Asked about the day‐to‐day command of the giant Dell Inc. empire, entrepreneur and founder Michael S. Dell said of his close associate Kevin B. Rollins: “This company is much…
Abstract
Asked about the day‐to‐day command of the giant Dell Inc. empire, entrepreneur and founder Michael S. Dell said of his close associate Kevin B. Rollins: “This company is much stronger when the two of us are doing it together – but if I get hit by a truck he’s the CEO. Everyone knows that.”
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This paper is a clinical examination of the October 2013 Management Buyout of Dell Inc. by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners for a total consideration of $13.88 per…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is a clinical examination of the October 2013 Management Buyout of Dell Inc. by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners for a total consideration of $13.88 per share. The proposed transaction was targeted by shareholders unhappy with the deal price and voting framework. Various shareholders went on to file an appraisal suit. Examining these events yields insights into shareholder rights issues in a major transaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines events surrounding the acquisition including the negotiation process, go-shop period, shareholder activist demands for a higher price, shareholder voting and the subsequent appraisal trial and appeal.
Findings
Despite suggesting Dell's board fulfilled its fiduciary duties, Delaware Vice Chancellor Travis Laster awarded petitioning shareholders $17.62 per share, a 27% premium to the final deal consideration. This article draws on Laster's decision and research examining topics raised by the surrounding events to argue minority shareholder interests were not sufficiently protected.
Research limitations/implications
The Dell transaction represents only one data point. Moreover, Vice Chancellor Laster's decision was reversed on appeal.
Originality/value
Nevertheless, the paper discusses the nuances surrounding many issues of interest to practitioners involving large going private transactions. It could also be used to illustrate many “real world” perspectives in an advanced corporate finance or mergers and acquisitions class.
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Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Michael Dell's story is the very essence of the American dream. A college dropout, computer nerd with the ability to put together PCs cheaply and sell them by phone who built a company valued at $100 billion. All of this with start‐up capital of only $1000 and in an industry renowned for its ever‐decreasing prices and high research and development (R&D) costs.
Practical implications
Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.
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Augustine Pang, Nasrath Begam Binte Abul Hassan and Aaron Chee Yang Chong
The aim of this paper is to examine how crises can be triggered online, how different social media tools escalate crises, and how issues gain credibility when they transit to…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to examine how crises can be triggered online, how different social media tools escalate crises, and how issues gain credibility when they transit to mainstream media.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study uses the multiple case study method to analyze five crises, generated online, throughout their life-cycles, in order to build analytic generalizations (Yin).
Findings
Crises are often triggered online when stakeholders are empowered by social media platforms to air their grievances. YouTube and Twitter have been used to raise issues through its large user base and the lack of gatekeeping. Facebook and blogs escalate crises beyond the immediate stakeholder groups. These crises are covered by mainstream media because of their newsworthiness. As a result, the crises gain credibility offline. Mainstream media coverage ceases when traditional news elements are no longer present.
Research limitations/implications
If crises are increasingly generated online, this study aims to apply a framework to manage the impact on organizations.
Practical implications
How practitioners can use different new media tools to counter crises online and manage the transition of crises to mainstream media.
Originality/value
This is one of the first few studies that analyses how organizational crises originate online, gain traction and get escalated onto mainstream media. Understanding what causes crises to trigger online and gain legitimacy offline will enable practitioners to engage in effective crisis management strategies.
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Dell has introduced a number of key initiatives which helped to increase employee morale and retention rates. Its UK HR director, Richard Lowther, explains how management buy‐in…
Abstract
Dell has introduced a number of key initiatives which helped to increase employee morale and retention rates. Its UK HR director, Richard Lowther, explains how management buy‐in for diversity programs was vital for implementing a successful rollout of initiatives, and has empowered employees to manage their own workloads.
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In the early 1980s, when the PC business first got started, I realized that the distribution system for computers was very inefficient. Computer stores charged a 25–30 percent…
Abstract
In the early 1980s, when the PC business first got started, I realized that the distribution system for computers was very inefficient. Computer stores charged a 25–30 percent mark‐up for a computer, yet most salespeople did not know much about computers.
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb054434. When citing the article, please…
Abstract
This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb054434. When citing the article, please cite: Michael S. Dell, (1993), “Making the right choices for the new consumer”, Planning Review, Vol. 21 Iss: 5, pp. 20 - 22.
When a valuable new technology emerges, it provides forward‐looking companies with opportunities for gaining a strong and durable edge over the competition. But as the technology…
Abstract
When a valuable new technology emerges, it provides forward‐looking companies with opportunities for gaining a strong and durable edge over the competition. But as the technology matures and standardizes, it loses its power to provide competitive advantage. What it doesn’t lose is its power to destroy advantage. The rail system, for example, neutralized many of the traditional locational advantages held by companies situated near ports, mine heads, and population centers. With information technology, this neutralizing effect promises to be particularly strong – and thus poses particularly difficult challenges for business executives. Because IT is so flexible in its application and so deeply entwined with business processes, it can corrode advantages across many aspects of a company’s business. Any traditional advantage in prosecuting a particular activity or process, from setting type to designing components to providing customer service, will tend to dissipate as that activity or process is automated. The fact that competitive advantage has become more difficult to sustain doesn’t make it less important, as some have argued; it makes it more important. As business processes and systems become more homogeneous, only the strategically astute companies will be able to rise above the competitive free‐for‐all. Today’s smart managers will seek to combine sustainable advantages (those built on distinctive and defensible positionings) with leverageable advantages (transitory advantages that provide stepping stones to future advantages). In the information age, competitive advantage needs to be viewed as both an end and a means.
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Leadership theory and research has not addressed the role of leaders in knowledge management, despite its importance to organizations. Consequently, information and knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
Leadership theory and research has not addressed the role of leaders in knowledge management, despite its importance to organizations. Consequently, information and knowledge management as key leader functions have not been explored. This study is an attempt to generate a preliminary theory of the role of leaders in knowledge management through a grounded theory approach.
Design/methodology/approach
This study builds a grounded theory of the role of leadership in knowledge management by comparatively analyzing 37 in‐depth interviews of CEOs. Combining deductive and inductive methods, this study establishes the key role of top executive leaders of organizations in knowledge management.
Findings
The data from the interviews suggest that leaders are acutely aware of the role of information and knowledge sharing and design knowledge networks that serve to maximize organizational effectiveness. Moreover, leaders use information technology and knowledge management to better focus on key internal and external customers. Thus, this grounded theory emphasizes both the leader behavior dimensions of information and knowledge sharing. More importantly, this study links the processes of knowledge management and customer‐focused knowledge management to leader and organizational effectiveness. Additionally, there seems to be evidence that such knowledge management activities implemented by leaders can positively impact organizational performance.
Research limitations/implications
This grounded theory study has identified relationships/ processes of leadership that are inherently longitudinal. A key limitation, however, is that the end result is theory, which needs to be tested and refined through other conventional mechanisms.
Originality/value
This study makes significant contributions to both the leadership and knowledge management literatures.