Dell Technologies World 2024 | Yvonne McGill | Dell Technologies

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Yvonne McGill

Chief Financial Officer

Dell Technologies

Dell continues to drive AI revenue with differentiated approach

Dell Technologies Inc. has continued to expand its artificial intelligence hardware line while growing partnerships focused on AI development.The computing giant is committed to innovation and growth. And its success is built on a foundational layer developed over 40 years, which is now being accelerated by AI advancements. The company has no intention of halting its momentum, according to Yvonne McGill (pictured), chief financial officer of Dell.Yvonne McGill, CFO of Dell, discusses the company’s approach to financing AI development in a conversation with theCUBE.“You have to evolve to continue,” she said. “We’re going to do it the right way, but we’re moving fast and we’re changing

play_circle_outline Dell's AI Emergence: Unveiling Tech Leadership, Stock Performance, and Excitement at Dell Tech Week, Las Vegas

play_circle_outline Value creation framework and goals for growth, cash flow, and shareholder returns.

play_circle_outline Reflection on Dell's past and the vision for the future.

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Yvonne McGill | Dell Technologies

Yvonne McGill

Chief Financial Officer Dell Technologies

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>> Good afternoon, AI fans and welcome back to the desert. We're here in fabulous Las Vegas Nevada, midway through day two of three days of incredible coverage here at the absolutely exhilarating and pumping Dell Tech Week. My name is Savannah Peterson, joined by Dave Vellante for another fantastic afternoon, Dave, we're killing it.

>> Big money. Big money.

>> Big money. Oh, I know. Have you been looking forward to this one?

>> Yes, absolutely.

>> Are you excited to have this conversation about money?

>> Oh yes, of course. Yes.

>> Well, we are super excited to intro our next guest to the show, Yvonne McGill, the CFO of Dell. Welcome.

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, thank you for having me.

>> It's so nice to have you here. We're being a little cheeky before the show got started. But artificial intelligence isn't cheap, so we have a lot of fun questions for you. Before we dig in, this is a huge week for Dell. Big announcements. It's got to be very exciting. Dell is having quite the year as well.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> How does it feel for you to be here today?

Yvonne McGill

>> Oh, it's so exciting. I am so thrilled about where we are. I feel like this time was really set up for us. It is perfect for us. AI is giving us so much momentum, but it's really building on that foundational layer that we've been working on for over 40 years, right? So it's just the next chapter in our evolution.

>> So the stock's up 180% since you took over, is it?

Yvonne McGill

>> Heck, yeah.

>> Is it liquidity back to shareholders? Is it AI or is it Yvonne? I mean, what's the story behind?

>> Yeah. Hey!

Yvonne McGill

>> I don't know. It depends on who you ask.

>> .

Yvonne McGill

>> It depends on who you ask, but I'm going to say it's all of that. But I do think it's what I talked about. It's the foundational layer that we've had, but it's really this AI evolution or however you want to describe it, and really how we play differentially in that opportunity. It's a recognition of how differentiated we are. And so it's been great to be a part of and see it, I think just the beginning of where we're going,

>> Michael told a little story. He alluded to it in the keynote and he talked in an analyst session that he sat down with his leadership team and said, "In five years, if we don't change, we're going to be out of business, so let's disrupt ourselves." As the CFO, did that freak you out? Like, "Wait a minute, let's talk risk management here"? Or were you just, "Okay, let's go."

Yvonne McGill

>> I absolutely love his approach and where we're headed. And so you have to change, you have to evolve to continue, right? And so let's go. I'm all in. Of course, the CFO, I'm control. We're doing all of that. We're going to do it the right way, but we're moving fast and we're changing. And it's giving us the opportunity to question everything we do and decide are we doing the right stuff and how do we make time to do the things that'll add even more value for our customers and our shareholders, all in.

>> One of the things that I've always found incredibly striking and impressive Dell is the ability to trim the fat when going for a goal, the ability to shed tech or companies or really anything in order to achieve and to be in the position. I think that's a big part of the reason why we're seeing them have the moment that they're having right now. You must have such a fascinating job. How do you prioritize and help these teams who are obviously fighting for budget, your budget equivocally? How do you prioritize and organize that, especially when things are moving so fast like they are right now?

