DELL'S LEADERSHIP

Dell's Leadership

Dell's Leadership

Entrepreneurship is important because it fosters economic growth. The rate of entrepreneurship surged throughout the world in the last quarter of the 20th century, thriving in countries as diverse as China, India, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Korea, Ireland, Peru, and the United States, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM; 2006), a 42-country, 5-continent study of the dynamic entrepreneurial propensities of countries. GEM investigators reported that a country's rate of entrepreneurial activity is positively correlated with national economic growth (measured as per capita GDP) over time, 1999-2006 (Gartner, 2004).

Would-be entrepreneurs must find new technologies, generate viable commercial applications, mitigate risks, create profitable paths to market, accumulate the necessary resources to proceed, and organize all this into a new, independent entity. New businesses fail at a higher rate than older, more established firms, especially businesses based on new science and technology (Baum, 2007). Yet it is difficult to predict which new ideas, innovations, and technologies will succeed to yield the new jobs, wealth, new industries, and new technology applications that make high technology entrepreneurship so attractive. Dell Computer Corporation, a well-known exemplar, began as a part-time business in a college dormitory room, but became the world's largest personal computer firm with worldwide sales and market capitalization of more than $50 billion by 2007, about 15 years after its founding. Dell's highly information-intensive business model uses computers and the Internet to serve both consumer and corporate customers and set new standards for service, delivery, and convenience (Acs, 2008).

Entrepreneurs expand existing markets by identifying niches, thereby increasing competition and economic efficiency. They also create entirely new markets by developing innovative products as well as innovative applications and variants of existing product lines. New markets present profit opportunities to others, spurring further economic activity. Worldwide, the rate of early stage (nascent) entrepreneurship ...