Tech legend and self-made billionaire Michael Dell, Chairman & CEO of Dell Inc., is admired for his astute business vision and strategic leaps.
By Nichola Marie
He also suggests that if you’re going to do something for a long time, you had better find the right mixture of working and playing and relaxing. “Laugh and play pranks, balance work with downtime, and don’t always listen to your parents,” were his exact words – sweet music to young ears!
Sweet Success
Born Michael Saul Dell on February 23, 1965 in Houston, Texas, US, to an orthodontist father and a stockbroker mother, he attended Herod Elementary School in Houston. A bright spark, he was in high school when he figured out how to target an untapped customer base in his job selling newspaper subscriptions; he made $18,000 in just one year. Fascinated with gadgets from a young age, at age 15, he bought one of the first Apple computers and disassembled it to see if he could put it back together! He was just 19, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, when he began his computer business (originally called PCs Limited) in 1984 with $1,000 in start-up capital, initially running the business from his dormitory room. Starting out by providing customised upgrades for PCs, the venture proved to be a roaring success: He had sold $80,000 worth of computers by the second half of his freshman year. Dropping out of college at age 19 to run his company full-time and begin building PCs, in 1985 the company released the Turbo PC, the first computer to feature his own design.
Dell eventually went public in 1988. As the company’s product line grew to include more than personal computers, PCs Limited became the Dell Computer Corporation and eventually Dell Inc.
Through a combination of cutting costs, reducing delivery time, and providing top-notch customer service, he devised a plan to increase the business’ PC market share. He focused on direct sales outside the usual retail outlets, even as he hired experienced executives to not only fill positions in the company but to mentor him.
Success came swiftly and in 1992, he became the youngest CEO in history to have his firm enter ‘Fortune’ magazine’s list of top 500 corporations. In 1999, Dell would outline the story of his company’s development and also provide strategies applicable to all businesses in his book ‘Direct from Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry’.
By 2001, Dell had become the largest PC manufacturer in the world. This was the result of its rapid growth in the 1990s, with its success and market dominance mainly driven by its direct-sales model, which ensured lower prices than its competitors, as well as customised systems.
New Directions
Dell Inc. lost the title of the world’s largest PC manufacturer to Hewlett-Packard in 2006. This came after the company experienced setbacks that included a 4.1-million-unit recall and an overhaul of the customer service division struggling with complaints. In 2007, Dell was reinstated as CEO — he had stepped down from the position in 2004, while remaining Chairman of the board. In his second innings, he oversaw Dell 2.0, an ambitious transformation of the company from PCs to corporate software and services as well as other electronic devices.
In 2013, he announced plans to buy out the investors of Dell, which was still struggling, and take the company private. Along with investment firm Silver Lake Partners, in 2013 he finally purchased the computer company for nearly $25 billion. Three years later, he oversaw the largest tech deal of its time worth $67 billion, as Dell acquired the computer-storage corporation EMC. When the public parent company Dell Technologies was formed, Dell was its CEO.
When Dell Technologies went public in 2018, investors were cautious about the newly merged company. Fears were quelled with the emergence of Dell’s AI-optimised servers and workstations; Dell had revealed that, while private, the company had spent more than $20 billion on research and development. Share prices rose again and, between 2023 and 2024, the company’s net income grew by more than 30%.
A Tech Legend
Dell has been notably quoted as saying that “technology is about enabling human potential.” His vision of how technology should be designed, manufactured and sold has forever changed the IT industry. An innovator and technology leader, the company provides the essential infrastructure for organisations to build their digital future, transform IT and protect their most important information.
With a revenue of more than $102 billion, Dell Technologies is one of the world’s largest IT companies serving the needs of global corporations and governments to small businesses and consumers. Dell Technologies’ commitment to ethics and privacy is a source of pride and inspiration within the company. Dell has been recognised as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute, and has also been recognised by ‘Fortune’ as a Most Admired Company and Best Place to Work, by ‘Forbes’ as one of America’s Best Employers For Women, and by Newsweek as a Most Loved Workplace.
Philanthropy & More
Dell’s immense contributions make him one of the most generous philanthropists in the tech industry. In order to manage the investments and philanthropic efforts of the Dell family, he and his wife Susan formed the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in 1999. It has lived up to its mission of building pathways that change lives throughout the world. Through the foundation, Dell used some of his personal wealth to help children around the world, focusing on issues such as health, education, safety, youth development, and early childhood care. By 2005, the foundation had an endowment of more than $1 billion. In 2004, it gave millions of dollars to help victims of the 2004 tsunami in southern Asia. It donated $50 million to the University of Texas at Austin in 2006. In 2023, Dell gifted over $3 billion worth of cash and stock to his foundation, which focuses on child poverty, and his donor-advised fund.
An honorary member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum, Dell is an executive committee member of the International Business Council. He is also a member of the Technology CEO Council and the Business Roundtable. He serves on the advisory board of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China, and on the governing board of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India. He is Chairman of the BDT & MSD Advisory Board, and also served as the United Nations Foundation’s first Global Advocate for Entrepreneurship. He is also the author of two books, ’Direct from Dell’ and ‘Play Nice But Win’.
Did you know…?
Much of Dell’s fortune lies in his private investment firm DFO Management, which exclusively manages the capital for the Dell family. It has stakes in hotels and invests in liquid corporate credit. His portfolio underscores a commitment to real estate, industrials, and communication services sectors.
Dell’s homes include a sprawling 33,000 sq ft home in Austin, Texas, which is referred to by locals as ‘The Castle’ and features 13 bathrooms, high security, a tennis court, indoor and outdoor pools, and views of Lake Austin. Dell also owns another property nearby, 6D Ranch, and other homes including a $100 million condo on Billionaire’s Row in Manhattan and a $40 million Four Seasons penthouse in Boston.
On Valentine’s Day this year, Dell shared an image of himself and his wife Susan Lieberman, both barefoot outdoors against the backdrop of a LOVE sign. His caption read: “Love is all you need. Happy Valentine’s Day.” The couple had married in October 1989, after meeting on a blind date in 1988. Susan, a fashion designer from Dallas, would reveal, “Most men I dated talked about themselves a lot and tried to impress me. He was the nicest guy I’d ever met.” The couple are parents to Alexa, Zachary, Juliette and Kira. They maintain a relatively private personal life.