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, I think that's what makes it so fun, right? Because everyone, all the ideas are coming and we go through and we work through and look at the value generation for our customers, obviously for ourselves, and worked that through with Michael, with Jeff and the team to say, "Hey, where should we spend our money?" Because we don't have unlimited funds, right? And so it's all about getting the proper investment. And taking risks too. You have to take risks to deliver value. So we're doing all of that.

>> So it must've been three or four years ago, I'm sure you were there. I was at the New York City Financial Analysts meeting. The balance sheet wasn't where you wanted it. Tom stood up in front of the audience and said... I think he gave seven levers that you could pull. Value creation. He laid out this framework. Tom Sweet is Yvonne's predecessor. Great mentor to you and fantastic financial leader.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> So it looks like you've pulled a lot of those levers. What is that value creation framework look like now? What levers has AI given you opportunity to pull?

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, I think we laid out our long-term value creation framework in October at our security analysts meeting, and we said, "Hey, we're going to grow at 3 to 4%. You're going to see it be different, we said, or more. So we're not limiting ourselves to what we laid out in the framework. And so we talked about that. We talked about an 8% or more. There's lots of or mores growth in our non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. We're going to then deliver great cash flow and we're going to then return that to our shareholders through dividend and share repo, right? And we said we do at least a 10% dividend increase every year for the next five years. We did 20% this year, right? And so it's been really great. And this AI momentum is giving us a faster growth expectation than what we laid out in that long-term framework. But that was a mid-cycle framework that we laid out. So we're excited about where we're headed. I love the pluses. And so I'm all about delivering even more revenue growth than we wanted than we laid out in a long-term framework, and even more profitability and return to shareholders.

>> Of course, you left at, she wants to figure out what mid-cycle means.

Yvonne McGill

>> I did. I did.

>> It was very clever, I thought. Give yourself a little leeway there, so good for you.

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, you know.

>> Well, but the amazing dynamic is Dell's been shrinking actually as a company because you grew so faster in the pandemic.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right.

>> And yet the street absolutely loves the story. I mean, it helps share buybacks and dividends, but there's very clearly the execution, the AI, it's like people were looking for AI trades beyond NVIDIA, beyond Broadcom. And then all of a sudden post-GTC, people woke up and said, "Wow, Dell" because AI-

>> Well, they want the ecosystem. They want the full solution, not just the chip. They want the network. They want the connectivity, yeah.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right. And that's what I love about our portfolio. It's designed for now for this environment, everything from our AI-enabled servers, but it goes through you going to generate all this data, you need to store it somewhere. We have storage, right? Then you need to have a device to be able to really create value from all the data that you generate. And we have that. You've got some of those right here with you. So that'll continue. And then we've got services support, our world-class supply chain. We are so differentiated, and it's a really exciting future.

>> I mean, the opportunities for, I think you'd call it AI In inside Dell-

Yvonne McGill

>> Oh yes....

>> are pretty substantial for a company that's whatever, 85, $90 billion. We've heard a lot. We had meetings with Jen Felch, Jeff Boudreau, obviously Jeff Clark was just recently talking about some of the initiatives that you have internally. You're involved in that.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> As Savannah said, AI ain't cheap. So we talked about this in Austin. How do you pay for all this stuff? Do you have to rob from other budgets? Do you have to have gain sharing? How do you think about that as a CFO?

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, I really think of it as trying to identify the true value drivers and then eliminating work. And really, we've been working and focusing on... Internally focused on that foundational layer. And when we have all of our data set, we have the foundational air built, then I can drive from there. I can accelerate from there, but you have to take the time to make sure your data is clean so that you can drive the outcomes that you're desiring. So that's what we're focused on internally. And there's so much efficiency to be had. You'll see that in our results. You saw that in what we guided for the full year from a spend level. We're going to grow while investing and delivering the outcomes that we want, but we're not going to grow all aspects. OpEx, we guided , right?

>> Right.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's the efficiency that we're a great example of what other companies can do.

>> You've been at Dell for 27 years.

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, just about.

>> And you just completed your first year at CFO. Congratulations on that.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thanks, yep.

