The Father Of Innovation

With the new PencilVac, Dyson is revolutionizing its already impressive slate of vacuum cleaners. But, as we found out directly from Sir James Dyson himself, innovation never stops under his watch.

- SUFFIAN HAKIM

TWO YEARS AGO, I visited the Dyson Campus in Malmesbury, at the site of Sir James Dyson's first workshop. Malmesbury is a scenic two-hour drive from London. You wouldn't guess it houses a state-of-the-art facility belonging to one of the world's most innovative, tech-forward brands based on the look of the town alone. Most of the buildings are decades or centuries old, including the Old Bell Hotel, where I stayed.

The hotel, steeped in historic charm, is purported to be England's oldest hotel.

But a short drive from the hotel is the Dyson Campus, a sprawling and highly secure innovation hub that serves as Dyson's global Research, Design, and Development centre. It's a unique blend of cutting-edge engineering facilities, inspiring architectural design, and a dedicated learning environment for future engineers.

Two years on, having visited multiple other Dyson facilities in Singapore and Malaysia, I am spotting Sir James Dyson's fingerprints in these high-tech locations. His unwavering commitment to innovation and meticulous design is clear in every corner, from the sprawling R&D labs with padded rooms and keen-eyed engineers stress-testing every product to the precise automation on the factory floors. There's a palpable sense of purpose, a relentless pursuit of perfection that echoes his own philosophy of solving everyday problems with solutions-focused engineering. It's clear that his vision isn't just a guiding principle, but a deeply embedded ethos that shapes every product, process, and person within the organisation.

Sir James Dyson described it best when I spoke to him at the launch of his brand's revolutionary new PencilVac. "The lovely thing about engineers and scientists is they're never satisfied. If you left it to them, they would never get around to creating a product, because they'd just go on improving it and changing it. So you need to set a goal, and when you meet the goal, then you put it into production."