 
|
 |
 |
 |
| |
James Dyson invented a new product genre – the luxury vacuum cleaner. Dyson’s recipe for success is deceptively simple. If you make a superior product that has a proven market, you can start a revolution and disrupt an industry. Just be prepared to fight legal battles, prove critics wrong and take years to perfect and protect your idea.
It’s easy to forget you’re speaking with a billionaire when you meet James Dyson.
The inventor of the flashy Cyclone line of vacuum cleaners has a way of putting you at ease. It helps that he has an informal policy against suits and ties.
However, don’t let his everyday casual attire of long-sleeve T-shirts and jeans fool you. He’s as formidable a business foe as you’ll ever encounter. Just ask Hoover, Electrolux, Amway and others that dared to do legal battle with him. He’s won most of the lawsuits he’s waged with corporate titans.
With an unforced smile, he welcomes you into his ultramodern, glass-walled office, the nerve center of the Dyson research and development facility in medieval Malmesbury, about 100 miles west of London.
Dyson is a charming blend of mischievous British eccentric and keen marketer – a sort of Caractacus Potts-meets-Willy Wonka. He once snuck into a sawmill at night to see how its giant cyclone dust cleaners worked. That bit of trespassing informed the technology that’s in his line of vacuums today.
His R&D facility, which employs some 1,200 designers, engineers and others, likewise has a touch of whimsical madness. He has machines that do nothing but drop vacuums to test durability.
Like Roald Dahl’s fictional Wonka, who lovingly lorded over the production of superior chocolate, Dyson, 61, is an engaging storyteller, a perfectionist and firm believer that his products are the best the world has ever seen.
It’s a conviction you see in his ubiquitous television ads these days. It’s evident in the new line of Dyson Airblade hand dryers his company has unveiled. And it’s codified in the company mantra: “Making everyday products work better.”
“Innovation is bringing out a new product or service that drastically changes the way something is done and does it better,” he says. His company’s Web site notes that independent lab tests prove his product “overall out-cleans other vacuums.”
His first vacuums – sleek pink and purple uprights called G-Force – sold in Japan in the 1980s for the equivalent of $2,000 apiece.
“People who survive,” he adds, “are not necessarily those who can make things the cheapest, but people who can make things that work the best.”
Keep Failing
From a relatively modest upbringing in the eastern English town of Norfolk, Dyson represents an astounding success story and an inspiration for inventors and innovators everywhere.
In his ads, in this interview with him and in his aptly titled autobiography Against All Odds, Dyson celebrates his David vs. Goliath tale.
He urges inventors to retain control and protect their ideas. Just as important, he encourages innovators to reject established ways of thinking and to not let experts dictate destiny.
“Big companies aren’t really interested in improving things or in innovation,” he says. “Drastic changes in products are a big risk. I think small companies have a huge advantage. They have an ability to be much more radical. And the public likes someone who takes on the big guys.”
To call him dogged is an understatement. He spent 14 years perfecting his Dual Cyclone vacuum cleaner, even as he refused licensing offers that didn’t suit him and he plunged deep into debt.
He tenaciously embraces technology and innovation. Yet in some ways he’s a throwback. Dyson designs products at a large old-school drafting table in his office. And he adheres almost religiously to the Edisonian principle of trial and error. During product development, his company changes only one thing at a time and learns from each of those failures. He celebrates the fact it took 5,127 prototypes before he manufactured his first Dual Cyclone in 1993. He now has a variety of upright, cylinder and handheld vacuums that come in orange, yellow and purple. All have clear debris catchers and all suck up muck with gale-force power.
“Keep on failing,” he admonishes. “It works.”
Suction Revolution
Some critics call Dyson vacuums over-priced. Others say Dysons are only moderately better than competing knock-offs. More than a few Web commentators say the suction is actually too strong and can damage finer (cheap?) carpets. One customer even calls them “ugly.”
Say what you will about his vacuum cleaners, Dyson revolutionized an industry.
For about a century, vacuum technology remained unchanged. Vacuum motors created suction, which forced air and dirt into a replaceable bag. Those bags clogged and the machines lost suction after only a few minutes of use.
Dyson sought to fix that. He drew inspiration from the sawmill cyclone. It sucked up dust without clogging. Why couldn’t a household vacuum? His first prototype was made of a disassembled conventional vacuum, cardboard and gaffer’s tape. It allowed air to whisk through his “cyclone.” Heavier-than-air particles slipped to the bottom of a collection bin. Clean air escaped. He improved on the test concept and set off to change the world.
Of course, he encountered stiff resistance. Those in the vacuum industry, even board members at his former company, scolded him. “If there was a way to build a better vacuum,” all of them said, “Hoover or Electrolux would have invented it by now.”
What’s more, no one would want to see all that detritus collected in Dyson’s clear bins.
