10-15-2026
At Dell Technologies, Eric Kennedy works at the convergence of finance and technology. As Senior Director of Transformation for Dell Financial Services, Kennedy serves as global controller for Dell's multi-billion-dollar retail business, and the Purdue mechanical engineering and MBA graduate draws on more than 16 years at Dell to lead finance and risk across complex channels.
In a recent Executive Forum conversation, Kennedy offered insights on leadership in an era defined by AI-driven disruption.
“AI just kind of changed the scale and speed of everyone’s work across the company,” Kennedy says.
Dell’s role in providing the servers, storage, networking and other infrastructure behind large-scale AI deployments means change is bigger than product development. It affects how teams evaluate risk, structure major transactions, manage cash and collaborate across the enterprise.
Complex problems become manageable when leaders resist the urge to be overwhelmed, says Kennedy. His engineering education taught him to make sound assumptions, break ambiguity into smaller parts and move deliberately toward a solution — a mindset he later applied to internal consulting, process improvement and finance leadership. The work is about identifying opportunities to make people, processes and decisions stronger.
Kennedy says that analytical rigor alone does not create transformation. What matters more is the ability to influence others.
“As I went further and further along, I learned actually change management is the most important thing,” he says. “You could do all the analysis that you want, but if you’re not able to talk about it and convince someone of that and speak to it coherently, it doesn’t matter.”
Kennedy urges professionals to cultivate curiosity, work across organizational boundaries, test ideas, learn from feedback and build communication habits that showcase good work. In a fast-moving world, the willingness to learn, adapt and bring others along is what shapes leaders.
Listen to the full talk:
The Daniels School’s Executive Forum is held in person on the West Lafayette campus and is open to the public, as seating permits. Follow the business school on LinkedIn to learn about upcoming Forum speakers and more. You can find Forum episodes on our Executive Forum Podcast and on Spotify.
