Insights from Micheal Dell

"It takes years of consistent execution for a company to achieve sustainable competitive advantage...the key to our success is years and years of DNA development within our teams that is not replicable outside the company."

"I founded the company over 20 years ago with $1000 in starting capital. By contrast, Compaq had been launched two years earlier with $100 million in capital. That's an unbelievable difference. Dell bubbled up through a kind of Darwinian evolution, finding holes in the way the industry was working. We didn't become asset-light just because it was a brilliant strategy. We didn't have any choice."

"We don't tolerate businesses that don't make money. We used to hear all sorts of excuses for why a business didn't make money, but to us they all sounded like 'The dog ate my homework.' We just don't accept that."

"The worst thing you can do as a leader at Dell is be in denial -- to try to convince people that a problem's not there or play charades. A manager is far better off coming forward and saying 'Hey, things aren't working, here's what we think is wrong, here's what we think we're going to do about it.' Or, even, 'Hey, I need some help, will you help me?'"

"We have a strong bias toward action and a strong bias toward data. Any Dell presentation -- it doesn't matter what part of the company it's from -- will have lots of data. That's just the way we manage. Our number-to-word ratio is very high."

They also emphasized the importance of leadership development and that their own executives do the teaching. In addition, Michael meet with the top 10% of the managers (400) every quarter to "give them a dose of teaching." In addition, they each teach 3 days at an intense ten day leadership training program Dell has developed. "Developing people is part of the job at Dell -- our senior managers are measured and compensated on it."