Innovation Audit of Dyson: Leadership and Management

This report presents an innovation audit of Dyson, a British technology company known for its innovative household appliances. The report begins with an executive summary defining innovation and outlining the report's purpose, which is to examine Dyson's innovation history, current activities, and future requirements. The report is structured into three main sections: The first section provides an overview of Dyson's history, highlighting key innovations like the bagless vacuum cleaner and the Air Multiplier fan. The second section analyzes Dyson's existing innovation performance and capabilities, comparing it with competitors like Hoover, and examining its brand equity, marketing strategies, and supply chain. The third section discusses the industry in 2019, including a Gantt chart, PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis, and Porter's Five Forces. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for Dyson's future innovation efforts. The report also discusses the company's leadership style and how it impacts innovation.

Running head: MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
Executive Summary
Innovation refers to the effectiveness of creating new ideas, process and products so that
the particular business organization can in a way implement new business ideas into the business
by improving the dynamic product (Hinterhuber and Liozu, 2017). The innovation can also act as
a catalyst which will help the business grow and adapt according to the market demand of the
customer. The main aim of the research paper is to conduct an innovation audit of Dyson to
examine Dyson innovation history; the present level of innovation activities; and the future
innovation requirements.
This report is subdivided in three section firstly, the Organization and its Innovation
History secondly, the Organizations existing Innovation Performance and Capabilities and lastly,
the Industry in 2019.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Purpose of the report & structure.....................................................................................................3
The Organization & Industry Overview..........................................................................................4
The Organization and its Innovation History..................................................................................4
The Organizations existing Innovation Performance and Capabilities...........................................5
The Industry in 2019......................................................................................................................10
Gantt chart.....................................................................................................................................11
PESTLE Analysis..........................................................................................................................11
SWOT analysis..............................................................................................................................12
Porter’s 5 forces.............................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

3MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
Introduction
Innovation is termed as the process of creation, development, and as well as the
implementation of the new product in the particular business(Hinterhuber and Liozu, 2017).
Innovation is not only limited to the development of various types of products but also includes
innovation in providing services to the customers of the company. According to government of
New Zealand Innovation is the successful implementation of the ideas so that the particular
company can gain a competitive advantage over the others in the market. However according to
the author Bissacot, Endo and Ruszel, (2019) innovation is termed as the successful exploitation
of new ideas in to the business process.
Dyson Ltd is a British technology based company that was established in UK by Sir
James Dyson in the year 1991. The company is known for designing and manufacturing various
types of household appliances such as vacuum cleaners, all types of purifiers, hand dryers,
bladeless fans and many more objects. Back in the year of 1974 James Dyson was working with
various types of bag handled vacuum cleaners which used to get clogged with dust in the first
place. There was found a layer of dust underneath the layer of bag. Frustrated with the work he
had decided to make a vacuum cleaner which will work with various types of power coating
technologies without any kind of bag for storing the dust sucked.
Purpose of the report & structure
However the main purpose of the research paper is to describe the innovations led by
Dyson till date and for the future existence of the company in the market along with the
competitors. The paper will first examine the previous history of Dyson and will discuss the
future proceeding with the innovative ideas in the business. The paper will thus be arranged

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under three major sections which will be the first section like discussing the organization future
and history. The second part of the paper will be dealing with the list of innovation existence that
is boosting the company to perform better with the resources involved. The last section will be
dealing with the recommendation to the industry for a better future operation.
The Organization & Industry Overview
The company is best known for its industry best vacuum cleaner. Dyson also is known
for selling its best award winning hair dryers, bladeless fans and many more household products.
The company was founded by the British entrepreneur James Dyson in the year of 1991 and it
has consistently dealt with various types of innovation factors in the industry it has been working
with.
The Organization and its Innovation History
James Dyson had founded the company in the year of 1991 from when the company has
subsequently found out innovation from various type of things and unexpected sources of
development. The Dyson vacuum cleaners which are known for delivering the best in the market
was first invented by Dyson which has in the present date eliminated the use of filtered vacuum
bag in the first place. Dyson released its first product in 1938 as Dyson V11 the first cord free
vacuum cleaner in market. With this in the year 1948, the company noticed that air filter in the
vacuum cleaner was constantly getting clogged so he designed and built an industrial cyclone
tower in it which removed dust particles from the vacuum cleaner. In 1991 the company
launched its first washing machine the CR01 contrarotator which used two drums instead of one
and provided clearer washing. In 2009 the company manufactured bladless Dyson Air multiplier
which works by drawing air from beneath.

5MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
The strategy stamen of Dyson is that it delivers opportunity to new generation of
engineers so that they can develop innovative ideas and help company in building innovative
products
Regarding the future innovation of the business it can be said that the company can try to
develop and manufacture various types of electronic vehicles so that they can give a good
competition to the manufacturing vehicle manufacturing companies around the globe.
Talking about the point of leadership innovation in Dyson it can be said that the focus on
innovation is mainly reflected by the leadership style of James Dyson who has played a crucial
role in being the Chief Engineer of the company (Gautié, Majumdar and Schehr, 2019). His
transformational leadership has helped the employees of the company by offering various types
of praise, encouraging them in multiple types of needs to take difficulties in their route rather
than just being evident in the innovative process. Regarding the recent developments in few
years, it can be said that the company with the help of aerospace physics as a principle has
manufactured the first hair burner which will be delivering curls to the hair without burning it if
applied for a long time.
The Organizations existing Innovation Performance and Capabilities
When speaking about comparison with the competitors in the business it can be said that
Dyson offer various types of model to its direct competitors Hoovers. Dyson’s smaller vacuum
cleaner is generally more high end and expensive when compared with others. Other competitors
provide simple and general products to the customers. According to a research work Dyson

6MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
provides better cleaning performance nevertheless Hoovers makes good budget oriented
cleaners.
Hoover is a vacuum cleaner company which is known for having its presence in Ohio for more
than 100 years. At that time hoover was the only company that was popular for providing
machines that used to perform any kind of suction which was combined with agitating brushes
that helped in removing debris from the floor.
Contrary to Hoover, Dyson is much older in the scene. Dyson has been around in the
manufacturing process of vacuum cleaners since 1947, which was started with a simple sketch
by James Dyson. Whereas on the same time James was working in an organization where he was
busy developing the sprayed eposxy paint. With the evolution of time and innovation in the
market the company in the present date is known for producing upright vacuums, handheld
vacuum, canister vacuum and a variety of products which are not at all vacuum related like hair
dryers and hand dryers.
Regarding the latest performance the company with a research team and development has
successfully developed an influx of cordless stick vacuum which is fully based on the space
science and hype electric knowledge principals.

7MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
Fig 1. Represents How Dyson products perform in comparison with a different brand vacuum cleaner
Source: (Bissacot, Endo and Ruszel, 2019)
As mentioned above, Dyson really concentrates a good bit of effort on the cordless stick
vacuum cleaners, but it can be clearly seen that Hoover who provides direct competition to the
company stands nowhere beside the products offered by Dyson. According to the market
research initiated by the author Bissacot, Endo and Ruszel, (2019) in the present date it has been
found out that with the help of innovation services Dyson has gained knowledge from the
strategies of open innovation services in the production plant of Shanghai. The company was the

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first in the market to deliver various types of cordless and stick vacuum cleaners which are much
fancy and easy to use in the present date. Whereas on the other hand Hoover in order to stick to
the competition has been imitating the innovations made by Dyson.
Regarding the point on Innovation Performance it can be said that with the help of open
innovation services Dyson has manufactured various types of innovative products in the market
in order to gain a full control in the market. With the help of open innovation services the
company has gained competitive advantage over the other competitors. With the help of constant
innovation the products manufactured has outstand the competitor products shown in the above
table Fig 1.
When talking about brand equity, it will be a vague term but has been defined most often
as the value a brand name that adds on to the product. Talking about brand equity of Dyson
vacuum cleaners, it can be said that the company is quite famous in the hands of the millennial as
because it is known for providing the customers with various types of products like the super
science static electric vacuum cleaner.
Talking about product built in and quality, it can be said that Dyson is known for making
few of the premium products which are best in the market. The build quality of the products are
much premium. With this the company has its global presence in more than 180 countries all
over the world. Regarding the marketing, it can be said that the company maintains an online
brand promotion which proceeds with the online delivery services of the products to the
customers. It also has various types of offline services and showroom to bring the awareness
among the customer by providing direct demo of the product. The company engages huge
amount of customers who are loyal to the brand. The brand also provides various types of after
sales services that keeps the loyal customers intact with the company for a longer term.

9MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
Regarding the supply chain of the company it can be said that Dyson has taken over Kinaxis to
help them enhance their supply chain performance through providing it with speed, agility and
accuracy. According to the Vidal, Krylov and Coriania, (2019) after few of the research work
initiated it can be said that using Kinaxis to underpin the supply chain operations will be helping
Dyson to continue to grow as the pace of demand for the technology is accelerating globally.
Also it has been found out that the company is trying to align the sales procedure and production
so as by enhancing the service level and lower down the inventories across the supply chain of
the company. Taking a look into the failed products owned by the company is the Oculus Rift
like Headset which was called as Halo. The Halo headset could dock into a monitor to become a
desktop later on. It is almost like a wrist worn controller which acts like a mouse for the display
but of course Dyson was interested in exploring the finger tracking speech. It was one of the
biggest failure for the company as because it could not deliver competition to the competitors in
the market such as Apple and Motorola.
The company owns various types of research and development centers which are known
for functioning as a whole and develops innovative machines and electronic devices. Regarding
patents the company is well protected by patents, the official website is provided to satisfy the
virtual patent making provision of various jurisdictions.

10MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
Fig 2. Represents Patent of Dyson
Source : (Ajanki, Erdős and Krüger, 2019)

11MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
The Industry in 2019
In the household appliances industry keeping up with the current trends in the industry as
well as reinventing the old fashioned products to suit the needs and choices of the consumers is
very essential. According to the authors Ajanki, Erdős and Krüger, (2019) in such a dynamic and
ever changing industry the key players in the industry always try to cope up with the latest
market trends with the help of technological assistance so that they can offer the best and most
unique products from the competitors in the market. The market leaders in the household
appliances industry along with Dyson are LG Electronics, Haier Group and Samsung
Electronics. Dyson is known for having more than 65% market share in household appliances
industry on a global context.
2019 revolutionized the home appliances industry so as by introducing a range of
innovative appliances in the industry like the smart appliances, inclusive of the super energy
saving tools and devices, wireless products, sensor driven products, voice command products
and many more in the industry. However 2019 is expected to be the financial year of acceptance
of such technological devices in urban metropolitan cities and developing countries
In the present date the main innovative strategy which is used by the company is to
eliminate the long traditional use of various types of things in household devices. The company
had always used the flexibility strategy in its business which has helped it to innovate various
types of new products in the market creating flexible customers are focusing on the primary
ingredients of the company.