Dell sees huge potential in Bangladesh

Dell went from public to private a couple of years back. How is Dell coping with this change in the organisation and what is its plan for the future?

I think the objectives of going private are fairly compelling. We wanted to make sure that we looked at the market from a long term perspective. Now, a lot of organisations talk about this, but Dell basically wrote that book. It's a well-known fact that when you're in the public domain and your stocks are enlisted, you're open to a lot of scrutiny. The investment decisions you take, the market moves you make, the strategies you implement, all the successes and failures are reported on a weekly basis. The reason to go private was that we wanted to make sure we had the window of opportunity to make certain decisions around our investments and acquisitions outside the public domain. We went private to take certain steps without public scrutiny of whether or not they were good decisions. Since we went private back in October of 2014, there has been a marked shift in our internal decision making and agility.

Give us a quick recap of Dell Solutions Day.

We essentially positioned Dell Solutions as outreach efforts. Now, these are one of several outreach efforts we have. We have free service camps taking place all over Bangladesh as we speak. We are providing service to all Dell products that are owned by a consumer whether or not they are within the warranty period, free of cost. We're also talking to thousands of our customers all over the country. It's very important for us to do this kind of large events where they are made aware and they can touch and feel the product.

What's the current market situation in Bangladesh?

It's growing and Bangladesh is an enormous market for Dell. We are expanding all over Bangladesh. The way I look at it, Bangladesh is the seventh largest market in the world. The average age is about 25-26 years or lower—that is what we call a perfect situation. We have a large young population who are aspiring to own the best things out there. There is a need to be socially connected and what better way to do than with smart devices and laptops.

What sort of impact would EMC's acquisition have in the product line?

EMC is a top-tier brand with some of the best solutions and the best people. We believe that the joint forces of EMC and Dell would be beneficial for our customers. We think their storage products perfectly complement our network, server and storage solutions. But it's a process that is going to take time. And unless it is done, we cannot be making any prediction about how it's going to be. However, we can expect some amount of overlaps in some of our solutions. There are some solutions that are better converged rather than divided in two different portfolios.

We saw a steady decline in the import of tabs in Bangladesh as the average smartphone size got bigger. Does Dell have any plans to bring in phones?

Never say never! But as of now, no. The IT industry is well-known for experiencing transformations every few years. We have gone through so many in our entire lifetime that change is something we are very used too. I can show you reams and reams of research that shows that a smartphone bigger than 4 inches doesn't make sense. And today, a smartphone smaller than 5 inches is not deemed a proper smartphone. Many people told us that the tablet market would eat up the PC market. Others told us if you are not successful with tablets, you're done for. Look at where the market is right now. But a company like Dell cannot be based on the overarching trends alone. Dell's decisions are not based on market trends, but on what customers are telling us they need.