>> When you started... It's hard for me to believe you've been there for 27 years. You look younger than that. But when you started at Dell, could you have imagined that we would be here today? Did you have any idea?

Yvonne McGill

>> I didn't. I didn't have the vision of what Dell would be today, what Dell Technologies would be today. And I didn't know. I don't know if you all knew what you wanted to do the whole time during your career, but I aspired to continue to learn, develop and grow. What a great company. I stayed at Dell because of the team, because of Michael, because of Jeff, what great leaders. But because we're never done. We're not the same company we were when I joined 27 years ago where we couldn't have envisioned it. And what will we be in another... I know we're just doing our 40th anniversary. I probably won't be working in another 40 years, but I can't even imagine what we'll be. And so I love that we're always developing and changing and adapting to the environment and leading the way.

>> Oh yeah. What's the culture like? You mentioned Jeff and Michael. We just got to talk to both of them today, which is really cool. There's a different level of humility around the Dell leadership that I find really refreshing. What's it kicking it with the C-suite? What's the culture like in those meetings?

Yvonne McGill

>> It's really wonderful. It's challenging, right? Because you don't say yes to everything. It's an open environment. We were better together, right? And so I think that's what I really appreciate about working at Dell, is that everyone's voice matters and it's taken into account. And then you've got great leaders like Michael and Jeff that are helping to continue to drive us forward, but they're taking into account all of the different perspectives and trade-offs because there's so many different choices you can make, right?

>> Michael was telling us, one of the analysts was asking Michael about, "Okay, well when you do this, we're going to disrupt ourselves thing." That puts a lot of pressure on people. How do you deal with that pressure from their standpoint? How do you account for the stress that that might cause? And as a millennial, you'll appreciate this. He said, "Well, if you're like 35 years old and you're not doing this, you might ask some tough questions like why. Like, what are we waiting for?"

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right.

>> And so he says, "It's this interesting balance culturally of yeah, you got this pressure, but also everybody's bought in because they want to see this change."

Yvonne McGill

>> They want to see a change.

>> They want that challenge.

Yvonne McGill

>> And we talk about making a decision moving forward. And then we do course correction, right? And we want to go fast. And so you got to start moving forward fast and then navigate as you go, right? You can't pause. You can't stay still.

>> That's a fascinating moment though when you think of Dell's history. And you think about when you guys were, prior to EMC, really getting into enterprise, making a lot of acquisitions of really good companies, but it never got you to where you wanted to get. And so hence $60 plus billion acquisition of EMC, which was remarkable what the outcome was.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> And now this AI opportunity, it's like you're just diving in. You keep saying all in.

Yvonne McGill

>> All in.

>> It's like you really have clarity of vision on the opportunity and it's impressive how fast you're reacting and innovating. Because Dell's often criticized, "Oh no, no innovation out of Dell." Well, I've said it today. This is all innovation.

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah. It is so exciting. And to see how much faster we're bringing solutions to market. We talked about it today, right? The development cycle being nine months versus two years, it's-

>> Crazy, yeah.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's remarkable.

>> And the portfolio. It's just getting so-

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, expansion of the portfolio. And again, what will we be in five years? Something even better than we are today.

>> Oh, I love it.

Yvonne McGill

>> 10 years, 20 years.

>> It's interesting when-

Yvonne McGill

>> We'll keep moving.

>> I remember when Jeff took over, he had the responsibility for the EMC integration. That portfolio needed rationalization, and so he attacked it. He was-

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely....

>> the perfect man for the job. You can see that swinging now in the other direction with all the optionality you have with different microprocessors and GPUs and NPUs and CPUs. And I guess it will be what it is where customers will, I guess, dictate that pace. But you expect that portfolio to get more granular.

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, I do. But I expect it to continue to evolve. But I expect us, again, and we talked about it today, we're going to partner with whoever we need to partner with to bring the solutions that our customers are looking for. And so I think that's the... The way that we were doing lots of acquisitions, now, we, I think, are embracing that we can partner successfully with so many, right? We're about delivering the solutions our customers want and making that happen. And so-

>> That is one of those levers. I was sitting in the partner event. It was very nice, very nice. There was a thousand people in there.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's amazing.

