What I saw was a great opportunity to provide computing technology in a much more efficient way. That was the core idea of what became Dell Computer Corporation, and it's one that we've stuck with ever since.
Traditionally, in the computer industry, a manufacturing company built computers, which were then distributed to resellers and dealers who sold them to businesses and individual consumers. In the early days, companies like Apple and IBM sold their products through computer dealers because they needed the leverage to gain nationwide sales. When IBM introduced the original IBM PC, even though IBM had the most sophisticated field sales organization in the world, they chose to sell their PCs the same way. With the biggest players at that time all oriented to the idea of selling through resellers, people believed that the indirect channel was simply the way to go.
But the indirect channel was based on a marriage of the unknowing buyer and the unknowledgeable seller. I knew that marriage could not last. I had grown up with computers. Every paper I wrote in high school had been written on a computer. Computers were already well integrated into my life, and it seemed obvious to me that it was just a matter of time before every business, every school, and every individual started to rely on them. Even in 1984 you could say, "Ten years from now there will be millions and millions of more knowledgeable PC users." What wasn't as clear then was that there could be as many as 1.4 billion PCs in use by 2008, as I believe today. But I knew the market would be huge. And I knew, based on my own experience as a user - and my limited experience with customers - that customers would become even more knowledgeable and demanding every year.
I started the business with a simple question: How can we make the process of buying a computer better? The answer was: Sell computers directly to the end customer. Eliminate the reseller's markup and pass those savings on to the customer.
It didn't occur to me that others hadn't figured this out. I thought it was pretty obvious. I'm sure if I had taken the time to ask, plenty of people would have told me that my idea wouldn't work - I've heard that a lot in the fifteen years since starting the business.
Sometimes it's better not to ask - or to listen - when people tell you something can't be done. I didn't ask for permission or approval. I just went ahead and did it.
From Michael Dell, Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry, 1999
