There’s a simple rule for leaders from Michael Dell: never be too comfortable.
“If you don’t have a crisis, create one,” Mr. Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies, said in a recent appearance on the “David Senra” podcast.
The billionaire chief executive believes pressure is the best way to motivate people. It makes teams think faster, work harder and make adjustments sooner.
“We have to transform or die, frankly,” Dell said. “You make the people chant, motivated and whatever to drive change that we need.”
During Mr. Dell’s 40 years at the helm of Dell Technologies, the company has managed through some very real crises from the dot-com bubble to the financial downturn of 2008 and the ascendance of smartphones that re-engineered tech companies. But Dell says it’s a mistake for leaders to wait until they’re facing external pressure. Even when things are going well, he tries to create difficulty: “I like it when there’s something new that we’re trying because then I know if my organization is still sharp.”
Adaptation, he said, is a kind of Rorschach test for leadership. “How do you mobilize the team to go and get this thing done? How do you motivate them? How do you give them the right tools. Dell asked.
Some of that push for alignment has arrived through structure. Dell Technologies had returned all of its employees to in-person work by early 2025 after phasing in a return-to-office process through 2024. The company said the change was intended to make teamwork and accountability stronger, though some staff members took the policy in a looser direction.
And let’s not get comfortable in the routine, Dell also cautioned particularly in fast-moving tech. “If you’ve been doing something for 10 or 20 or 30 years the same way, and a new thing comes along, you can’t just say, ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’” he said.
That philosophy has been central to the direction of Dell Technologies. The company is now pinning its hopes on AI, an area that it is investing heavily in as part of its overall internal transformation code-named Project Maverick. Called Project Alvarium, the program was detailed in an internal document obtained by Newspapers and is designed to pool Dell’s data, systems, and operations on a single AI-driven platform. The project is referred to as “critical” for the company’s next stage of growth and ability to be competitive.
For Dell, the moral is clear: change must always be ongoing - even in times that may seem static. “People are loath to change,” he said. “But you have to.”
It’s that philosophy embracing the discomfort before it is imposed on you that has helped Dell be one of tech’s more enduring leaders.