>> Big comfy chairs. But they were charged up. I think what half of the revenue goes through channel partners Is that about right?

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah. Just about half of our revenue goes through channel partners, yes.

>> So a lot of upside.

>> Yeah.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right. And we're differentiated too because we have that direct relationship with our customers too. And so I love that part of it too, is that we hear directly from our customers, but we value our channel partners. We value all of the relationships. And so we can hear differentially from those that are doing the purchasing and the innovating.

>> You can feel the collaboration here very much. You see it on stage. It's awesome. We've said a lot of really positive things. What's the biggest risk to this velocity?

Yvonne McGill

>> It's hard to talk about the biggest risk because I think it's just like I talked about earlier. There's going to be things that don't go exactly as we intended, but we're going to learn and keep moving forward at a very fast pace. And so I think the risk is not something I'm overly concerned about.

>> It's execution risk.

>> Right.

>> I mean, it really is.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's execution risk, right? Yeah.

>> No, but this is a moment, right? I mean, I said this with love. CFO is not always the most risk pro person on a team. Usually very risk-adverse when it comes to certain bets. And to hear you with such confidence as we approach this really wild moment, which not approach we're in this moment, but it's validating. I don't know. It's great to hear you say that.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's great to hear. I mean, I am the CFO, right? So we have the proper controls in place and accountability and everything, but I'm leading in to the future because I believe. I believe that it is bright and we're going to enable it.

>> I mean, there's external risks that are out of your control.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> Who knows what's happening with geopolitics, and-

Yvonne McGill

>> There's always inherently risk.

>> I mean, at some point-

Yvonne McGill

>> We can't control that,

>> Right. I mean, we are in an AI bubble. I mean, who knows? It's going to stop at some point. I don't know what form it'll take.

Yvonne McGill

>> Doesn't have to.

>> Well, we'll see. Well, it's going to be really interesting because silicon is a cyclical business, but every silicon CEO says, "No. Now we've figured that out." And so we'll see whether it's memory or GPUs. So we'll see. But again, you can't control that.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right.

>> You don't want to hold back and not... Al Shugart said to me this one time, "It's way worse not to be there when the market hits-

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right....

>> "Than it is to be conservative and not get hit when the market tanks." So you got to go.

Yvonne McGill

>> We got to go. And we're going fast.

>> We're going, baby. I love that.

Yvonne McGill

>> We're going.

>> I got a question for you. So it's graduation season. I know we've got kids graduating from our crew. A lot of things happening right now. What's your advice? I mean, you're a female CFO at a Fortune 100 company, which in and of itself is impressive.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thank you.

>> But I can imagine there are some folks watching who might want to be you someday or who are nervous about the AI revolution or don't know where to start. So what's your advice for today's grads or anyone curious about entering into our arena to get on that train and not feel left behind?

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah. Well, I would say be open to any opportunity, right? Because you don't know. You asked me did I know I wanted to be the CFO so many years ago. No, I didn't. But I took different recommendations from team members, from mentors to say, "Hey, go do this. I need you to do this." And I learned and I developed and I grow. And then I would say, "Hey, don't get stuck in your ways," right? Be open to change because we're talking about change, right? This environment. And then the other advice I give is have an open circle. Invite everyone in because differentiation, diversity of thinking, experience, cultures, drives better outcomes, right? So bring in the big crowd because you're going to get the best results when you expand your view.

>> We were talking the other night, you were an order processing manager at one point.

Yvonne McGill

>> I was. I was.

>> I was going to ask. I was going to ask what your first title was.

Yvonne McGill

>> First title was FP&A, Financial Planning Analysis.

>> There you go.

Yvonne McGill

>> So that kind of meant a whole bunch of stuff. And it still does, by the way, but yeah. Back then I had to order processing, I had credit collections, just lots of different roles. And again, I learned from all of them, right?

>> And that prepared you for-

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, help prepare me well for the role I'm in, which is awesome.

>> Well, congratulations.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thank you.It's pretty amazing .

>> My gosh. And you can tell how much you love your job.

Yvonne McGill

>> I do.

>> How much you love Dell, how much Dell loves you. It's all great. Just a big love fest here in AI land.

