Direct From Dell: Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry | 
 enlarge | Creator: Michael Dell
Publisher: HarperAudio
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  128 reviews
Sales Rank: 899355
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0694520233
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.762139160973
EAN: 9780694520237
ASIN: 0694520233
Publication Date: April 1, 1999
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Condition: Brand new, never opened, in stock, and ships right now.
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Amazon.com Review
The PC business is full of rags-to-riches stories. But perhaps none is as dramatic as the rise of Dell Computer. In Direct from Dell, founder and CEO Michael Dell tells how he started his company from a dorm room at the University of Texas with less than $1,000 and built it into an industry powerhouse with a market capitalization of well over $100 billion. What makes Dell Computer unique is not what it sells, but rather how it sells it. Dell was first in the PC industry to pioneer the direct-selling model, a method that competitors such as Compaq and Apple Computer are only now starting to embrace. By cutting out the intermediary and creating a direct link between manufacturer and customer, Dell was able to provide customers with computers that cost less and that were more apt to meet customer needs. Direct from Dell is organized into two parts. The first recounts the history and the enormous growth of Dell Computer. The second part focuses on Dell's management approach, from developing customer focus to creating alliances with suppliers. The book manages to avoid most of the promotional and self-congratulatory air that seem to plague so many first-person CEO tomes. Anyone who has followed the PC industry or would like insight into Dell Computer's success should enjoy reading this book. Well written and easy to read. Recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
Product Description
“Dell, the company, seems to have been born and evolved with an anticipation of the Internet age. Michael Dell walks us through how he turned his prescience into a powerful reality-and an outstanding example of the companies of the future.” - Andrew S. Grove, Chairman of Intel Dell Computer Corporation is an $18 billion company and the second largest manufacturer and marketer of personal computers in the world. Founded on a deceptively simple premise - to deliver high-performance computer systems directly to the end user - Dell Computer is the envy of its competition, consistently growing at five times the industry rate, and a perennial darling of Wall Street. In Direct from Dell, Michael Dell himself tells the incredible story of Dell Computer's successful rise, which began in his college dorm room with $1,000 in capital. You'll encounter a young visionary who, upon witnessing the inefficiencies of an exploding industry, challenged conventional wisdom, and set out to do nothing less than beat IBM at its own game. In so doing, Dell forever changed the way things “had always been done” in the computer industry. Not just for CEOs or those in high tech, the strategies revealed in Direct from Dell are invaluable to managers across industries. From starting a successful business to his pioneering use of the Internet, Dell shares his perspectives on: - Why it's infinitely better for any business starting out to have too little capital, rather than too much
- Why it can be life-threatening to your company to pursue too many good ideas'or to grow too fast
- Why it's essential to run a P&L on every area of your business
- Why your people pose a greater threat to the health of your business than your competition does
- How integrating your business virtually can make the difference between being quick'and being dead
Revealing nothing less than a new model for doing business in the information age, Direct from Dell is both an extraordinary business success story and a manifesto for revolutionizing any industry.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 123 more reviews...
 Could be better October 5, 2008
I was hoping for an in depth look at Michael Dell, but instead got a lot of fluff that promotes the Dell computer company. There was some information on the progression of his career as an entrepreneur, but it was brief. Since that's what I was hoping for in the book, I was left dissatisfied.
 Dell's story July 20, 2008
This book gives an excellent overview of Dell's strategy up until Rollins became CEO. Interesting examples allow you to make application to other businesses.
 Snore...Full of ghost-written cliches June 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If, like me, you are looking for personal details and antidotes, you will be disappointed. Dell's early years are just briefly mentioned.
The book bulks up with pap and filler from Dell's PR machine. The business "wisdom" contained within is dumbed down for the masses -- something along the lines of "We must do what is right, instead of what is wrong." Here is a sampling:
-Dell was founded on the premise of "under-promise and over-deliver."
-No matter what your industry, try to identify potential problems early and fix them fast.
-Communicating is one of the most important tools in recovering from mistakes.
-We began to realize that it's as important to figure out what you're not going to do as it is to know what you are going to do.
-Instead of leaping into the abyss of opportunity, as we always had, we had to put one foot in front of the other, in an attempt to grow, yes, but grow deliberately.
-In leadership, it's important to be intuitive, but not at the expense of facts.
-Planning is one of those areas where experience counts as much as intellect.
-What is the right plan? It's the one that helps you identify what you need to do to ensure success.
-One of the sayings around Dell is that if you want to get people to think big, you need to act big.
-If you accept the status quo as "good enough," you're managing in a review mirror.
-One of our saying is "Don't perfume the pig"...you need to recognize the facts for what they are, rather than what you'd sometimes like them to be.
Now, I'm not saying that this book is a total waste. If you can stand the stench of excessive perfume, you might find some useful insight. But like the pig that it is, there's more fat than meat.
Valuable Lessons Learned through people and information February 21, 2008
This was a great read. Learning the basics of how to stay completive in a environment that is ever changing. He started with $1000 with his business, what if it was $100,000 dollars. Makes you think. Anyway, the book gives you the insight of the ups and downs of a business. What it boils down to is, the customer is the life of your business. Asking your customers the right questions makes all the difference. This book illstrates that point throughout. Highly Recommended.
Direct from Dell how he built Dell January 6, 2008
The first part of this book gets off to a quick pace with an enthralling first-hand account of how he built Dell from nothing into an industry powerhouse and you can't help but leave from reading it excited. Unfortunatley, after about 100 pages the book shifts entirely into a lengthy, dry and excurciatingly boring managmenent discourse.
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