DELL’s corporate strategy (2008-2012): A sector matrix analysis and the limits of the ‘product’ and ‘commodity’ chain (original) (raw)

In 2013 DELL announced that it would go private after being publically traded for more than twenty-four years on the stock exchange (Gugliemo 2013). This paper identifies that this strategic move on behalf of DELL management cannot be adequately analysed and understood by the ‘productionist’ concepts of ‘commodity’ and ‘product’ chain (Porter 1985; Gereffi 1996, 2002). On the basis of DELL’s openly available fiscal reports (2008- 2012) I suggest that DELL lacked a coherent corporate strategy during the last period. This is primarily due to the short-term pressures that ‘financialisation’ places on management. The move to go private must be understood as a way to develop a longer term strategy without the pressures to deliver ‘shareholder value’.