Yvonne McGill

>> Just a big love fest at Dell.

>> AI ain't cheap, but at least we're feeling good about it. Yvonne, thank you so much for being on the show.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you, Yvonne.

>> This has been great. Dave, always pleasure.

Yvonne McGill

>> I appreciate it.

>> And I thank all of you for tuning into our three days of fabulous coverage here in Las Vegas Nevada. We're at Dell Tech World. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.

Yvonne McGill | Dell Technologies

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>> Good afternoon, AI fans and welcome back to the desert. We're here in fabulous Las Vegas Nevada, midway through day two of three days of incredible coverage here at the absolutely exhilarating and pumping Dell Tech Week. My name is Savannah Peterson, joined by Dave Vellante for another fantastic afternoon, Dave, we're killing it.

>> Big money. Big money.

>> Big money. Oh, I know. Have you been looking forward to this one?

>> Yes, absolutely.

>> Are you excited to have this conversation about money?

>> Oh yes, of course. Yes.

>> Well, we are super excited to intro our next guest to the show, Yvonne McGill, the CFO of Dell. Welcome.

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, thank you for having me.

>> It's so nice to have you here. We're being a little cheeky before the show got started. But artificial intelligence isn't cheap, so we have a lot of fun questions for you. Before we dig in, this is a huge week for Dell. Big announcements. It's got to be very exciting. Dell is having quite the year as well.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> How does it feel for you to be here today?

Yvonne McGill

>> Oh, it's so exciting. I am so thrilled about where we are. I feel like this time was really set up for us. It is perfect for us. AI is giving us so much momentum, but it's really building on that foundational layer that we've been working on for over 40 years, right? So it's just the next chapter in our evolution.

>> So the stock's up 180% since you took over, is it?

Yvonne McGill

>> Heck, yeah.

>> Is it liquidity back to shareholders? Is it AI or is it Yvonne? I mean, what's the story behind?

>> Yeah. Hey!

Yvonne McGill

>> I don't know. It depends on who you ask.

>> .

Yvonne McGill

>> It depends on who you ask, but I'm going to say it's all of that. But I do think it's what I talked about. It's the foundational layer that we've had, but it's really this AI evolution or however you want to describe it, and really how we play differentially in that opportunity. It's a recognition of how differentiated we are. And so it's been great to be a part of and see it, I think just the beginning of where we're going,

>> Michael told a little story. He alluded to it in the keynote and he talked in an analyst session that he sat down with his leadership team and said, "In five years, if we don't change, we're going to be out of business, so let's disrupt ourselves." As the CFO, did that freak you out? Like, "Wait a minute, let's talk risk management here"? Or were you just, "Okay, let's go."

Yvonne McGill

>> I absolutely love his approach and where we're headed. And so you have to change, you have to evolve to continue, right? And so let's go. I'm all in. Of course, the CFO, I'm control. We're doing all of that. We're going to do it the right way, but we're moving fast and we're changing. And it's giving us the opportunity to question everything we do and decide are we doing the right stuff and how do we make time to do the things that'll add even more value for our customers and our shareholders, all in.

>> One of the things that I've always found incredibly striking and impressive Dell is the ability to trim the fat when going for a goal, the ability to shed tech or companies or really anything in order to achieve and to be in the position. I think that's a big part of the reason why we're seeing them have the moment that they're having right now. You must have such a fascinating job. How do you prioritize and help these teams who are obviously fighting for budget, your budget equivocally? How do you prioritize and organize that, especially when things are moving so fast like they are right now?

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, I think that's what makes it so fun, right? Because everyone, all the ideas are coming and we go through and we work through and look at the value generation for our customers, obviously for ourselves, and worked that through with Michael, with Jeff and the team to say, "Hey, where should we spend our money?" Because we don't have unlimited funds, right? And so it's all about getting the proper investment. And taking risks too. You have to take risks to deliver value. So we're doing all of that.

