Dell founder talks business, innovation with Fox students
-
slideshow/photos/dell-students.jpg
-
slideshow/photos/dell_015.jpg
-
slideshow/photos/dell_020.jpg
-
slideshow/photos/dell_024.jpg
-
slideshow/photos/dell_029.jpg
-
slideshow/photos/dell_041.jpg
-
slideshow/photos/dell_045.jpg
Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive of Dell Inc., visited Temple’s Fox School of Business in early October to discuss with students the challenges and successes he faced during his swift rise from teenage entrepreneur to head of one of the world’s leading technology companies.
“I think the wonderful news is that when you look at all the ingredients, there’s just so much computing power and improvements in networking, wireless technology, better manageability … the innovation engine of the industry has never been stronger,” Dell said when discussing current research and development. “The economic situation in the last year has actually not really slowed down the development end of the industry. Physics doesn’t know if there’s a recession.”
Dell, who founded his company in 1984 with $1,000 and became the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company eight years later, was greeted Oct. 5 at an informal reception with faculty members and university officials before he met with a select group of Fox School Management Information Systems (MIS) students.
A public question-and-answer session followed in the auditorium of Alter Hall, the Fox School’s new state-of-the-art home.
An estimated 300 students, faculty and staff gathered for the discussion, moderated by MIS Chair Munir Mandviwalla, while an overflow crowd watched a live simulcast of Dell’s appearance from Alter Hall’s first-floor student lounge.
Dell described his start in the technology industry as one laced with challenges – he initially lacked systems, staff and capital – but driven by a desire to work directly with customers to better understand their needs and to offer more value.
Dell, who said he took one business course (macroeconomics) at the University of Texas before dropping out to build his business, was recently ranked by Forbes as the 25th richest person in the world. With a net worth of $12.3 billion, the 44-year-old Dell was the youngest person to make the top 25. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 53, topped the list.
Dell said he achieved success by being curious, learning from mistakes and listening to customer feedback. He said Dell Inc. – which now sells its products in some 42,000 retail outlets worldwide – gets 80 percent of its business from corporations, institutions, educational providers or government agencies. The remaining 20 percent comes from consumer products.
“When you go on the Internet, odds are you’re hitting a Dell server, whether you go to Amazon, who’s a big customer of ours, or to any other site, there’s a pretty good chance you’re hitting a Dell server,” he said.
Timothy O’Rourke, Temple’s chief information officer and vice president of Computer and Financial Services, facilitated Dell’s visit. Dell also visited Temple in August 2006 to tour the TECH Center, a 75,000-square-foot technology building that features Dell computers. Dell Inc. also sponsored the facility.
“Dell has become one of Temple’s major strategic partners,” O’Rourke said. “We do a great deal of business with them, and they have provided us with outstanding pricing and service. Michael Dell’s visiting Temple twice in the past three years shows their commitment to Temple and its students. Our students and faculty had a tremendous opportunity to talk to one of the leading entrepreneurs in the world.”
Angelique Jenkins, a graduating MIS senior, said Dell seemed like “a down-to-earth person” who gave informative – and optimistic – answers.
“Definitely one of the reasons why I picked this major is because I thought there was opportunity there even though there are these bad times with the recession,” Jenkins said. “I think people with IT skills, as well as business skills, will really be pushed ahead of the people who don’t have that.”
Doug Schutz, a third-year Ph.D. student in MIS, said the open discussion with a global executive was “something I’ll be able to tell my grandchildren about.”
“There are VIPs,” Schutz said, “but Michael Dell goes behind that.”
