Dell's co-presidente steps back

Dell is having a rejig of its top managers with co-president/COO Jim Vanderslice easing into impending retirement by stepping back from his role.

This leaves Kevin Rollins as sole president/COO and Vanderslice is moving to a senior advisory role as vice chairman. He'll advise Rollins and CEO Michael Dell.

Vanderslice retires at the end of 2002. His advice will focus particularly on procurement, manufacturing and related issues.

Dell says that since Vanderslice joined the company, 80 per cent of Dell's computer systems are produced in factories that are less than two years old, and it has cut its days of supply in inventory from six days to four. 'In absolute terms, inventory has been reduced by more than $80 million,' said a statement.

It's not the only thing that's been cut. Dell reported a $101 million loss for the second quarter, while warning investors to prepare for falling sales in Q3. The loss from the Texan PC giant was largely due to a pre-tax charge of $742 million to cover job cuts and site closures, and compared to a $603 million net profit for Q2 the previous year.

Vanderslice was senior VP of the IBM Technology Group, which struck a $16 billion, seven-year technology cross-licensing deal with Dell in 1999. This saw Dell using Big Blue products to bolster its high-end weakspots. ®

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