>> So it must've been three or four years ago, I'm sure you were there. I was at the New York City Financial Analysts meeting. The balance sheet wasn't where you wanted it. Tom stood up in front of the audience and said... I think he gave seven levers that you could pull. Value creation. He laid out this framework. Tom Sweet is Yvonne's predecessor. Great mentor to you and fantastic financial leader.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> So it looks like you've pulled a lot of those levers. What is that value creation framework look like now? What levers has AI given you opportunity to pull?

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, I think we laid out our long-term value creation framework in October at our security analysts meeting, and we said, "Hey, we're going to grow at 3 to 4%. You're going to see it be different, we said, or more. So we're not limiting ourselves to what we laid out in the framework. And so we talked about that. We talked about an 8% or more. There's lots of or mores growth in our non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. We're going to then deliver great cash flow and we're going to then return that to our shareholders through dividend and share repo, right? And we said we do at least a 10% dividend increase every year for the next five years. We did 20% this year, right? And so it's been really great. And this AI momentum is giving us a faster growth expectation than what we laid out in that long-term framework. But that was a mid-cycle framework that we laid out. So we're excited about where we're headed. I love the pluses. And so I'm all about delivering even more revenue growth than we wanted than we laid out in a long-term framework, and even more profitability and return to shareholders.

>> Of course, you left at, she wants to figure out what mid-cycle means.

Yvonne McGill

>> I did. I did.

>> It was very clever, I thought. Give yourself a little leeway there, so good for you.

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, you know.

>> Well, but the amazing dynamic is Dell's been shrinking actually as a company because you grew so faster in the pandemic.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right.

>> And yet the street absolutely loves the story. I mean, it helps share buybacks and dividends, but there's very clearly the execution, the AI, it's like people were looking for AI trades beyond NVIDIA, beyond Broadcom. And then all of a sudden post-GTC, people woke up and said, "Wow, Dell" because AI-

>> Well, they want the ecosystem. They want the full solution, not just the chip. They want the network. They want the connectivity, yeah.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right. And that's what I love about our portfolio. It's designed for now for this environment, everything from our AI-enabled servers, but it goes through you going to generate all this data, you need to store it somewhere. We have storage, right? Then you need to have a device to be able to really create value from all the data that you generate. And we have that. You've got some of those right here with you. So that'll continue. And then we've got services support, our world-class supply chain. We are so differentiated, and it's a really exciting future.

>> I mean, the opportunities for, I think you'd call it AI In inside Dell-

Yvonne McGill

>> Oh yes....

>> are pretty substantial for a company that's whatever, 85, $90 billion. We've heard a lot. We had meetings with Jen Felch, Jeff Boudreau, obviously Jeff Clark was just recently talking about some of the initiatives that you have internally. You're involved in that.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> As Savannah said, AI ain't cheap. So we talked about this in Austin. How do you pay for all this stuff? Do you have to rob from other budgets? Do you have to have gain sharing? How do you think about that as a CFO?

Yvonne McGill

>> Well, I really think of it as trying to identify the true value drivers and then eliminating work. And really, we've been working and focusing on... Internally focused on that foundational layer. And when we have all of our data set, we have the foundational air built, then I can drive from there. I can accelerate from there, but you have to take the time to make sure your data is clean so that you can drive the outcomes that you're desiring. So that's what we're focused on internally. And there's so much efficiency to be had. You'll see that in our results. You saw that in what we guided for the full year from a spend level. We're going to grow while investing and delivering the outcomes that we want, but we're not going to grow all aspects. OpEx, we guided , right?

>> Right.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's the efficiency that we're a great example of what other companies can do.

>> You've been at Dell for 27 years.

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, just about.

>> And you just completed your first year at CFO. Congratulations on that.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thanks, yep.

>> When you started... It's hard for me to believe you've been there for 27 years. You look younger than that. But when you started at Dell, could you have imagined that we would be here today? Did you have any idea?

Yvonne McGill

>> I didn't. I didn't have the vision of what Dell would be today, what Dell Technologies would be today. And I didn't know. I don't know if you all knew what you wanted to do the whole time during your career, but I aspired to continue to learn, develop and grow. What a great company. I stayed at Dell because of the team, because of Michael, because of Jeff, what great leaders. But because we're never done. We're not the same company we were when I joined 27 years ago where we couldn't have envisioned it. And what will we be in another... I know we're just doing our 40th anniversary. I probably won't be working in another 40 years, but I can't even imagine what we'll be. And so I love that we're always developing and changing and adapting to the environment and leading the way.

