ls first international subsidiary opened in the United Kingdom in 1987, Dell has open sales offices worldwide and the companys approximately 32,200 employees serve customers around the globe. The latest global innovation to come from Dell is its leadership on the Web. Dell is acknowledged as the largest online commercial seller of computer systems. The company also is redefining the role of the Web in delivering faster, better and more convenient service to customers. Michael Dell was widely considered one of the mythic heroes of the PC industry, and was labeled the quintessential American entrepreneur and the most innovative guy for marketing computer in this decade (pg. C-136). Michael Dell was 27 years old in 1992, when he became the youngest CEO ever to head a fortune 500 companies and by the age of 31 he was a billionaire. In 1998, Business Week Magazine named Dell as the Best Performing Information Technology Company in the world. Dell was also the top performing stock among the Standard & Poors 500 and Nasdaq 100 in 1996 and 1997, and represented the top performing U.S. stock on the Dow Jones World Stock Index. In 1999, The Wall Street Journal named Dell number one in total return to investors over the past ten years. Michael Dell owned 14 percent of Dell computers common stock and had a total worth of about $12 billion in early 2000. Michael Dell was considered a very accessible CEO and a role model for young executives because he had done what many of them were trying to do (pg. C-141).In order to assess his performance as CEO, it is important to discuss how well he had performed the five strategic management tasks of (1). Vision, (2) Setting objective, (3) crafting strategy, (4). Implementing Strategy and (5) Evaluating performance.Forming a Strategic Vision: Michael Dell is definitely the companys chief strategic visionary. He came up with the concept for the business and had guided the evolution of Dell computers busin...
