America's Most Admired Company

Dell was voted the most admired company in the United States according to a poll released Monday by Time, Inc.'s Fortune magazine, supplanting Wal-Mart in the first spot and pushing IBM off the top 10 list.

Dell tops Fortune's 'Most Admired Companies' list

Now Dell is the first PC maker to hold the rank of America's Most Admired—since the original "PC" maker, IBM, logged off in 1986.

America's Most Admired Companies - Most Admired Companies: Dude! Dell's No. 1!

"If the idea of maturity is unsettling to Dell, it could be because he himself just hit the big four-oh. But there has to be consolation in what he has accomplished in his time. His company has run through the competition like some kind of sports team from Boston. Let's quickly review the recent meta events of the PC industry: IBM, the company that practically invented the desktop computer, has exited the business by selling out to the Chinese firm Lenovo. Gateway has seen its business crash—its stock, which traded above $80 five years ago, now fetches $4 and change.

Compaq wisely sold out to Hewlett-Packard, which unwisely doubled down in this market, giving Dell—as one wag puts it—"a bigger butt to kick." And of course it was HP's bet on Compaq that ultimately cost Carly Fiorina her job (see "How the HP Board KO'd Carly"). Truly, this is an industry under assault, and in every instance the guy at the other end of the gun is Michael Dell. "You have to just say he has done a hell of a job," says former GE CEO Jack Welch."