Six years after dropping out of college to focus on his own business reselling PCs and preformatting PC hard disks, Michael Dell had grown his company's annual sales to more than $500 million. Dell Computer earned a reputation for selling quality products. This case describes Dell's unique direct approach to producing, selling, and distributing computing equipment. It contains a side-by-side comparison with Compaq before its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard (HP). The case has been used in MBA and executive education programs in many countries.