Innovation, Speed, Energy: Dell’s First Year Private Again

This month marked a major milestone in Dell history. Fourteen years ago I came to work at Dell Financial Services.

Oh! And, as Michael Dell noted on LinkedIn, October also marked the one-year anniversary of Dell once again becoming a private company!

“The energy and clarity of purpose is wonderfully reminiscent of the early days of Dell,” he said.

Photo of napkin with text "From startup to success" on it

I joke about my anniversary and Dell’s privatization coinciding in the month of October, but these days I can’t mention the first without someone asking me about  the impact of the second. Some of my teammates have put together a great look at the Fiscal Year 2015 State of the Business, and highlights include:

  • We gained share in PCs for the seventh consecutive quarter in calendar Q3, according to IDC data. We saw share gains in both notebooks and desktops and in both commercial and consumer segments. 
  • We maintained our No. 2 share position in the global x86 server market for the second straight quarter and we were the only major vendor to generate year-over-year growth in both rack and blade servers.
  • Our software business registered double-digit revenue growth in our fiscal Q2, with strength in security and information-management areas, including data analytics and enterprise application integration.
  • Our Services team has acquired significant new customers in key vertical industries like healthcare and finance.
  • Strong cash flow during Q2 enabled us to pay down another $1.3 billion of debt — we’ve paid down $2.4 billion in debt this year to date.

But, the answer I always give when asked how things have been different this year compared to the past goes back to the energy noted in Michael’s quote above.

I felt it in the team-member town halls immediately following the shareholder vote to approve taking Dell private. And I’ve seen it since in the speed of innovations such as…

piloting bitcoin as a payment option,

launching an Internet of Things lab in Silicon Valley,

giving sneak previews of products that have “world’s first” as descriptors of the technology in them, 

taking a distruptive open approach to networking, that one analyst compared to opening Pandora's box (in a good way), 

being “the only top PC maker with a gaming console, the Alienware Alpha Steam Machine, which will compete against Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4.”

It’s been a fun year, that’s for sure. But, there’s more to come, so watch this space!

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.