In my opinion, Dell computers is one of the best managed companies in the world for one very simple reason; the management had the wisdom to listen to their subordinates and "change their ways" so to speak before they lost their best assets, their employees. One of the keys to successful leadership and management is the ability to listen to and accept criticism and react to it accordingly. That is to say that if the criticism is coming from a poor source that is just complaining or talking about how much better they could run things but has no credibility behind it, then note it and move on. On the other hand however, if the criticism is coming from say, your number one salesman or your top engineer, you may want to take heed and adjust your way of thinking in the area they are criticizing. That is exactly what Michael Dell and Kevin Rollins did.
English: Michael Dell, founder & CEO, Dell Inc.
PC's Limited Turbo PC (signed by Michael Dell)
English: Michael Dell speaking at Oracle OpenWorld...According to the background materials, the main four functions of management are considered to be: Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling. No where in those four functions of management does it say that managers have to be unyielding know it alls that are to good to listen to suggestions. In fact, they pretty much all say that managers should be the exact opposite. The ability to do each and every job of every employee in the company is not necessarily expected of the companies' managers. Therefore, if the manager does not know how to do the job of a specific employee, then it is in that manager's best interest to listen to the suggestions of that employee in regards to that particular area of the business. With regards to Dell, and why they are one of the best managed companies in the world, I...