Compare Grove and Dell

There are many aspects to running a business, some that can be controlled and others that cannot. The key to business success for Andy Grove of Intel and Michael Dell, from Dell Computer Corporation, came in two completely different approaches, but both very effective in their own ways. In this brief I will first be introducing both professionals and highlighting their main contributions to their businesses. Next I will discuss the resistance each encountered while presenting and furthering their research, ideas, and programs. I will then note similarities and differences in their professional stories and touch on factors that I believe may have impacted their business success. So, exactly who are these men that have created successful businesses and legacies in the world of technology?

Andras Grof, better known as Andy Grove, was a foreigner to the United States who endured grueling times before working his way through college and eventually cofounding a chip making company named Intel. The main contribution he made to Intel was the preparation for drastic changes to the company as a whole. Grove calls this drastic change a "strategic inflection point-a point at which a company comes face to face with a massive change, one that is powerful enough to threaten the life of the enterprise.” (Krames, 2003 p. 141) Michael Dell on the other hand, was a technology minded college student who from a very young age fiddled with electronics and eventually started creating computers out of his dorm room. He created computers to the specifications of his customer, and this technique of focusing on the customers wants would one day lead to his largest contribution to his self-made business. This largest contribution to Dell Computer Corporation was the Dell direct model. The model focused on the customer, their needs, wants, and desires, without the need for a middleman. Dell stated that, “From the start, our entire business from design to manufacturing to...