Today’s CEOs Are Confident About Growth: Michael Dell Is No Exception

A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) annual Global CEO Survey found that most CEOs, particularly in the U.S. are optimistic about growth prospects for their companies. According to CBS News, out of 1, 300 executives in 77 countries surveyed, two thirds said growth opportunities were larger now than they were three years ago. Nearly half of the American CEOs expected to see more growth for 2015, but the number was only 37% for non-U.S. based CEOs. This isn’t surprising, because recovery has been robust for the U.S., while there has been an economic slowdown in Europe and Asia.

Bob Moritz, who did the survey for PwC, said on an interview at the World Economic Forum at Davos, that even though non-U.S. CEOs seemed less confident, “they have confidence that they can do better than the economy that is in front of them.” One major development Moritz noticed was the fact that more companies were embracing rather than resisting new technology, especially social media. Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, who was also at Davos, said, “Nobody has an enormous lock on the market. The market is always changing, and it’s a great time to be listening, learning and figuring out what problems are unsolved by customers, because there are always emergent problems, and that’s how you win.”

Michael Dell is used to thinking outside the box. He began upgrading fellow students’ PCs in university and became one of the youngest CEOs in the Fortune 500 in 1992 when he was 27, and Dell eventually reached 12.5% worldwide market share for PCs. Recently, Michael Dell made the controversial decision to take the company private, and he has no regrets about the decision, with sales at the company strong.