If you want to be an entrepreneur, who better to study than Michael Dell? He is an inspiration to entrepreneurs all over the world. Starting out in his college dorm building computers, his business savvy has made him an icon of success in the technology business field.
In two keynote speeches delivered nearly a decade ago, Michael Dell outlined three principles or concepts for Internet business success. Much of what he suggested is now standard practice and, in some cases, has gone further than he probably imagined.
These principles are sometimes called the 3 Cs. They are content, commerce, and community. Careful study of these three principles can help entrepreneurs, home-based businesses, and network marketers.
The first of the 3 C’s is content.
How did Michael Dell define content? Listen to the words he uses to define you to the Detroit Economic Club on November 1, 1999: “The first stage of content means providing compelling information. That’s how we started our online operations in 1993, when we put our technical databases online to access customers. It was a relatively simple start, but it showed us tremendous interest from our customers.”
In his keynote address at the Southwest Government Technology Conference in 2000, he made similar suggestions to those he made earlier at that Detroit meeting.
He suggested this: “By content, we mean putting information online. Any time you have a form, a manual or a document, put it online. This is the foundation of any Internet strategy. Once we put information online, it became clear to us where the opportunities lay in the world of transactions: simple things like order status and trading, and we’ve added more complex things over time. The key, again, is that it’s experiential and learned making”.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, what content do you already have, what content do you need to develop?
Do you view your present or future business from a content perspective? Define your content. Learn from those who have created that type of content. Do what they did to create it.
You need products or services to provide to customers. Make a list of the content they will need to explain, troubleshoot, access, or learn about your products and services. A viable new business needs content tied to real-world products or services.
The second of the 3 C’s is commerce.
Read how Mr. Dell in Detroit defined it: “The next stage is commerce, which should be seen as all transactions, not just buying things over the web. In fact, our first activity in this area had nothing to do with shopping. It was just the status of the order.”
A few months later, at the conference in the Southwest, he reiterated: “The second stage is trading. You have to think of this as any kind of transaction. Our first experiment with transactions really had nothing to do with the ‘trading’ tool. of order status. We knew we were right when, in the first week, 5,000 customers used this tool, and we didn’t even advertise that it was available. This formed the basis of our online sales effort.”
He continued: “Our ultimate goal is to deepen customer relationships by providing greater convenience, efficiency and cost savings, and a broader range of services. The Internet creates an opportunity to move these key transactions online and reduce transaction cost to almost zero. “
Does your trading process resonate with Michael Dell’s suggestion? Think about the last date. “The ultimate goal is to deepen relationships.” Business aspects can reduce costs and increase efficiency, but with a purpose. The ultimate goal is C#3, which is community.
How important is community, the third C?
According to Mr. Dell, “The final stage is to develop an online community. We are building two-way relationships through the web with our customers and suppliers.” – Detroit Economic Club.
It went on to express the goal of “establishing communities of providers and end users who share common interests.”
At the subsequent conference in the Southwest, he concluded by observing: “In short, the Internet is changing the face of the entire economic and social structure not only of this country but of the entire world, and governments have a great opportunity to accept it. We are seeing a transition from physical government to online government. The benefits will include things like speed, efficiency, and a better customer experience.”
The Internet has matured since Michael Dell first talked about the 3 C’s, but as a model they still make sense. If anything, community has become even more important. They are not a shopping list to choose one to keep and another to leave.
Community is so important today that it has ushered in a web marketing renaissance, often called Web 2.0. It depends on social marketing, blogs, myspace and other elements to build that community. Both content and commerce serve the last C of community. It is in the community where loyalties, relationships and trust are built.
Where there is community there are regular customers. Community building is a vital skill to have if you want to be an entrepreneur.
