Staying Number 1

Issues

Dell found out soon enough that necessity is the mother of invention. "I learned by doing and by making mistakes. And I got smart people to help," he says. Today Dell is a $57 billion company, with the leading market share in the United States.

In March 2004, at age 39, Dell stepped down as CEO (he remained chairman) and continued to focus on research and technology. But soon there were signs of trouble. The company began losing market share because of competition from much more aggressive rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. Dell was also criticized for poor customer service. It's now facing investigations into its accounting practices by the SEC and a U.S. Attorney.

This past January, the struggles forced Dell, now 42, to return to the company he founded, to tackle the issues head-on. In 48 hours, he'd put in a new management team.

Of his marketing brainchild -- sell directly to the customer -- Dell told employees in an e-mail: "The Direct Model has been a revolution, but it is not a religion." He intends to improve it and look for new manufacturing and distribution models. The goal is to give customers what they need and make the technology simpler and easier to use.

As a technology leader, Michael Dell wants to use his position to solve society's bigger problems, like health care. "If you go to your grocery store, there is more technology there than at your doctor's office. Imagine the last time you went to the doctor, you see all those files. What is all that about? That is nonsense. Try to take your medical information from one doctor to another. It is a system that can be dramatically improved. Our industry has a big role to play."

Dell is also looking overseas, specifically at the needs of the next billion PC users. "We have a number of new things going on in emerging