DellIn 1984, at the age of 19, Michael Dell founded Dell Computer with a simple vision and business concept: personal computers could be built to order and sold directly to customers. Michael Dell believed that his approach to PC manufacturing had two advantages: (1) bypassing distributors and resellers eliminated reseller markups, and (2) manufacturing to order significantly reduced the costs and risks associated with manufacturing. storage of large stocks of parts, components and finished products. While Dell Computer struggled at times in its early years trying to refine its strategy, build adequate infrastructure, and establish market credibility against more well-known competitors, its make-to-order approach and direct sales has proven attractive to a growing number of customers around the world. in the mid-1990s, as global PC sales reached record levels. And, just as important, the strategy gave the company a substantial cost and profit margin advantage over competitors who manufactured PCs in volume and kept their distributors and retailers stocked with large inventories. By early 1998, Dell Computer had a 12 percent market share. PC market in the United States, behind Compaq Computer and IBM, which held first and second place in the market, respectively. Globally, Dell Computer had nearly 6% market share (see Figure 1). And the company was rapidly gaining market share in all markets around the world. The fastest growing market in recent quarters has been Europe. Although Asia's economic woes in the first quarter of 1998 caused PC sales in Asia to decline slightly, Dell's sales in Asia increased 35 percent. Dell's sales on its Internet Web site averaged $5 million per day and were expected to reach $1.5 billion per year by the end of 1998. Dell Computer reported of $12.3 billion in 1997, compared to $3.4 billion in 1994, a compound average growth rate of 53%. percent. During the same period, profits increased from $140 million to $944 million, a growth rate of 89 percent. Since 1990, the company's stock price has exploded, from an adjusted price of 23 cents per share to $83 per share in May 1998, an increase of 36,000 percent. Dell Computer was the best-performing large company stock so far during the 1990s and seemed poised to become the stock of the decade. Dell's main products included desktops, laptops, workstations and servers. The company also marketed a number of products made by other manufacturers, including CD-ROM drives, modems, monitors, networking hardware, memory cards, storage devices, speakers and printers..