Michael Dell
United States
Born on 23 Feb 1965
Business Magnate, Investor, Philanthropist, Author
Born on 23 Feb 1965
Business Magnate, Investor, Philanthropist, Author
Quotes
<< Prev
I believe that you have to understand the economics of a business before you have a strategy, and you have to understand your strategy before you have a structure. If you get these in the wrong order, you will probably fail.
Speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Tfechnology Conference, Dallas. 'Maximum Speed: Lessons Learned from Managing Hypergrowth' (1998)
When a business goes wrong, look only to the people who are running it.
Quoted in In the Company of Giants (1997)
Another lesson we've learned is that you can't follow the other guys. If you take the approach of saying, �Competitor X has a good business, let's be just like them,� that's not going to create a lot of value...It doesn't mean that we won't borrow good ideas from other companies when we see them, but we're not held to convention and we're not striving to be like other companies...We are building our own path.
Speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Technology Conference, Dallas. 'Maximum Speed: Lessons Learned from Managing Hypergrowth' (1998)
One of the struggles many companies face is overcoming the desire to invent everything themselves. Even today, you see a lot of companies falling back on the idea that �my baby's the most beautiful in the world and I'm not going to accept anybody else's.� This can get in the way of logical business thinking.
Speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Technology Conference, Dallas. 'Maximum Speed: Lessons Learned from Managing Hypergrowth' (1998)
If you limit a company by its structure or by the people in the company, you will, by definition, limit the full potential of that business. It sounds basic, but a lot of companies don't follow the idea that the structure should be last and not first.
Speech to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Technology Conference, Dallas. 'Maximum Speed: Lessons Learned from Managing Hypergrowth' (1998)
We're fast approaching the point at which there is really no distinction between the .com companies and traditional businesses. The only distinction will be between the winners and losers, and of course, the pace of change at which companies become winners or losers.
Speech to the DirectConnect Customer Conference, Austin, Texas. 'DirectConnect' (1999)
Instead of vertical integration, we have a kind of virtual integration that is taking hold. It shows up in the efficiency of companies. Our company, for example, has a return on invested capital of roughly 290 per cent which... is significantly above our cost of capital... This says there is a fair bit of competitive power in a model like this.
Speech to the Canadian Club of Tbronto, Canada. 'Leadership in the Internet Economy' (2000)
A business' flexibility in adapting to change and market dynamics will mark the winners and losers in this fast-changing Internet Age. Flexibility is a tight pairing of speed and agility. Linking businesses together using information is at the center of value creation in the Internet Age.
Speech to the Windows 2000 Deployment Conference, San Francisco. 'The Foundation of E-Business'
Search
On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays