Michael Dell - Entrepreneurial techniques
...s as they had to register there to be married. He also got the relevant information from mortgage companies for people who took a mortgage on properties. These were the kind of people Michael primarily targeted. He began to write personalised letters to these people in order to sell the subscriptions. As you can see, he didn’t just sell subscriptions but he researched into what groups of people were more likely to buy subscriptions and approached them. He was back to school and did most the work at the weekends. The subscriptions came in by the thousands. After he calculated what his earnings were he found out that he had made $18,000 that year, which was more than his high school teacher’s annual salary. The New Hobby Dell had got his first calculator at the age of seven. He was very curious about it. He was amazed by it. He was amazed that such a thing could compute numbers. He discovered another piece of equipment – The personal computer. He would always hang around after school times to play around with the computers, He started to get attached with PC’s and confronted his parents and urged them to buy him one. By this time so on his fifteenth birthday his parents had got him an Apple II which was the best computer around back then. He began to read magazines about all the components and chips that are inside a computer so he went and took his Apple II apart to find out what components and chips did which function in the computer. At that time Apple were the top manufactures in computers they were leading the way. Later when Dell changed to IBM as they brought at their new PC, which would change Dell’s life. Soon Dell began to buy devices such as hard drives, monitors, memory etc to upgrade his computer. He had realised that these components were quiet cheap. Michael thought of his new idea by upgrading computers and selling them on to make a direct profit. This is the point where his life was about to change. Investigating the PC trade The PC market was not very big in them days and demand for pc’s was high. This was a great opportunity for Dell. IBM became to be the dominant computer manufacturer. The components to build a computer cost $600 roughly and they sold them through computer dealers for $3,000 where the dealer would add his profit. He saw a weakness there as well as an opportunity. . Dell’s opportunity to compete with the computer dealers had been inturrupted by his parents they wanted him to attend University. Michael then went off to the University of Texas studying medicine. Michael had taken his computers with him. He had gotten bored with his classes so started to upgrade computers again and applied for a vendors licence he also repaired computers his dorm room started to look like a workshop people would drop off their computers to be repaired. His parents found out that he was not attended class and his grades became disappointing. They urged him to stop working with computers and to concentrate with his studies. He agreed, but not for long. He knew what his ambitions were and knew he couldn’t miss out on such an opportunity, that made him the man he is today. The Direct Model After his freshman year he dropped out and started to concentrate on becoming bigger and better then IBM by correcting their faults and making his systems better, more efficient and most importantly cheaper. How would this be possible? By eliminating the middleman. He learnt from his first venture that eliminating the middleman could result in rewards. He began to build PC’s and sell them to the end customers he believed in a strong relationship between the customer and himself he also could get relevant feedback from these customers on any improvements. IBM sold their computers through a dealer so they would not even see their customers. He started trading as PC’s Limited. He had a few people take orders and a few people to make the computers. This was a massive risk but seemed to have paid off like most entrepreneurs. This built up gradually he also offered the support of a 30-day money back guarantee. After time he started to build computers with the 286 Intel processors which was more efficient. Growth and the present day After a while he started to get more orders so he started change to larger offices regularly as the company grew larger. He then changed the name of the company to “Dell Computer Corporation”. His direct model approach gives him the advantage above others and he likes to get personal with the end customers. He thrives off customer feedback, which gives him new ideas upon making the system better with improvements suggested by customers for future ideas. He used a different approach to other companies in they way he sold computers making him different to the competitors. From an early age he was introduced to businesses from his mother influences at the dinner table, as she would talk about the economy. Dell learnt a lot from this he had prior knowledge and through some luck he came upon his first venture. Dell was a resourceful person in the fact that he sought information prior to his risk taking into new ventures. Dell in society belonged to the personal dimension society this was due to the fact that he was solely interested in the computers as a hobby rather than a moneymaking scheme. Motivation is also a key factor in his success. If Dell did not have a love for computers I don’t think he would be in the position he is today, as one of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs. Dell is motivated and committed to growth in the way. Due to factors in his early years such as school and university this stumped his growth but once he had finished with his education we could see that he would thrive of growth. When he was fully committed ...