What Gets Measured Gets Done

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Our Commitment to Driving Social Change

All stakeholders should benefit from a company’s business practices. We’ve always known this to be true. And with widespread socioeconomic disparity, racial injustice and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable, it has never been more important for companies to have this commitment at the center of their business.

In 2019, we introduced Progress Made Real, our social impact plan for 2030. We set bold, aggressive goals to advance sustainability, cultivate inclusion, transform lives and uphold ethics and privacy. We pledged, by 2030, that:

  • All of our packaging and more than half of our product content will be made from recycled or renewable material – and for every product a customer buys, we will reuse or recycle an equivalent product;
  • We will fully automate data control processes to ensure customers can control their data;
  • We will transform the lives of 1 billion people by using our technology and scale to advance health, education and economic opportunity initiatives
  • And 50 percent of our global workforce and 40 percent of our global people leaders will identify as women; and 25 percent of our U.S. workforce and 15 percent of our global people leaders will identify as Black/African American or Hispanic/Latino.

We made these commitments to deliver meaningful, lasting stakeholder value and to execute on our company purpose to drive human progress. While we made them without knowing exactly how we would achieve them, we knew the first step was to set big goals and go after them.

Delivering on our promises

Our team lives by a simple mantra: “What gets measured gets done.” We know in order to make progress toward our goals, we must be able to monitor them in a measurable way. Our stakeholders agree – our customers, partners, team members and investors all want to partner with, work for and invest in transparent, responsible companies. Establishing baselines and identifying the right measures are critical to our long-term success. This is why we have gone to great lengths to identify key performance indicators, governance, and reporting structures for each of our goals in the FY20 Progress Made Real Report.

Our approach to measurement and transparency

Our measurement strategy has always been informed by taking inventory of what stakeholders want to know, integrating key metrics from external ranking systems, and ensuring executive buy-in. To chart a path toward our 2030 aspirations, we knew we’d need to build on this strong foundation and double down on measuring progress. We re-examined our methodologies, restructured our data collection and management, and made required adjustments to ensure we were taking full advantage of the tools at our disposal. Part of this process included asking Ceres, a nonprofit organization tackling some of the world’s biggest sustainability challenges, to review our social impact report.

Ceres President and CEO Mindy Lubber commended us on our strength in measurement: “Dell’s ambitious targets are an admirable step toward a more conscious way of doing business, matching social impact initiatives with clear business drivers and metrics which align directly with moonshot goals. Far beyond a simple mission statement, Dell’s unmatched commitment to accountability through measurement will be vital to inspiring real change and advancing social impact reporting overall.”

Stronger measurement, stronger outcomes

With our annual Progress Made Real report, we will not only share where we are against our goals – we will clearly identify what’s working, where we may need to increase focus, and our measurable progress toward our vision for 2030.

This ongoing introspective and data-driven approach will help us reach our full potential and, in turn, help us drive positive change and real value for our stakeholders.

About the Author: Christine Fraser

Christine Fraser is Senior Vice President, Strategy and Operations for Dell EMC Services & IT as part of the recently formed Dell Technologies. Serving as COO to the President of Dell EMC Services and IT, Chris drives planning, execution, and operations with a focus on strategies aligned to the organization’s charter of enabling digital and data center transformation.
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