Dell Is NO.1

DESPITE ITS SIZE-SOME 130,000 EMPLOYEES AND $100 BILLION IN SALES-THE TEXAS TECH GIANT HAS MANAGED TO MAINTAIN ITS REP AS A Good Employer and Talent Magnet

- ROB WALKER

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE THE COMPANY now known as Dell Technologies was a glamorous youngster with a runaway share price, one of the marquee firms of the tech-boomy 1990s. The company went on to endure some humbling setbacks and resets as the tech market morphed well beyond the original PC revolution.

But it may be a surprise that Dell has not only evolved into a diversified tech giant-topping $100 billion in revenue last year generated from products and services ranging from computer hardware to data-center software-it also has maintained a reputation as an attractive employer and talent magnet.

After all, even the sexiest startups can descend into stultifying bureaucracies when they grow to the 130,000 head count that Dell has reached. Yet somehow the Round Rock, Texas, company has, in this mature phase of life, remained a great place to build, and extend, a career-so much so that it tops Newsweek's 2022 list of America's 100 Most Loved Workplaces.

It's tempting to explain this by simply pointing to the welter of employee-development programs and career tools the company has developed. (Among other examples, Dell was ahead of the curve on not just accommodating, but cultivating, remote talent.) But dig a little deeper-because what can sometimes sound like an everyone-gets-a-hug ethos, is actually grounded in a practice of mutual accountability.