Sweet On Dell Technologies: Getting Stronger

I recently celebrated my 25th year at Dell. It’s been an incredible journey. I’ve been part of the dotcom boom and bust, Dell’s LBO, the EMC acquisition, our return to public markets and the spin-off of VMware—not to mention a global pandemic and the economic uncertainty it continues to spread today.

And the journey continues. We just announced record first quarter results where we beat market expectations across every financial measure—record Q1 revenue of $26.1 billion, up 16%; record Q1 non-GAAP operating income of $2.1 billion, up 21%; and record Q1 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.84, up 36%. And we did it on the heels of a record fiscal year 2022. That’s tough to do, but even tougher for a company of our size and scale in today’s complex macro environment.

There are a lot of reasons Dell Technologies has gotten stronger through the years while many of our competitors have stalled out, gotten smaller or gone away. Here are three:

1. Our willingness to reinvent ourselves to stay relevant and aligned to the evolving needs of our customers. I credit our founder and CEO Michael Dell for relentlessly pursuing his vision, even when it meant taking bold moves and thoughtful risks to create the most essential tech company for the data era.

2. Our unique capabilities and competitive advantages that position us to grow, win and create value for our stakeholders, even in uncertain times:

◉ Our end-to-end solutions portfolio. It allows us to partner with customers in ways others can’t and gives us the freedom to flex and lean into growth areas as they arise—like the PC space when the world shifted overnight to work/learn from anywhere and consequently reset to a permanently higher total addressable market.

◉ The largest direct sales and channel partner ecosystem in the industry, giving us unparalleled market reach and profitability potential versus our non-direct competitors.

◉ A global services footprint to support the complex and evolving IT needs of our customers.

◉ A world-class flexible and global supply chain. For decades, this has given us an enviable cost position, speed, security, sustainability and, most important, continuity of supply—allowing us to deliver for our customers when many of our competitors could not.

◉ Leading financial services capabilities that give customers access to innovative technologies and foster deep customer loyalty to Dell.

◉ A unique commercial alliance with VMware that delivers co-engineered solutions with faster time-to-market, solidifying our position at the center of the multi-cloud world. It’s a 20-year partnership we continue to invest in and prioritize to the benefit of our customers.

3. Our customer-obsessed, results-oriented culture, an enduring byproduct of our direct heritage and the reason I’m still here a quarter century in…and counting.

No other tech company has this combination of capabilities at our scale, and that’s why we continue to make strategic progress even as we navigate enormous change and disruption. Our track record of growth and profitability is perhaps the best proof I can point to. And as we grow, we’re delivering long-term value back to our shareholders—in Q1, we returned $1.75 billion in share repurchases and dividends.

All signals indicate more change and disruption are on the horizon, but I’m confident Dell will continue to execute with focus, discipline and drive. It’s what we do. And we’ll use our differentiated capabilities and scale to our advantage—and even more importantly, to the advantage of our customers, partners, team members and shareholders around the world.

Source: dell.com