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TECHNOLOGY IS WHAT IS GOING TO GIVE US THE ADVANTAGE
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...Continued from page 19) I would rather proceed carefully. Often we’ve not had the right person at the start, and people want to work with their own people. All of our territories are profitable, so we’re doing something right.”
While Dyson does visit the company’s overseas territories, it’s rarely to execute the business plan. What excites him is the opportunity to see the products in-store, to meet local customers and understand what does and doesn’t work. “I’m an engineer and I need to know what people might want and where the market might go,” he states. “Sometimes you have to go against the market and that’s the fun of it.”
GLOBAL VISION
The endless refinement of technology and product is something he sees as essential to both his own and the UK’s global success: “If you develop the best technology, people will naturally want it,” reasons Dyson. “The cost of R&D is significant and so you have to sell to the world and consider it your market.”
For now, the developed markets of Japan, Russia and the US are key to Dyson’s vacuum sales, the latter commanding a 25 per cent market share. There has also been a recent entry to the Gulf region for his public space Airblade hand dryers.
Dyson’s success caught the eye of Prime Minister-in-waiting, David Cameron, who asked him to advise on how to accelerate the UK’s development of new technology, revive British engineering and build up its manufacturing and export prowess. The result is Ingenious Britain, a report on addressing these challenges through changes in cultural perceptions, education, finance and government support. “My observations are that as a nation we need to export,” asserts Dyson. “Up until this point we have been able to export without technology, but that has to change and we have to be better and several steps ahead of China. Manufacturing can be done more cheaply elsewhere, so technology is what is going to give us the advantage.
“At the moment, there are fewer patents being registered, fewer engineers, with many graduates going into the city, and only £1bn of angel investor funding, compared to $24bn in the US.
“The report highlights the need for cultural change and the Government can do a lot to aid that. For example, with the development of high-speed trains it can make a bold, early decision to back this and encourage society to embrace it. It’s something they do very well in France; they revere their engineers and technologies and then export the ideas globally.”
With hard truths about the need for greater tax relief for R&D, how was the report received? “I think the PM was pleased,” says Dyson. “I’m hopeful a timeline will be identified to adopt some of the ideas.”
It could be argued that Dyson has made his own achievements without such support. “I got lucky,” he responds. “I was able to borrow a large sum of money to get started and develop the technology. R&D is key to competing in the global market. Singapore is extraordinarily smaller than us and yet 40 per cent of its graduates are engineers – it advertises to attract people to study the subject at university and is about to build a design faculty attached to its engineering centre. We used to do it well, but we’ve stopped doing it and I strongly believe that we can turn this around and quickly.”
For a man who once excelled at long distance running, in his own words, “because I had more determination,” the chances are that he will persevere until we finally do.
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