Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

The CEO of Dell, Kevin B. Rollins, apparently missed CEO class the day they talked about how one should never, ever accept blame for anything – even when getting paid a bazillion dollars to lead a company. From Sunday’s NYT: He Naps. He Sings. And He Isn’t Michael Dell.

…Mr. Rollins blamed himself for Dell’s disappointing earnings. “Frankly,” he said during a conference call with analysts, “we executed poorly on managing overall selling prices” – in particular those machines sold to consumers.

Mr. Rollins also actually listens to people who might disagree with him.

…Consider his reaction in 2001 when he came to believe that the corporate culture of Dell had been soured by greed. Mr. Rollins, then the company’s second in command, blamed himself and fellow top executives for failing to set the right tone. To help set things right, he decreed that every Dell manager would submit to periodic evaluations by his or her underlings – a policy still in place, though he endured the sting of people essentially telling him that he could be so supercilious and icy cold that his personality should be stored in a meat locker.

Hmmm…wonder if Mr. Rollins would be interested in a government job?