Dell

In nineteen eighty four, Michael Dell was a nineteen year old freshman at the University of Texas with a radical idea. While IBM and Compaq shipped computers through retail stores, sitting in warehouses for months, Dell built them on demand. He took orders, assembled machines, shipped them. No inventory. No middlemen. No waste. The business model terrified established competitors. Traditional computer makers accumulated stock months before a customer even walked into a store. Component prices fell constantly. Old inventory became worthless. Dell's approach meant he paid suppliers at the exact moment demand appeared. He had five days of inventory while competitors held ninety.