Dell Technologies kicked off its Dell Technologies Summit 2021 on the 13th of October with Unplugged, a virtual roundtable attended by Dell executives Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO; Jeff Clarke, Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Operating Officer; Chuck Whitten, Co-Chief Operating Officer, and Allison Dew, Chief Marketing Officer. Dell and company discussed in great detail the direction the company will be taking over the next few years. More importantly, though, they talked in-depth about the vital role technological innovations will play in addressing many of the world’s most pressing problems.

“There has been a lot of progress in the last several decades, and I fundamentally believe technology has been a big fulcrum to that,” noted Dell. “If you say, ‘What are the huge challenges and opportunities, problems, that are facing humans today?’ Technology plays an enormous role there.”

Dell cited, in particular, several areas in which technology will “play a big role,” in helping the world. These areas include the circular economy, decarbonisation, and inclusion and diversity.

“We’ve been working on these areas for quite some time and we’ll continue to work on this . . .,” said Dell. “It’s a race with no finish line. Now we have our 2030 goals [and are] even more ambitious. I think technology is going to play a big role, and I’m inspired by the efforts that our teams are putting forward.”

Dell also credited what he described as the collective efforts of the community, including Dell’s customers, partners and stakeholders.

“In the last several years, all these topics have taken on much greater importance to many around the world. I think that’s a great thing,” Dell added. “More people care about these things, and therefore they’re getting attention and energy and investment of dollars to go and actually move the needle in a big way.”

In as far as providing technologies that can potentially change the world for the better, Dell emphasised that the company is looking at things both from a short- and long-term perspective—with an eye on balancing short-term financial gains and long-term returns on investments. But to do this, Dell said that the company needs to “really listen and understand,” the varying needs of its customers.

“We have to be bold in our reinvention, and our investments for the future. A business like ours really exists to solve those future problems. If we’re successful doing that, we’ll be around for the next 37 years and beyond,” Dell pointed out. “And if we don’t do that, we’ll be gone. It’s just the way it works; it’s not any more complicated than that. We have to have big ears, we have to listen, we have to really be close to our customers and understand what those challenges are. Then, we have to invest to innovate.”

Indeed, innovation has been part of the Dell culture in its over 37 years as a leader in technology. But Clarke, Chairman and Co-Chief Operating Officer at Dell, believes the company needs to focus even more on modernisation moving forward.

Clarke explained, “This modernisation takes three forms. There’s a modernisation of ‘How do we build it?’ The second one is a transformation of our development capabilities and product delivery capabilities. [This] is continuous delivery of capabilities, features and offers largely via software, and increasingly more so via the cloud. And then thirdly is ‘How do we bring a cloud service model to our service organisations?’ We think about managed services, infrastructure as a service. Those are more of the future type of services that we will build, going forward.”

Those services and advancements will no doubt be guided by what Dew, Chief Marketing Officer at Dell, described as Dell’s “longstanding commitment to human progress.”

“We’ve seen more than ever in the last 20 months the important role that companies play in society. If you look at the most recent Edelman Trust Ratings Index, we’re actually seeing the acceleration of a trend that was already there in terms of people saying that they trust companies more than they trust governments,” said Dew. “So, the role that we [Dell Technologies] play . . . around being that trusted steward is more important than ever.”

Dell Technologies is taking its crucial role in advancing society very seriously and the company’s innovations moving forward are sure to reflect this already decades-long commitment.