Dyson: Good Design Sucks

Graphis, May/Jun 2002 by Shapiro, Joshua

Creating tools, using hand and brain, is a basic human instinct. Dyson wants British politicians and London financiers to value design as the backbone of manufacturing, and to wake up to the realization that manufacturing is important to the national economy and the balance of payments, even as much as the vaunted service sector. Design also defines the national culture. To him, it should be satisfying and socially inclusive and not just the purview of "a bunch of thickos in woodsheds."

Having won 38 awards for design and being included in eight museum collections, Dyson's products are available in 20 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Turkey and the UK. Dyson plans this year to establish sales in the US. If that market proves to be as receptive as the British, visitors may soon overhear American party chatter about Dysoning carpets. The result of achieving common verb status is becoming a multi-billionaire.

Joshua Shapiro is managing partner at Princeton Analytics, NewYork, and provides strategic management direction to a variety of companies. He studies the adoption of new technologies and the unreasonably high rate of failure for new products He adds "As a consultant, I look for synergy at the intersection of technology and marketing. The Dyson story (pg.92) is a brilliant example of this convergence. Here, the appeal is designed into the product and not bolted on in some afterthought of a sales campaign. I took a hands-on approach in covering the Dyson saga. I read his aptly titled autobiography Against the Odds, toured the modern office and plant facility in Malmesbury, UK, and even assembled a Dyson vacuum cleaner before interviewing the Prada-clad revolutionary." While at IBM Shapiro designed the prototype for the first notebook computer and also worked with Richard Sapper on LeapFrog, a concept computer. He also managed a commercial intelligence facility in Tokyo for IBM in the early '90s. Joshua Shapiro's articles on business, technology and design have been published in The Economist, The New York Times and I.D.