The new economy may be a knowledge economy, and people may be every company's most critical asset, but job education in many organizations remains an undeniable backwater. Not at Dell. Cone is a genuine radical in a field that is decidedly resistant to change. Lots of people sitting in a classroom, with an expert up front telling you things. The natural way to learn is simply to be who we are and to do what we do.
Kids learn by doing things.
And they learn new things when they need to know them. That's the philosophy on which Cone has built Dell University. Our challenge is to reduce learning to its smallest, most-useful increments and to put the learner in charge of the entire process. Indeed, one of the first items on the curriculum for new Dell employees is the business model itself. Whether you're a salesperson, an engineer, or a factory-floor manager, Cone believes you will make it at the company only by understanding how Dell does business.