I was listening to a podcast interview with Michael Dell, founder of Dell Technologies, when this landed:
“I stood up and told the company that 5 years from now we will have a new competitor and that new competitor is going to be in every business that we are in and they’re going to be faster, more efficient, and more capable. And they’re going to put us out of business, and the only way that we’re going to prevent that is by becoming that company. It’s gut-wrenching stuff to reinvent and reimagine your business, but if you don’t do it, you go out of business.” — Michael Dell
That quote captures the most uncomfortable truth in business: your biggest threat isn’t a competitor you can see; it’s the complacency you can’t.
Let me break down what Dell is really saying and why it matters more now than ever.
The Core Truth: Become Your Future Competitor Before Someone Else Does
Dell isn’t talking about incremental improvement. He’s describing self-disruption, the discipline to imagine a version of your company that would destroy your current business model, then deliberately evolve into that version yourself.
This isn’t efficiency theater; it’s identity transformation. Reinvention means dismantling the very systems, incentives, and mental models that once made you successful. The processes you celebrated last year become the anchors dragging you down this year.
Four Strategic Realities You Can’t Ignore
- Complacency is your actual competitor. The “new competitor” Dell describes is already taking shape, whether AI-native, platform-based, or operating at cloud speed. Every industry has one coming. The question isn’t if; it’s whether you’ll recognize it before it’s too late.
- Transformation starts inside, not outside. Dell emphasizes mindset before methodology. It’s “gut-wrenching” because you’re not just changing what you do; you’re unlearning what made you great and redefining what greatness looks like. That’s why most companies fail at this; they mistake reorganization for reinvention.
- Speed and learning are the new competitive moats. Scale used to protect you; now it slows you down. The winning companies learn, adapt, and deploy faster than everyone else. Jensen Huang calls it “operating at the speed of light.” Your organizational velocity matters more than your organizational chart.
- Leadership must make it visceral. Notice Dell’s language: “I stood up and told the company.” He didn’t send a memo. Transformational leadership frames urgency not as fear but as purpose—turning existential risk into collective motivation. Your team needs to feel the stakes, not just understand them.
What This Means for Your Organization
Here’s how to operationalize self-disruption:
- Challenge complacency directly. Ask: “What would destroy us?” Then build a shadow strategy team tasked with designing your own disruptor. Give them permission to think without constraints; their job is to make your current model obsolete.
- Accelerate your learning loops. Ask: “Where are we slower than our customers?” Create internal rapid experimentation cells or AI pilots with 90-day deployment windows. Speed is a competency you build, not a goal you set.
- Kill your sacred cows. Ask: “What legacy systems are blocking our speed?” Audit every decision bottleneck and bureaucratic layer. If a process requires three approvals, you’re optimizing for control when you need to optimize for velocity.
- Redefine your identity forward. Ask: “Who do we serve now, and who will we serve in five years?” Revisit your mission through the lens of future relevance. Your identity should evolve with your market, not against it.
My Take
Dell’s insight transcends technology strategy; it’s about evolutionary leadership. He articulates what every founder and CEO eventually learns the hard way: You can’t protect your business from disruption; you can only evolve faster than the disruptor.
It’s a call to creative destruction from within. In the age of AI and exponential change, this mindset separates companies that adapt from those that vanish.
The uncomfortable truth? The competitor that will beat you already exists. It’s either the future version of your company or someone else’s.
Choose wisely.
Bottom line: Find the revolution before it finds you.
