The W. P. Carey School of Business named Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc., its Executive of the Year.
The Dean's Council of 100, a group of high-profile businesspeople who serve as advisers to the school's dean, presented the award to Dell at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Friday.
ASU President Michael Crow, who spoke at the event, recalled how he had given Dell a tour of ASU's campus the night before.
While they walked through the Lattie F. Coor Hall, Crow said Dell saw NEC projectors on the ceiling and said, "We sell those."
When Dell saw Hewlett Packard printers, he said, "Not only do we sell those, but we sell them at half the price."
Both comments drew laughter from the more than 200 top Valley company executives and guests who attended the luncheon.
When Dell stepped up to the microphone after Craig Barrett, president and CEO of Intel Corp., introduced him, the salesmanship continued.
Dell, who will turn 40 in February, cracked jokes and took questions from the audience about today's business environment and his revolutionary business model: to sell computer systems directly to customers.
Referring to his decision to drop out of the University of Texas at Austin early in his college career in 1984 to start Dell Inc., he said:
"I decided to change my major from biology to CEO."
The crowd laughed, and Dell grinned.
While speaking about the "pleased, but never satisfied culture" of Dell Inc. that allows it to stay competitive in a constantly evolving market, he said, "We basically live in fear all the time."
More laughs.
And yet Dell, 39, became the youngest CEO added to the Fortune 500 list in 1992; his company employs more than 44,000 people worldwide.
Dell Inc. reported revenues of $39.7 billion for the past four quarters.
But to continue that success, Dell said, education is key.
"Our country needs great educational institutions," he said. "We need to be doing a lot in terms of productivity and knowledge to maintain our competitive edge."
Reach the reporter at ilan.brat@asu.edu.
