Dyson: Solving Customer Problems in Ways They Never Imagined

The impact of Dyson Ltd$.$ on various industries belies its relatively brief history. In just $25$ years, Dyson has succeeded in causing revolution after revolution as it has reinvented the vacuum cleaner, the household fan, the hairdryer, and the commercial hand dryer. It did this across a variety of mature product categories thought to be anything but innovative, a tribute to the company$$s simple founding principles. First, every Dyson product must provide real consumer benefits that make life easier. Second, each product must take a totally unique approach to accomplishing common, everyday tasks. Finally, each Dyson product must infuse excitement into products that are so mundane that most people never think much about them.

The Man behind the Name

James Dyson was born and raised in the United Kingdom. In $1979,$ he purchased what its maker claimed was the most powerful vacuum cleaner on the market. He found it to be anything but that. Instead, the vacuum did little more than move dirt around the room. This left Dyson wondering why no one had yet invented a decent vacuum cleaner. He remembered something he$$d seen in an industrial sawmill$$a cyclonic separator that removed dust from the air. Why wouldn$$t that approach work well in vacuum cleaners? $$I thought no one was bothering to use technology in vacuum cleaners,$$ said Dyson. Indeed, the core technology of vacuum motors at the time was more than $150$ years old. $$I saw a great opportunity to improve.$$

Dyson then did something that very few people would have the patience or the vision to do$.$ Through trial and error, he spent $15$ years and made $5,127$ vacuum prototypes$$all based on a bagless cyclonic separator$$before he had the one that went to market. In his own words, $$There were $5,126$ failures. But I learned from each one. That$$s how I came up with a solution.$$

Dyson$$s all$-$new vacuum was far more than techno$-$gadgetry. Dyson had developed a completely new motor that ran at $110,000$ revolutions per minute$$three times faster than any other vacuum on the market. It provided tremendous suction that other brands simply couldn$$t match. The bagless design was very effective at removing dirt and particles from the air, and the machine was much easier to clean out than vacuums requiring the messy process of changing bags. The vacuum also was easier to maneuver and could reach places other vacuums could not. Dyson$$s vacuum really worked.

The major appliance companies and retailers of the time had no interest in Dyson$$s design. But Dyson gained distribution through a small mail$-$order catalog with an unusual sales pitch: $$Your catalog is boring.$$ Shortly thereafter, Dyson vacuums were picked up by other mail$-$order catalogs, then by small appliance chains, and then by large department stores. By the late $1990$s$,$ Dyson$$s full line of vacuums was being distributed in multiple global markets. Today, Dyson is the global leader in vacuum cleaners, with a line now dominated by lightweight, rechargeable units.

The Dyson Method

Throughout the development of Dyson$$s vacuums, a model for new products began to take shape: Take everyday products, focus on their shortcomings, and improve them to the point of reinvention. Dyson is known for saying, $$I like going for unglamorous products and making them a pleasure to use.$$ While taking this route, beyond finding solutions to the problems it is trying to solve, the company sometimes finds solutions for other problems.

For example, the vacuum motor Dyson developed sucked air with unprecedented strength. But the flipside of vacuum suction is exhaust. Why couldn$$t such a motor blow air at wet hands so fast that the water would be pressed off in a squeegee$-$like manner rather than the slow, evaporative approach employed by commercial hand dryers?

With that realization, Dyson created and launched the Airblade, a hand dryer that blows air through a $\mathrm{.}2-$millimeter slot at $420$ miles per hour. It dries hands in $12$ seconds compared with the more typical $40$ seconds required by other hand dryers. It also uses cold air$$a huge departure from the standard warm air approach of existing commercial dryers. This not only reduces energy consumption by $75$ percent$$a major bonus for commercial enterprises that pay the electric bills$$but customers are much more likely to use a product that works fast and does the job right.

With highly observable benefits, the Airblade was rapidly adopted by commercial customers. Meanwhile, guided by Dyson$$s customer$-$centric approach to developing products, the Airblade evolved. With the first Airblade, it was apparent that all that high$-$powered air is noisy. So Dyson spent seven years and a staggering $$42$ million to develop the V$4$ motor, one of the smallest and quietest commercial motors available. As a result, the Airblade grew quieter and lighter$$almost six pounds lighter than the original. can you make Memo and executive summary