Dell & the gang 'Agents of Change'-Rick Schuette,Goldman Sachs.
Sig:
Great tribute to Dell,his company and DELL employees. The article also points out what separates DELL from the 'me-too crowd'.I think we are gonna be riiiiiiiiiich.Heeeeee Haaaaaaw!
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MICHAEL S. DELL -- DIRECT-SALES MEGA-MAVEN CONTINUES TO RECAST BIZ MODELS
Dec. 18, 1998 (Electronic Buyers News - CMP via COMTEX) -- In the 1980s, he put the PC industry into a tailspin with the introduction of direct PC sales. In the 1990s, he wowed the industry with his ability to sell $10 million worth of products and services online daily.
Just what Michael Dell has up his sleeve for the next decade no one can say for sure, but it's clear to his peers that the 33-year-old industry phenom will continue to rewrite the rule book.
Most people have heard the almost mythical story of how Dell turned a side business run out of his dorm room at the University of Texas into a $16-billion-a-year force in the PC market, but few may realize what a down-to-earth fellow he is, said analyst Rick Schuette of The Goldman Sachs Group LP, New York.
"If you met him, you wouldn't know he was the richest man in Texas," Schuette said.
Schuette was so impressed with Dell when he met him in the early 1990s that he bought stock in the company.
Several years later, Schuette ran into Dell at a conference and thanked him-the stock's value was by then enough to put Schuette's two daughters through college.
"He looked at me and said, 'Well, you can have another child.'"
Schuette did.
By being a pioneer, Dell has been able to transform his business-which started up with just $1,000 in capital-into a multibillion-dollar company in just 14 years.
The people at Dell Computer are "the agents of change," Schuette said.
In the world of electronic commerce, Dell has become a legend in his own time for his tremendously successful use of the Internet as a sales channel. But e-commerce is only a fraction of the Internet's value to business, Dell said in a speech to the World Congress on Information Technology earlier this year.
"The real potential of the Internet lies in the ability to transform relationships within the traditional supplier-vendor-customer chain," he said.
Toward that end, Dell Computer has been internally developing Internet-based applications to better integrate its entire supply chain.
For example, the company's Premier Page service, available to key customers, is designed to make buying from Dell Computer easier and more efficient. Premier Page lists procurement and purchase-order information specific to each customer. Ford Motor Co., one Premier Page user, estimates that it has saved $2 million in initial procurement costs by placing orders through the custom site, Dell noted in his speech.
Those who know Dell say it's not just his introduction of the direct-sales model or his successful use of the Internet to sell PCs that sets him apart in this industry, but his drive, focus, and passion for his work.
"A key to his continued success is that he sticks to the fundamentals, " Schuette said. "People questioned the direct model, but he believed in it and stuck with it."
At the same time, however, Dell is "man enough to know when something isn't working" and will retreat, Schuette added.
In 1993, for instance, Dell made a foray into the retail space, trying to sell PCs through Wal-Mart.
"It was a mistake, and he knew it, and he backed down," Schuette said.
Dell's colleagues point out that his ability to surround himself with good people has been key to his continued success.
"A real pivotal time for Dell occurred a couple of years ago, when the company ran into some trouble with foreign currency," said analyst Andy Neff of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., New York. "Michael turned around and hired some very strong managers to help him run the company. That was encouraging. He saw that he needed to bring in new people, and he did. This industry is littered with companies that don't want to recognize their limitations."
Having a capable staff on board has also enabled Dell to maintain a balance between his work and his personal life.
"He's very much a family man," Schuette said,"[and that's] tough to do in this business. But he's able to do this because he's done a great job in surrounding himself with terrific people to whom he can delegate authority."
Schuette added that Dell's job is not to run Dell Computer's day-to-day operations, but to "figure out where [the company] should be in the next five years and how to get it there.
"I believe that Dell is more of a visionary then people give him credit for," Schuette said, "and not just in the computer industry. More and more we hear the phrase, 'I want to be like Mike.' Whether you're selling computers, books, or fish, people want to run a tight supply-chain inventory model, and Michael Dell pioneered that whole sea change."
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By: Diane Trommer
1998 CMP Media Inc.
(Courtesy:Comtex,marketwire,cmp media)
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