Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry – Essential Entrepreneurial Insights for Business Leaders on Growth and Success (Collins Business Essentials)

Let me tell you a story. There was this kid, 12 years old, who saw that his local post office was raising money by organizing a stamp auction. This kid had a truck load of old stamps with him, as stamp collection was his hobby. So he goes out and organizes an auction of his own and raises $2,000 at the end of the event. Over the next few years his entrepreneur skills keep growing. Next at age 16, he takes a summer job of selling a local newspaper subscription. After a few days, he analyses the trend of the sell and finds that his major customers are either newly married couples or those who have recently bought a house. So he stops making random calls, finds the list of people who are going to be married from the local marriage registrar office and reaches out to them, similarly he finds details of those who are looking to buy a new house and reaches to them directly. At the end of the summer this kid had $18,000 in his kitty, more than his teacher had made that year. This kid was none other than Michael Dell.Armed with these skills, Michael, found out that during the initial computing days when he was still finishing school, the big computer companies were selling standard configurations and at much higher cost. So he started a business out of his dorm room, of assembling computers according to the requirements of his customers and started selling assembled computers at a much cheaper rate and importantly giving the customers what they wanted. This initial experience thought Michael that there are two things he had to stick to, if he had to succeed:1) Give the customer what they want, not what you have2) Sell directly to the customerThese two became the guiding principles for Dell Computers which experienced amazing growth of more than 50% every year.In "Direct from Dell" Michael has given very minute details of how Dell actually grew from a $1000 out of the dorm room company to a $60 Billion company. The book is exceptionally detailed, to an extent that I was surprised that a CEO will provide such details of his company. But clear communication is something that Michael has stressed on right from his initial days.This book also details at length about the learning's Dell gathered from their mistakes. One of the learning's which attracted me was Dell's organizational structure. Dell was growing at an exceptional rate and while everybody was busy catering to the customer demands, the internal organization (People & Infrastructure) was stretched and disorganized. Michael then got some outside help and redefined the organization and came up with "Segmentation". What it meant was that, to run the company smoothly, it was broken down into smaller companies each with their own support and sales structure. Since Dell was always a customer centric company, sticking to its principles, the segmentation was done according to the customers. So a customer like GE had its own small Dell company dedicated to it. I have personally worked in one such segmented organization in the past and can vouch for it.Dell was one of the pioneers of the "Direct" selling model wherein they eliminated the resellers and sold directly to the customer. The results of this model were multiple:1) Savings were passed to the customer. Other companies used to sell through the resellers, which meant increased cost2) Customer feedback was immediate. Other conventional companies had very few ways to find what the customer actually felt about their products.3) Online retail thrived. Prior to Dell selling computers on the internet, retail through internet was very limited.Dell however opened up a whole new line of retail which is now exploited by wide range of businessesThis book also outlines how Dell came up with the "Build to Order" model and further reduced the computer costs and passed the savings to the customer. By working in close contact with the three integral pieces, Customer, its employees & Suppliers Dell came up with ways to reduce inventory to as low as "8" days while other companies had inventory as high as "40" days. What this meant, is that, if there was a change in technology or customer demands which is very prevalent in computer industry, Dell was ready to react while other companies were behind by at least 32 days. Other companies would adjust their inventory losses by increasing the cost of other products while Dell would pass the entire savings to its customers. This was possible however by working very closely with the Suppliers in particular.Overall this book can be a blueprint for starting a new business. This is going on my good books shelf.

