Dell Corporation Founder
Michael Dell
Interview
Coming soon!
Notes from Evan Smith
"Michael Dell -- In 1984, Michael Dell founded the Dell Computer Corporation which has become the world leader among personal computer (PC) manufacturers. Dell now serves as chairman and chief executive officer for Dell. He started the company while in school at the University of Texas at Austin. With about $1,000 and an unprecedented idea in the PC industry: Dell found a way to bypass the middleman and sell custom-built PCs directly to customers. This simple idea is considered a revolution in the technology world. In 16 years, the company's sales have grown from $6 million to $36.9 billion during the past four quarters. Since its first international subsidiary opened in the United Kingdom in 1987, Dell has opened sales offices worldwide and has approximately 40,000 employees around the globe. The next frontier for Dell has been the Web and once again the computer giant seems to be holding its place as a leader in the PC industry. Dell is acknowledged as the largest online commercial seller of computer systems, with $50 million per day in online sales. The company's corporate customers include most of the companies in the Fortune 500 list of the largest American companies. With the addition of Michael Dell to this list in 1992, he became the youngest CEO of a company to earn a ranking on the Fortune 500. The company has been included on Fortune's list of "Most Admired Companies" since 1995, ranking No. 3 in 2000. In 1998, Business Week magazine named Dell as the "Best Performing Information Technology Company" in the world. Dell was also the top-performing stock among the Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 in 1996 and 1997, and represented the top-performing U.S. stock on the Dow Jones World Stock Index. The value of Dell's stock has risen nearly 50,000 percent over the past decade, and in 1999, The Wall Street Journal named Dell Computer No. 1 in total return to investors over the past three, five and ten years. Michael Dell has been named "Entrepreneur of the Year" from Inc. magazine, "Man of the Year" by PC Magazine, "High Impact CEO" by executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles, "Top CEO in American Business" from Worth magazine and "CEO of the Year" by Financial World and Industry Week magazines. In 1997, 1998 and 1999, he was included in Business Week's list of "The Top 25 Managers of the Year." In 1999, he wrote the best-selling book Direct From Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry, his story of the rise of Dell Computer Corporation and his philosophy on business." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 6.5.03
