Putin to Dell: we'd rather just compete

You've probably all seen it by now, Vladimir Putin telling Michael Dell that he doesn't want his (or our industry's) help.

This whole thing is pretty screwed up and I feel a bit sorry for Michael Dell for not realizing what he was walking into.  He asked a question that I'm sure was meant to be a polite conversation starter and Putin, the world leader, took Dell's overture and crushed it. 

Michael is no newcomer to international business, but he should have known better than to speak first during the Q&A.  Putin was clearly on a mission to promote his country's capabilities, industries and products.  He was not interested in buying anything - he was selling and selling hard - confident in what he had to offer. 

Dell's question was not very well formed and I can only imagine the interpreter had some difficulty with it.  The word that seems to have caught Putin's ire was "help", which may have been interpreted to mean something closer to "aid" than "work together".  If that was the case, Putin's response,  "We don't need help. We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity", makes sense. Why wouldn't he be insulted by an offer from Dell for technology aid?

If you watch the video, you'll hear Putin (through a translator) discuss working as equals in the world economy.  US companies dominate the technology sector and Putin clearly wants to get Russia more heavily involved.  I don't think Dell's question was all that awful, but he probably could have used a better choice of words. A question exploring opportunities for working together would certainly have drawn less hostility. 

By the same token, it's not clear that Putin's response will serve him well in the global IT industry.  Russia's technology industry will need to find partnership opportunities to grow, and since many of those partnership opportunities will be with US companies, it might be good to demonstrate the spirit of partnering, as opposed to competing.

Comments

[Roger Strukhoff]

It might have helped if Boris Badanov wasn't the translator. That said, I was on a panel with Young Michael 20 years ago in Japan, and he managed to alienate all the locals in that room through the same combination of a fatuous intro followed by a little obtuse condescension. In those days he was a lot cockier, though, which made it worse.

[marc farley]

And it was to a Japanese audience where face saving is a common bond