>> Oh yeah. What's the culture like? You mentioned Jeff and Michael. We just got to talk to both of them today, which is really cool. There's a different level of humility around the Dell leadership that I find really refreshing. What's it kicking it with the C-suite? What's the culture like in those meetings?

Yvonne McGill

>> It's really wonderful. It's challenging, right? Because you don't say yes to everything. It's an open environment. We were better together, right? And so I think that's what I really appreciate about working at Dell, is that everyone's voice matters and it's taken into account. And then you've got great leaders like Michael and Jeff that are helping to continue to drive us forward, but they're taking into account all of the different perspectives and trade-offs because there's so many different choices you can make, right?

>> Michael was telling us, one of the analysts was asking Michael about, "Okay, well when you do this, we're going to disrupt ourselves thing." That puts a lot of pressure on people. How do you deal with that pressure from their standpoint? How do you account for the stress that that might cause? And as a millennial, you'll appreciate this. He said, "Well, if you're like 35 years old and you're not doing this, you might ask some tough questions like why. Like, what are we waiting for?"

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right.

>> And so he says, "It's this interesting balance culturally of yeah, you got this pressure, but also everybody's bought in because they want to see this change."

Yvonne McGill

>> They want to see a change.

>> They want that challenge.

Yvonne McGill

>> And we talk about making a decision moving forward. And then we do course correction, right? And we want to go fast. And so you got to start moving forward fast and then navigate as you go, right? You can't pause. You can't stay still.

>> That's a fascinating moment though when you think of Dell's history. And you think about when you guys were, prior to EMC, really getting into enterprise, making a lot of acquisitions of really good companies, but it never got you to where you wanted to get. And so hence $60 plus billion acquisition of EMC, which was remarkable what the outcome was.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> And now this AI opportunity, it's like you're just diving in. You keep saying all in.

Yvonne McGill

>> All in.

>> It's like you really have clarity of vision on the opportunity and it's impressive how fast you're reacting and innovating. Because Dell's often criticized, "Oh no, no innovation out of Dell." Well, I've said it today. This is all innovation.

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah. It is so exciting. And to see how much faster we're bringing solutions to market. We talked about it today, right? The development cycle being nine months versus two years, it's-

>> Crazy, yeah.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's remarkable.

>> And the portfolio. It's just getting so-

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, expansion of the portfolio. And again, what will we be in five years? Something even better than we are today.

>> Oh, I love it.

Yvonne McGill

>> 10 years, 20 years.

>> It's interesting when-

Yvonne McGill

>> We'll keep moving.

>> I remember when Jeff took over, he had the responsibility for the EMC integration. That portfolio needed rationalization, and so he attacked it. He was-

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely....

>> the perfect man for the job. You can see that swinging now in the other direction with all the optionality you have with different microprocessors and GPUs and NPUs and CPUs. And I guess it will be what it is where customers will, I guess, dictate that pace. But you expect that portfolio to get more granular.

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, I do. But I expect it to continue to evolve. But I expect us, again, and we talked about it today, we're going to partner with whoever we need to partner with to bring the solutions that our customers are looking for. And so I think that's the... The way that we were doing lots of acquisitions, now, we, I think, are embracing that we can partner successfully with so many, right? We're about delivering the solutions our customers want and making that happen. And so-

>> That is one of those levers. I was sitting in the partner event. It was very nice, very nice. There was a thousand people in there.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's amazing.

>> Big comfy chairs. But they were charged up. I think what half of the revenue goes through channel partners Is that about right?

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah. Just about half of our revenue goes through channel partners, yes.

>> So a lot of upside.

>> Yeah.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right. And we're differentiated too because we have that direct relationship with our customers too. And so I love that part of it too, is that we hear directly from our customers, but we value our channel partners. We value all of the relationships. And so we can hear differentially from those that are doing the purchasing and the innovating.

>> You can feel the collaboration here very much. You see it on stage. It's awesome. We've said a lot of really positive things. What's the biggest risk to this velocity?

