Michael Dell, Founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, shares insights from his book, "Play Nice to Win." He discusses the unique journey of going public, private, and back to public, highlighting strategic innovations during this transformation. The conversation navigates the competitive landscape of cloud wars, the shift to edge computing, and the importance of leadership integrity. Dell emphasizes balancing profit and growth while managing corporate transformations and the role of kindness in business.
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insights INSIGHT
Multi-Cloud Strategy
Customers are not moving entirely to one public cloud.
They use both public and private clouds, prioritizing edge computing.
insights INSIGHT
IT Expansion Cycles
IT infrastructure follows a cyclical pattern of collapse and expansion.
Each expansion phase increases the Total Addressable Market (TAM) tenfold or even hundredfold.
insights INSIGHT
Developer Preferences
As software becomes increasingly important, developers prioritize ease of use over hardware management.
They prefer a simple "write code and press deploy" model.
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In 'Play Nice But Win,' Michael Dell shares his personal and professional journey, from the early days of his PC business to the pinnacle of his success as the leader of Dell Technologies. The book recounts the three major battles for the company's survival and transformation, including launching the company, keeping it competitive, and transforming it in a rapidly changing industry. Dell provides insights into his development as a leader, the importance of mentors, competitors, and the long-term vision that underpins his success, emphasizing that technology is ultimately about people and their potential.
In this episode from October 2021, Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies and one of the longest serving founder-CEOs in the technology industry, joins a16z general partner Martin Casado, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen, and host Sonal Choksi on the occasion of Michael’s book, Play Nice to Win: A CEO’s Journey from Founder to Leader.
There are lots of challenges in being public while trying to innovate, and limits to being a private company as well; but it's rare to see a company go public then private then back to public again. As is the case with Dell Technologies, one of the largest tech companies -- which went private 2012-2013 and then also pulled off one of the most epic mergers of all time with Dell + EMC + VMWare 2015-2016 (and which we wrote about here at the time).
Is there a method to the madness? How does one not just start, but keep, and transform, their company and business? Michael, Marc, Martin and Sonal debate these questions, as well as the impact of the cloud wars, how innovation happens when a company is private and when its public (something Michael knows well, having taken Dell public to private to back to public again), whether you can actually play nice to win as a leader, and more.
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