to a “root cause,” a term and concept we often work with
in the Lean world. Having an overly short-term focus does sound
like something close to a true root cause for a company’s problems,
instead of blaming people or other factors.

Toyota’s culture is often described as one where people are
encouraged to expose problems rather than hiding them, as we do in
many traditional business cultures. “No problems is a problem” is
the famous expression. When Allan
Mulally took over at Ford, he noticed how the Ford culture was one
where people would hide problems from open discussion (most
likely out of fear, as Deming would have pointed out ironic since
he worked so much with Ford in the day).

Michael Dell started trying to change the Dell culture:

AS soon as he took over as chief executive, Mr. Dell
declared a two-month “amnesty” to encourage people to
discuss problems and deal with them quickly, without fear of being
fired or demoted. Otherwise, Mr. Dell says, managers might have
understated troubles and defended past decisions.

Why just a two-month amnesty? Why not make that part of a permanent
culture shift at Dell? I had a manager at Dell, back in 2000, who
said (and believed this), “My job is to make my boss look good.”
Really? I thought our job was to actually make things good, not to
make things look good. Hence the cultural challenges at Dell.