Case Study: How Teamwork, Competition Motivate Employees

Teamwork Dell

Dude, you’re getting a…more productive team of employees!

“Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, that you miss the right opportunity.” – Michael Dell

As a freshman at the University of Texas, Michael Dell started a small business assembling and selling computers out of his college dorm room. Realizing that companies, like IBM, were selling computers for as much as $3,000 made from $600 worth of parts, Dell had an idea – cheaper computers and better customer service. Dell dropped out of college to start his own computer company and a decade later, the DELL Computer Corporation was making more than $1 million is sales daily, and Michael Dell was the youngest CEO with a company ranked in Forbes Top 500 Corporations. But DELL Computers was built on more than just affordable computers. The company was built around a core belief that a strong business is built by strong employees.

Case Study: How Competition and Teamwork Strengthen Businesses

“Recognize that there will be failures, and acknowledge that there will be obstacles. But you will learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others, for there is very little learning in success.” – Dell

Teamwork

In 1993, John Medica  was put in charge of the Notebook division of DELL. At this time, the division had already had several projects canceled and morale was at an all-time low. Then the company decided to cancel several more products, which, as you can imagine, was disheartening to the employees who had worked hard on those projects. Productivity slowed. To combat declining morale, the company decided to focus the division’s efforts on the new Latitude XP. By aligning the team’s goals on a single project and encouraging them to work together, DELL saw an improvement in productivity and morale.

Dell realized that aligning teams toward a common objective and creating the same incentive system across the entire company would help direct everyone’s talent toward creating value for customers and shareholders.”1

Competition

A little healthy competition can be a good thing. At DELL, people work in teams of two to receive, manufacture, and pack orders. To help keep productivity high, DELL displays hourly performance metrics on monitors within the factory so teams can see how they rank amongst their peers. This also allows management to easily review performance and identify areas of weakness that may need their attention.

Motivate Your Employees and Increase Productivity with Terrapin Adventures

“If you’re happy, that’s probably the most important thing. Everyone probably has their own definition of success, for me it’s happiness. Do I enjoy what I’m doing? Do I enjoy the people I’m with? Do I enjoy my life?” – Dell

Terrapin Adventures is conveniently located in Howard County, Maryland, between Baltimore and Washington DC. Our experienced staff is able to create a custom team building program– onsite or offsite, indoor or outdoor – that is designed to help your group increase their ability to problem solve, think creatively and collaborate with one another.

We service Maryland and Washington, D.C., and have traveled to other states as well.

Schedule Your Custom Team Building Session!

At Terrapin Adventures, every custom corporate team building adventures is led by one of our experienced facilitators, who will not only help guide your experience, but also tie the lessons back into the workplace. We do this during our debriefing sessions, where we sit down and discuss what we have just done and how the lessons can be applied in our everyday lives.

If you have any questions, please call Terrapin Adventure at 301.725.1313, or email us at info@terrapinadventures.com to learn more.

Works Cited

Comparison of Dell and WIPROs Implementation of Teamwork

This entry was posted on Monday, February 29th, 2016 at 1:24 pm. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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