Design guru James Dyson talks about design versus engineering. It’s was a little noisy at the event but getting opportunity to talk to the guy who made our favorite vacuum talks about the need for US/UK engineers and the rise of the East as an innovation center… and rugby.
Dyson’s book is amazing if you get the chance to read it.
If you get the chance, read Dyson’s book - it’s a great inspirational read.
Is Google down?! Is Google DOWN?!
Does it strike anyone else that it’s odd for TC to report on design/dev? I go to this site for launch news, reviews and biz analysis - not for design/dev inspiration. I think you guys should stick to what you’re good at.
Dyson’s book is great, read it if you can !
I have a Dyson vacuum, and I do love it. I’m quite sure he’s a nice guy, too. But I just can’t get past his voice. It grates in my ear so.
I agree with Tony. I’m really upset about this. I don’t know if he’s upset, but I sure am. I’m glad he took the time to comment instead of moving on to the next post.
Is it an oxymoron to say his vacuums are full of hot air ?
I have read dyson’s book and visited his factory in southen England. I used to be a fan of his success until I delved further into his business and practices.
His first success was a true inspiration, however, that was quickly followed by some catastrophic mistakes.
As an example I was a highly successful designer of electronic products at the time, I was looking to expand with partners and considered Dyson as a possibility. I visited his factory took my products there and tried to get a meeting with him. Despite the phone calls previously and the visit, I was not only not granted a few minutes, but they would not allow me to leave my products on the premises for him to look at later.
I did however get a chance to look about a bit and saw the design room with the x students developing away and this really nasty washing machine outside that felt clumsy / taky and not like a dyson project.
Later I read more about his hiring techniques, he only employed graduates from design school and paid them all about 18K a year. Thus as a result he had totally lost the initial impetus that made his company so great, being his own tanasity and nature, problem solving mind and complete pragmatism. Replaced with a bunch of spotty kids who were not eccentrics, not proven, had no history and hadn’t lived diverse lives to give them any sense of real problems to solve.
This is why Dyson never transformed his dream into reality of turning from a vacuum company into a general electronics company making products for the entire household.
His second major mistake was his faith and dillagent advice that he would give to all aspiring entrepreneurs who was interested, he made a large deal about how important it was to patent your ideas properly, how to legally protect them so that you had redress within the law against copycats. However, this is the electronics industry and as someone who had beating him to the reality, it is almost impossible as he found out to legally fight copycat pirates who knock off similar designs at a quarter of the price ‘made in china’.
The pirates have many years of experience and understand fully well the limitations of patent law and how to circumvent it. Thus you will notice a plethora of copycat Dyson lookalike vacuum cleaners on the market today, all at lower prices and all infringing upon his core patents.
Thus his naiveity was ultimately his biggest obstacle. naive that he could somehow protect his design concepts and naive that young graduates all chucked out of the same training camp would be able to build a world class design team. More important than technique are the ideas, and the lateral thinking that stems from diverse training grounds and weathered soles.
Tony+Dave
This is really just a promotion for the CrunchGear blog, not an actual TC post.
You guys at Techcrunch are getting really desperate to cover anything other than start-ups. You’re taking a risk. People come here for a simple reason. You guys wants to grow — your current size isn’t enough. What awful tension.
@ Tony, Dave.
Criticism is easy. Design and development are key concepts to startups, and from a broader standpoint the ability to learn from someone successful should be welcomed rather than ignored. All things evolve, and I expect Techcrunch will cover broader topics as it expands. Take the good, and apply it as necessary. No reason to be ‘upset’.
@ 6 - Dyson’s voice is anything, but grating. I think he has a fairly smooth and soothing voice.