I'm not a fan of this book. I had to read this for a supply chain management course alongside reading The Goal by Goldratt and Cox for a different class, and the two are clearly different in terms of explaining how success was made. In The Goal, scenarios are presented and solved--you're reading a story with characters and a narrative that sneaks in production management ideas and how this topic was revolutionized.In Direct From Dell, you're reading 10-15 bullet points reiterated over and over and over again in vague, general phrases that can be applied to almost every single successful business that makes the entire thing sound like Generic Business Owner Takes Full Credit Of Company's Success And Writes Generic Book for Quick Cash and Recognition.You will get some neat, Dell-specific information, but it's almost entirely at the very beginning and very end of the book.Bullet points for running a successful business include:Listening to customersHiring for the futureTargeting demographicsReduce inventoryLearn from the pastAccept mistakesAccept others' helpSound familiar? Congratulations--you've read every other book by every other successful CEO!As stated, there are a FEW points that are specific to Dell, though. Reduction of suppliers, component customization, and selling directly to the customers, taking advantage of the internet. Things that you think are obvious and commonplace now but really weren't back then. But that's it, really--you're not going to get finer details of how these were done (likely because I don't think Mr. Dell, like many owners, really understands the finer mechanics of his machinery once the company got big enough), instead just getting cute anecdotes and vague descriptions of how these work. Lots of cute anecdotes, for sure--you'll be swimming in them before waking up and going "Huh? Why was that necessary?"It's just not a good book. I believe it's successful primarily because enough people have read it and incorporated it into their various management courses that's it's just something of a tradition, now. Make no mistake; Dell is a GREAT story of success, and the TEXTBOOK we used gave VERY CLEAR REASONS why, treating the entirety of Dell's success as an ever going Case Study within the text. But this little "book" doesn't touch on ANY of that when it really should.

I recently read Mr. Dell's book and was fascinated to see his rise to the top of the computer world. About half way through the book I began to wonder when he was going to present some "blockbuster" pearls of wisom. It was then that I began to realize the Dell model was nothing more than a highly developed "kiretsu" style organization (on the supply side). Interestingly, he seemed to have developed this style on his own, which, in and of itself was pretty impressive. His basic business philosophy of giving the customer exactly what they want, when they want it and at a competitive price is no great message. The true message he delivers is, always always follow the basic principals, never be afraid to change and execute at the highest level possible. Pretty good book for reinforcing the basics but I think that most people with a graduate degree may get a little bored if they are looking for something "new".

This book was a very good and inspirational book. It had some motivational insights from one of today's great business leaders. Michael Dell does a great job discussing his humble and challenging beginnings while also giving advice and tools on building a successful business. Many tips can be used in any business and are very valuable towards building a great corporation or enterprise.My only criticism is that at certain points the book seemed a little dull and sometimes repetitive. The author could have condensed some of the info and made it a little shorter.Nevertheless, this book is a good and easy business read that I highly recommend to anyone looking to build a great business. You will not be disappointed.

The thoughts derived from this book could help anyone access to Michael Dell, one of the greatest capitalists of all time. Here Mr. Dell makes his efforts in his journey seem somewhat "easy" to do. Nothing could be more further than the truth. It takes a lot of persistence, experimentation, courage and a keen eye to spot opportunities to create a multi-billion global empire from scratch(Maybe he is just downplaying his success, or maybe he knows something which we don't?) Yet in the midst of that, what stands out like the candle in the night is his ability to craft the most successful strategies. Underpinned by common sense and knowledge about customers needs, the master stratagem were able to create massive value in the market. It is somewhat in his genetic makeup or upbringing(his mother was a stockbroker) that made him that way. For instance, even at the tender age twelve, he managed to earned $2,000 just by selling stamps. At sixteen, $18,000 by selling newspaper subscriptions in just one year(What were most of us doing at his age?) Thus it is a good book, one which should be possessed and read upon by those who wish to get into the mind of a Capitalist.

Great story. Very interesting. Easy to read.

Bought as present expecting a new book. Many corners tuned over when present opened. Could not possibly be a new book.

Great book, and it was in a real good fit

The first 50 odd pages are reasonably interesting but after that the book becomes a dull, boring slog. There are no interesting insights, no unique perspectives, nothing to hold your attention. If sales & marketing mantras are what you're looking for, then yes maybe. If you're looking for an engaging, interesting story, look elsewhere