The C that Michael Dell left out of his 3 C's of Success
Michael Dell founded Dell Computer thirty years ago at the age of 19. Today he is worth an estimated $20 billion. In an address he gave in 1999, he shared the three “C’s” that must be mastered by any business for success in the new age. Unfortunately there is one that even he couldn't master.
1. Content
This is the story of your business and product or service. To be effective, it must be engaging and relevant to your customer’s needs and wants. Dell’s story was about building customised computers to each customer's exact specifications, something no one else was doing.
2. Commerce
How does your business make money? In Dell’s case, they skirted around the usual distribution chain by allowing customers to order online and have their hardware shipped directly to them, saving the customer money while increasing Dell’s profit margins.
3. Community
Here's where Dell fell down. Unlike companies like Apple, they weren’t able to build a loyal following that stuck by them over time. When other players entered the online market and undercut or outperformed Dell, customers moved across to them.
We would add a fourth C to Dell’s list:
Currency. You need to lead the market or at least be up to date to be successful. Unlike Apple, Dell was slow to catch on to the emerging mobile market, which has resulted in the company being worth half today what it was worth ten years ago.
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I'm Robin La Pere, no ordinary business, marketing and franchise consultant. The story of Michael Dell of Dell Technologies is a fascinating case study because he was an innovator — not in terms of technology but in the way technology is packaged and delivered to customers. He started his business at 19 from his dorm room at the University of Texas and helped to found the personal computer revolution in the 1980s, becoming the youngest Fortune 500 CEO at just 27. Despite mixed fortunes since then, Dell is still ranked as the world's 27th richest person.
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