Michael Dell was in London yesterday, and held a Q&A with a group of journalists. And I must admit that although he came across as very likeable, his ability to avoid answering questions (well, the ones he didn’t want to answer) was superb.
Example 1:
FT: How much has it cost you to go carbon-neutral, and is it worth it?
Dell: It’s actually not that much… we’re using information as a replacement for physical assets, and that derives a lot of efficiency through the system, which means our carbon intensity is really low.
Jack Schofield (of the Guardian): Presumably you’ve looked at your [manufacturing] partners managing Dell factories? Is that a possibility? Suppose someone can run a Dell factory cheaper than Dell can?
Dell: [stares for 8 seconds in stony silence] Suppose they can, suppose the can’t… as I said earlier we have contract manufacturers, and it’s a trend in the industry to use more. We wouldn’t be the first to do that, and it shouldn’t surprise you.
Question: And it might grow as a proportion of your manufacturing?
Dell: That shouldn’t surprise you either.
Example 2:
Question: Why do you think you are still less than half-way up the Greenpeace list for green electronics, with 4.6 out of 10?
Dell: I think they’ve just published a new list.
Question: This was published on the 16th of September.
Dell: Yes. I haven’t read it yet.
Question: According to this you are level with Toshiba and HP…
Dell: I’m sure with whatever methodology they’ve used, that how it stacks up.
In other news: There was a reiteration of Dell’s commitment to moving into services, which has been reported in the FT before. There was confirmation that staff numbers had been reduced by 10 per cent. And there was no deviation from the stated aim of targeting small and medium businesses.
And he did give some hint of Dell’s strategy for the next few years, suggesting that any acquisitions would be on the small side – preferring what he called “network effect acquisitions”.
But the real treat was his personal insights:
- » He showed us his own laptop – unsurprisingly a Dell Latitude E4200, which he raved about.
- » Asked what he would do if starting a business today: “Storage. I would go to China”.
- » And apparently he didn’t finish his college degree: “I would have had a great education had I bothered to go to any classes. I only went [to college] for one year. Although I did give a commencement address one year to 25,000 people.”
