"Companies don't know what they are doing..."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1654&CFID=15161194&CFTOKEN=89101502&jsessionid=a83026290160205059a6

Knowledge@Wharton has posted the following interview with Prof. Peter Cappelli, director for the school’s Center for Human Resources, on the topic of Michael Dell once again taking up the CEO position in his company.

I felt this article was relevant to our class because we have spent considerable time in studying and determining the “best practices” for leadership. While we have read many different theories, we understand that there is no single explanation for success or failure only different ways of analysis. In this article, Cappelli points out something that I tend to agree with to a great extent. He states that success is dependent on many factors, including leadership and the business environment. Dell garnered a great deal of success throughout the 80’s and 90’s and has since fallen into a slump. This is isn’t to say that Dell’s leadership is doing something wrong, its just that they have not adjusted to their environment. In fact, Cappelli is certain that Dell is doing the same thing they did earlier, its just not going to work in today’s environment.

As I already mentioned, I tend to agree with his analysis and I’d be interested in seeing what others might this of his assessment.