Profile – James Dyson

Name: James Dyson
Age: 64
Nationality: English
Educated: Royal College of Art
Worth: £1.45bn

Should I know this guy?
Yes you should. One of the most recognisable and successful people in Britain, James Dyson isn’t so much a businessman as he is an inventor. Chances are, that ‘hoover’ you’ve been cleaning your carpet with is actually a Dyson, the bag-less, ultra powerful vacuum that comes in a range of funky colours. Of course any successful business/businessman has more than one product behind them, and Dyson Ltd has around 1,200 patents assigned to it.

What’s his background?
Before vacuums Dyson was always an engineer at heart, although he first studied interior design at the Royal College of Art. His vacuums nowadays come with a ball which means they can rotate on the spot, but that ball design was first used for Dyson’s Ballbarrow – you can probably work out what that was. It wasn’t his first invention but it would be at the Ballbarrow plant where the idea for his vacuum would originate. Based on the spray-finishing room’s air filter in his Ballbarrow factory, Dyson thought of using a cyclone to overcome the problem of suction loss associated with traditional Hoover bags. What was first the G-Force become the Dyson, and an empire was born. 

What companies has he worked for?
Dyson has, and probably will, only ever worked for himself during his professional career. After literally every company turned down the opportunity to license his vacuum, Dyson set out on his own. He develops, manufactures and markets the products with an elite research team based at his centre in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. At first he was trying to license his technology but soon after it was about protecting his inventions as others sought to stay in the market by copying his designs, he defended his patents against Hoover in 1999.

Of course as things grew the company diversified its product line with the introduction of the Airblade hand dryer and bladeless fan, to name just two.  Last year turnover was at an astounding $1.2bn, not bad for a company started by a plucky inventor.

Any controversy?
His decision to move manufacturing of vacuums and washing machines to Malaysia in 2002 courted its fair share. 800 jobs were initially lost and Dyson blamed high costs and the non-request of planning permission as the reasons for the move – although he says that the move has allowed for added investment in R&D back in Wiltshire.

He also got himself in trouble with government officials for his comments regarding Chinese students taking their knowledge back home to the detriment of Britain. Despite some of these criticisms it is clear that Dyson is eager for the UK economy to be back at its competitive, manufacturing, best.

Spare Time?
Being a billionaire you would assume that Dyson owns a fair few million pound properties; and you’d be right. A cool £15m was parted with in order to acquire the Dodington Park estate, whilst he also has residence in Chelsea and a place in France. But that’s not what Dyson is about.

He is a keen advocate of Britain and its inventors, in 2002 he established the James Dyson Foundation to support design and engineering education. There is also the James Dyson Award which is an international competition that asks contestants to “design something that solves a problem”. In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering and the following year he received a knighthood.

Conclusion
James Dyson is one of those business people that Britain loves to refer to when bigging itself up. In his early years he sacrificed a lot and now he reaps the rewards. Dyson might not necessarily be the one to turn to for advice on balance sheets, profit and loss and the likes – although he probably does know most of it – instead he is the one to look towards for a lesson in inventiveness, desire and determination. In an interview with the Guardian he one said: “I made 5,126 prototypes for the Dyson vacuum. All failed until number 5,127.”