Michael Dell Timeline

1965	Born.
1977	Aged 12, sells stamps by catalogue.
1983	Enters the University of Texas at Austin.
1984	Drops out of university to found Dell Computer.
1988	Dell Computer’s first-year revenues $257.8 million.
1994	www.dell.com launched.
1997	Dell’s online sales, begun in 1996, exceed $3 million a day.
2000	Online sales reach $50 million.

Michael Dell (born 1965) was always going to be a winner. After all, how many high school students earn more than their teachers? Dell progressed from selling newspaper subscriptions to selling computers.

Yet it wasn’t the product that made him wealthy, it was the way he sold it. The Dell’s corporation pioneered direct selling of computers. It is also an excellent example of a company succeeding by sticking to its founding principles: build to order, keep low stocks, sell direct, and understand your customer. And the Internet was a godsend for Dell. What better way of reaching the global consumer? Dell’s success with the direct selling business model has made him the youngest CEO ever of a Fortune 500 company.

Ingvar Kamprad Timeline

1926	Born.
1943	Registers company, Ikéa.
1948	Advertises furniture for the first time.
1951	Publishes first catalogue. Revenue exceeds one million kronor ($95,000).
1953	Opens factory combined with furniture exhibition centre in Älmhult.
1956	Introduces flat packaging.
1958	Opens first store in Älmhult.
1965	Introduces self-service in stores.
1982	Ownership transferred to Dutch Foundation – Stichting INGKA.
1986	Officially retires, handing day-to-day running to Anders Moberg.
1995	Stichting INGKA buys Habitat chain.
1999	150th store opens. Turnover reaches Kr60 billion ($5.689 billion).

Example

Kamprad is a brilliant flat-pack king of furniture. Kamprad enjoys challenging the establishment. Industrious from an early age, Kamprad took on the furniture cartel in Sweden and neatly out-manoeuvred it. In the end, as he always predicted they would, customers got what they demanded: low prices and good quality. A man who prides himself on being an ordinary person, Kamprad continued to deliver value for money to ordinary people through innovations such as flat-pack furniture and self-service. Shopping the IKEA way became a family day out, a fun experience, long before the advent of the out-of-town shopping centre. When Kamprad officially took a back seat from line management at IKEA in 1986, he had changed the nature of retailing and provided inspiration for thousands of entrepreneurs.

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