Yvonne McGill

>> It's hard to talk about the biggest risk because I think it's just like I talked about earlier. There's going to be things that don't go exactly as we intended, but we're going to learn and keep moving forward at a very fast pace. And so I think the risk is not something I'm overly concerned about.

>> It's execution risk.

>> Right.

>> I mean, it really is.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's execution risk, right? Yeah.

>> No, but this is a moment, right? I mean, I said this with love. CFO is not always the most risk pro person on a team. Usually very risk-adverse when it comes to certain bets. And to hear you with such confidence as we approach this really wild moment, which not approach we're in this moment, but it's validating. I don't know. It's great to hear you say that.

Yvonne McGill

>> It's great to hear. I mean, I am the CFO, right? So we have the proper controls in place and accountability and everything, but I'm leading in to the future because I believe. I believe that it is bright and we're going to enable it.

>> I mean, there's external risks that are out of your control.

Yvonne McGill

>> Absolutely.

>> Who knows what's happening with geopolitics, and-

Yvonne McGill

>> There's always inherently risk.

>> I mean, at some point-

Yvonne McGill

>> We can't control that,

>> Right. I mean, we are in an AI bubble. I mean, who knows? It's going to stop at some point. I don't know what form it'll take.

Yvonne McGill

>> Doesn't have to.

>> Well, we'll see. Well, it's going to be really interesting because silicon is a cyclical business, but every silicon CEO says, "No. Now we've figured that out." And so we'll see whether it's memory or GPUs. So we'll see. But again, you can't control that.

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right.

>> You don't want to hold back and not... Al Shugart said to me this one time, "It's way worse not to be there when the market hits-

Yvonne McGill

>> That's right....

>> "Than it is to be conservative and not get hit when the market tanks." So you got to go.

Yvonne McGill

>> We got to go. And we're going fast.

>> We're going, baby. I love that.

Yvonne McGill

>> We're going.

>> I got a question for you. So it's graduation season. I know we've got kids graduating from our crew. A lot of things happening right now. What's your advice? I mean, you're a female CFO at a Fortune 100 company, which in and of itself is impressive.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thank you.

>> But I can imagine there are some folks watching who might want to be you someday or who are nervous about the AI revolution or don't know where to start. So what's your advice for today's grads or anyone curious about entering into our arena to get on that train and not feel left behind?

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah. Well, I would say be open to any opportunity, right? Because you don't know. You asked me did I know I wanted to be the CFO so many years ago. No, I didn't. But I took different recommendations from team members, from mentors to say, "Hey, go do this. I need you to do this." And I learned and I developed and I grow. And then I would say, "Hey, don't get stuck in your ways," right? Be open to change because we're talking about change, right? This environment. And then the other advice I give is have an open circle. Invite everyone in because differentiation, diversity of thinking, experience, cultures, drives better outcomes, right? So bring in the big crowd because you're going to get the best results when you expand your view.

>> We were talking the other night, you were an order processing manager at one point.

Yvonne McGill

>> I was. I was.

>> I was going to ask. I was going to ask what your first title was.

Yvonne McGill

>> First title was FP&A, Financial Planning Analysis.

>> There you go.

Yvonne McGill

>> So that kind of meant a whole bunch of stuff. And it still does, by the way, but yeah. Back then I had to order processing, I had credit collections, just lots of different roles. And again, I learned from all of them, right?

>> And that prepared you for-

Yvonne McGill

>> Yeah, help prepare me well for the role I'm in, which is awesome.

>> Well, congratulations.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thank you.It's pretty amazing .

>> My gosh. And you can tell how much you love your job.

Yvonne McGill

>> I do.

>> How much you love Dell, how much Dell loves you. It's all great. Just a big love fest here in AI land.

Yvonne McGill

>> Just a big love fest at Dell.

>> AI ain't cheap, but at least we're feeling good about it. Yvonne, thank you so much for being on the show.

Yvonne McGill

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you, Yvonne.

>> This has been great. Dave, always pleasure.

Yvonne McGill

>> I appreciate it.

>> And I thank all of you for tuning into our three days of fabulous coverage here in Las Vegas Nevada. We're at Dell Tech World. My name's Savannah Peterson. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.