And then there was the cost.
Large retailers told Dyson no one was going to spend $500 on a vacuum cleaner and they initially declined to carry Dyson vacuums.
Turns out Dyson was better at building bagless vacuums than the competition. Hoover produced a knock-off that infringed on Dyson’s patents. In court, Hoover admitted that unlike a Dyson, its product released dust in the air.
Dyson was correct in believing that consumers would like seeing the dirt his vacuums collected – proof that they worked.
And when it came to performance and style, they were willing to shell out more.
Dysons are now among the bestselling vacuum cleaners at some of the major retailers that spurned him.
Function Over Form
Interior designer Melissa Galt of Atlanta is a happy Dyson vacuum owner.
“The reason I bought it was because of his personal touch in the advertising campaign,” she says. “Not many inventors will put their face on a product of that type. His arguments were sound and I love the machine.”
Until the Dyson, no vacuums were manufactured in vibrant colors with sci-fi design.
Manufacturers take note: You should design household products “so that consumers will look forward to using them,” says Elizabeth Gordon, a management consultant in Atlanta. “By doing so, innovators can turn chores into cherished moments. Dyson is a perfect example. No chore needed an overhaul like vacuuming.”
Joe Duffy, chairman and CEO of international branding and design company Duffy & Partners in Minneapolis, concurs.
“Brands that basically restart the category, be it the iPhone, iPod or the Dyson, are brands that use technology and design to constantly stay ahead of the pack,” Duffy says. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Dyson will take the lead in the category again to make (vacuums) lighter, nicer and make them work and look better.”
(For the record, Dyson says Jonathan Ive, the designer of Apple’s see-through iMac computer, bought a Dyson vacuum years ago and later sent one to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Three or four years later Apple rolled out the iMac. Dyson has no doubt Apple already was playing with see-through plastics. He merely notes that his product predated Apple’s.)
Dyson is flattered that his vacuums are on display around the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Despite his designer’s background, Dyson emphasizes engineering – pure function over form.
“A product is only truly beautiful if it works well,” he says. “It’s the performance of a product that counts.”
To achieve perfection in performance requires rigorous testing. And through trial and error, he says he’s able to continuously invent. Inventions, in Dyson’s world, beget inventions.
Consider the Dyson Ball vacuum. Rather than wheels, the vacuum rides on a large ball for “effortless steering.”
It owes its origins to the Ballbarrow, a variation of the wheelbarrow Dyson invented in the 1970s. Instead of a wheel, which has a tendency to sink in the soggy English soil, his Ballbarrow used a large orange ball.
Two of his ball vacuum models come in orange, an interesting homage to the Ballbarrow and perhaps a tweak to those in the United States whom he says stole his initial idea. (He lost a patent dispute over the Ballbarrow against a Chicago plastics manufacturer decades ago.) The other Ball vacuum, the “Animal,” comes in his favored color, purple, and retails for $600.
“It’s important we improve everything all the time,” Dyson says. “Doing so brings greater scope to our lives.”
Viva Inventors
Dyson is relentless when it comes to prototyping. His facility houses some of the most technologically sophisticated rapid-prototype machines on the planet. This equipment allows him to produce better working models. Unlike with the development of the Dual Cyclone, it doesn’t take Dyson more than 5,000 prototypes to produce a winner. Yet he still refuses to sell a product unless it passes his rigorous set of standards.
Beyond perfection and perpetual innovation, Dyson’s other great passion is empowering independent inventors. It’s a tribute to his humility and humanity.
He has sponsored “Eye for Why” innovation contests for design-school students. He also has ambitious plans to build a Dyson School of Design Innovation in the United Kingdom. The school “will give young people the chance to see how exciting it can be to work with their hands and brain to come up with practical solutions to real problems,” he says on his Web site.
Dyson believes in inventors. And those who have innovative ideas owe it to themselves and history to persevere.
“I am a believer in naiveté,” he told us. “I think a lot of scientists, engineers and inventors think they need businessmen to start a business, or professional salesmen, or professional this or professional that. They don’t.”
Now he’s on a roll. Although many would disagree, Dyson believes inventors have it in their means to build their own dynasties without hired business professionals.
“If you think intelligently and approach a problem in a ‘naïve’ way, you can be very effective. I mean, what is a businessman? He usually comes from one of the professions. So why can’t he be an engineer? Why can’t he be the person who thought of the product, (the one) who has a marketing sense to see the need for a product? He’s already a marketer.
“He’s probably already a good salesman, because he’s very passionate about his product. And if he’s made his prototype, he understands manufacturing.”
With a final flourish, he encourages inventors with good ideas to manufacture and market their products themselves.
“You’re the best person to do it,” he says. “You have the will and determination to overcome all the obstacles put in front of you.”
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
