This Company Sucks (and Blows)

Since 1991, Dyson has been a company that has constantly searched for the next, better product. Even as it introduces one product to the market, they are filing patents to develop another line of improved products or new product lines that the company has yet to fully explore. James Dyson, its founder and well-known company spokesperson, created a firm focused on problems. He would identify a problem and then go about trying to figure out a fix for it.

In the early 1980s, James Dyson bought a Hoover vacuum cleaner and noticed how quickly the machine degraded, the most telling symptom being the loss of suction. He set out on a mission to reinvent the vacuum cleaner and started by heading to his local sawmill to find out how industrial cyclones were used there to suck up debris from the ground.

This investigation led James Dyson to create a number of prototypes that he then took another decade to develop into the Dyson vacuum cleaners the world has come to know and recognize. Dyson vacuums disrupted the vacuum cleaner world throughout the 1990s, with Dyson outselling its competitors even with products with a much higher price tag. Dyson's intense focus on the problemthe lack of suction in most vacuumswas the key to getting the attention of consumers.

Dyson vacuum innovations continued into the early 2000s, when Dyson patented and delivered to market the Root Cyclone technology that allowed for an even stronger cyclone in a smaller machine. Consumers were growing tired of carrying around heavy vacuums, and even central vacuums had a number of issues, includingyou guessed ita quick loss of suction.

Another area where Dyson differs from other vacuum companies is that it has not stopped at vacuums. In fact, the company began to consider the opposite issue: instead of suction, it started to look at problems with blowing. Specifically, Dyson investigated improvements to the industrial hand driers used in public washrooms. The result was the Dyson Airblade, which now adorns public washrooms around the world because of its efficiency and power in a confined space.

From there, Dyson continued to blow away the competition by developing a bladeless fan, the Dyson Air Multiplier. No longer would children or pets hurt themselves on spinning blades and, of course, the Dyson fan has much more power and force than the competition. A few years later, Dyson added heat to the fan to create a heater that had levels of efficiency not seen in competing products.

But all this innovation does not come easily. James Dyson went through an astounding 5127 prototypes while developing his first vacuum cleaner. Companies constantly turned him down, and he had to go to Japan to find a firm willing to take on the challenge of a vacuum cleaner with no bag and no recognized technology. Over the years, Dyson has also had to beware of imitators. Ironically enough, one of the major ones was Hoover, whose vacuum design first set James Dyson on his own path. He won a lawsuit against Hoover in 2002 for over $4 million by proving that Hoover's Triple Vortex vacuum cleaner technology was a blatant rip-off of Dyson's long-developed design.

You may think that Dyson would be happy with having conquered the vacuum and fan markets. But, of course, as many entrepreneurs know, innovation is hardwired into some people. Which is why, in early 2020, when it was announced that Dyson had secured a new patent, no one was surprised that James Dyson's innovative spirit was taking him to yet another new place.

That new place has to do with pollution. Specifically, Dyson has a patent on headphones that act as air purifiers. With the concerns over sustainability and climate change, this invention could be revolutionary not only for headphones but for other products as well.

One of the positives of the Dyson vacuum is that, although the internal technology is unique, the overall experience is similar to using a "regular" vacuum. By achieving this, Dyson is managing which rate-of-adoption factor?

a. relevance

b. complexity

c. compatibility

d. observability

e. familiarity

As Dyson looks to devise a new approach to headphones, it is clearly going to go after risk-taking consumers who are willing to put up with product flaws so that they can be the first among their group of friends to have the product. Which adopter category does this describe in the rate-of-adoption curve?

a. laggards

b. risk-takers

c. early majority

d. early adopters

e. innovators

When James Dyson tried a Hoover vacuum cleaner and was disappointed with the results, it spurred him to create the Dyson lines of vacuums. He was clearly using the competition source from which stage of the new-product development process?

a. idea screening

b. idea generation

c. development

d. testing

e. business analysis

When James Dyson devised an original fanless blade technology for a new series of Dyson fans, he was developing what type of new product?

a. new brand

b. new line

c. new-to-the-world

d. lower price

e. new category

The heating-fan market into which Dyson entered was characterized by falling prices and heavy consumer promotion. Which stage of the PLC is this particular product in?

a. growth

b. decline

c. stagnation

d. maturity

e. none of the above