AUSTIN, TEX. – One of the first items on Dell CEO Michael Dell’s agenda for the 4th annual Dell World conference was to meet with senior leaders from the Canadian channel.
Michael Dell along with Dell Canada president Kevin Peesker hosting a number of solution provider executives most of which are on CDN’s Top 100 list the morning of day one of the channel partner portion of Dell World.
From some of the channel partners CDN spoke to about this experience they said Michael Dell was very insightful about the channel. Many of the executives we awestruck from the meeting. More of Dell’s overall business is now going through channel partners; approximately 40 per cent. And, Michael Dell said there is no ceiling set for Dell’s channel growth.
The high tech press also had some time with Michael Dell in the afternoon of day one of the conference, where we got insight into branding, channel, smartphones, HP’s split and his four customer imperatives.
This is what Michael Dell said about the company name and brand…
“It was in my dorm room about 15 miles away from here (Austin Convention Center). My customer was a lawyer and he said to me you need to incorporate. So we made a deaI. He would incorporate my business and I would give him hardware. I go install a hard disk and he says we have two problems. No. 1 can’t incorporate with PC Ltd. It is too generic and so I named the company Dell Computer Corp. doing business as PC Ltd., and you need a $1,000. I did not have the money so I needed to sell more stuff. So I did that and a week later I had the money.”
“Fast forward two or three years later and we were launching the business in the UK with Andrew Harris. And, he said you can’t be PC Ltd, Ltd. It’s too stupid so we called it Dell. We were Dell in the UK and PC Ltd. in the U.S. And, to name the company Dell was not my idea, but I thank my parents for the name.”
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Michael Dell’s views on the recent HP and Symantec splits…
“How does the splits help innovation and the development of new services? By going private a year ago, we can devote 100 per cent to the future of the customer instead of shareholders. We do not have this 90 day shot clock anymore. We are running the business for long term success. In an end-to-end solutions business you need to have both parts of the ‘ends’ or it’s the end.”
Michael Dell on his four customer imperatives…
“We have four customer imperatives. They are:
1. Transform, which is about our future ready data centre.
2. Connect – the PC is not dead and we believe the PC is how business gets done.
3. Inform – data is growing with sensors and the power of the data needs to be unleashed to have new outcomes. Channel partners can create comprehensive solutions such as Boomi, which provides analytics.
4. Protect – security is a top concern and we need to have context aware systems across entire environment.”
Michael Dell on smartphones…
“I’m happy not to be in the (smart) devices space, but I am happy to be in tablets and in the two and one space.”
Michael Dell on his channel journey…
“It was a big change for us about seven years ago. I love our channel growth and we will continue with our omni channel approach. We do not have an upper limit to it. And, we also have invested in tier 2 distribution with Ingram Micro, Tech Data, and Synnex. That’s Synnex with an “S” not a “C”.