The tenacious success story of Michael Dell, one of the world's largest computer manufacturers
The process that started when a young high school student wanted to disassemble his computer and get to know him out of curiosity turned him into a world giant. The secret of his success lay in trying to get to know the work he was going to do. So, before he spoke and ran, he was thinking.
Two entrepreneurs that Michael Dell has taken as a role model:
1. Acquiring a business and refining its cost and logistics structure; Sam Walton (Wal-Mart), who thus took him to heights no one had ever imagined.
2. Embodying an industry by designing a new business process; at least the Henry Ford who revolutionized that industry.
Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies.
Being an entrepreneur is not enough; It is necessary to keep the entrepreneurial spirit constantly alive. That's why, says Michael, "there is always an issue, a challenge on my agenda: a new product line, a new customer, a new service, or a new marker." Thinking about something new and different has become kind of second nature to Michael. It was like that when I started work. “When I first started the business, my dream was to sell made-to-order computer systems to the end user without an agent. Because of the inefficiencies of the agent system, I realized that there were great opportunities in that area.”
Dell is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services and is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
At the urging of his parents, Michael wins medical school, but soon manages to turn his campus room into a computer workshop. The seller gets the license, enters the Texas state auctions and wins many auctions. His parents, sensing that Michael is not attending classes, come to check. "My father began: You need to stop this computer bullshit and focus on school. Set your priorities right. What do you want to spend your life on?" Michael's answer was unequivocal: "I want to race IBM!"
Dell annual revenue for 2021 was $86.67B, a 2.19% increase from 2020. Dell annual revenue for 2020 was $84.815B, a 6.41% decline from 2019.
Michael Dell was of the same mind as Bill Gates. They wanted to democratize the computer, to free it from the domination of institutions. The computer should not remain as a device that only rich people or institutions can buy. (People my age know what that means. When we started university in the mid-1970s, even the smallest computer was the size of a basketball player. We used to punch the writings on cards, then hand them over to the machinist brothers, wait two days, and get our exits that way.)
Working with computers was not a hobby or a fad for Michael Dell. "If you could take this device that was previously in the hands of only a few elites and make it accessible to all businesses, large and small, individuals and students, it could be the most important device of the century." The most important and therefore the most profitable!
The computer industry was founded on the marriage of an ignorant buyer and an ignorant seller. The first question Michael asked himself was, "How can we improve the computer acquisition process?" Answer: "Sell the computer directly to the end user. Cut the profit margin of the broker and pass these savings on to the customer!"
The name Michael Dell first appeared in Fortune magazine, which appeared in the USA in a significant way. A 1992 issue of the magazine listed the 500 largest companies, making Dell the youngest CEO there. 12 years after the founding of the company, Dell started online sales without intermediaries. Online sales without intermediaries enabled Dell to catch up very quickly. So much so that the daily turnover of the company increased to 1 million dollars. Thanks to the products opened for internet sales, the company declared its leadership in just 5 years, surpassing Compaq, the largest computer manufacturer of the time.
By 2012, Dell ranked 41st on Forbes' billionaires list with a fortune of $15.9 billion. Michael Dell, who ranks 10th in Forbes' richest technology leaders list with a fortune of 23.6 billion dollars, also manages to enter the top 10 in America's richest people.
Michael Dell, who married Susan Lynn Lieberman in 1989 and lives in Austin, Texas with his four children, also uses his wealth, which he has acquired through the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, which he founded in 1999, for many activities for the benefit of society. While the foundation has built many medical centers and computer centers at the University of Texas, as of 2010, aid for children in the USA, India and South Africa has exceeded 650 million dollars.
Citizenship: USA
Marital Status: Married
Number of children: 4
Education: The University of Texas at Austin (did not finish, dropped out)
Wealth: $23.6 billion (11/11/2017). Much of his wealth lies in private investment firm MSD Capital. He also has stakes in hotels and restaurants.