ENGINEERING SUCCESS

DYSON PRODUCTS ARE GENERALLY HIGH ON INNOVATION. BUT THE PATH TO EACH SUCCESSFUL PRODUCT INVOLVES A LOT OF HARD WORK AND LESSONS FROM FAILURE

- AAYUSH AILAWADI

CONSUMER TECH DYSON

THERE ARE A handful of consumer tech companies around the world that truly focus on innovation. There’s Apple and Google and then across the pond, there’s a company called Dyson. Since the time the company was founded in the early 1990s, we’ve seen futuristic vacuum cleaners and air purifiers from the Dyson stable and, yes, they seem innovative and premium. But after spending a day at the company’s headquarters in Malmesbury and an exclusive interaction with the man after whom the company is named—Founder James Dyson—I can safely say that the company and its engineers are not just focussed on innovation; they’re borderline obsessed with it.

The trip to the sunny countryside of Wiltshire in the UK began by checking into a quaint little hotel called the “Old Bell” in Malmesbury. Its claim to fame is that it is England’s oldest hotel, with its origins dating back to the 13th century. It’s ironic that one of the world’s oldest hotels—situated a stone’s throw away from the Dyson facility—is inundated with futuristic Dyson products. From the latest air-dryers in the toilets to hair styling gadgets in the rooms—Dyson products were ubiquitous.

After a short drive to the Dyson campus, we headed straight to D9, a cryptically named research lab where engineers and scientists experiment and innovate, and come up with pitches to present to the founder himself in the neighbouring building. If not found up to the mark, several such pitches are rejected by the hands-on 75-year-old billionaire in what conjures up images of a