Dyson Case Study: Innovation Strategy and Market Analysis

This case study delves into the entrepreneurial journey of James Dyson and the innovative strategies employed by Dyson Limited in the household appliance market. The analysis begins with an executive summary and a detailed introduction to Dyson Limited, highlighting its focus on revolutionizing the electrical and electronics equipment sector through unique product designs and innovative manufacturing approaches. A comprehensive situation analysis, incorporating a SWOT analysis, examines the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, particularly focusing on the high pricing of its products. The study then explores whether Dyson's success stems from radical or incremental innovation, providing examples of innovations in other countries. Furthermore, it offers strategic advice to a technology/engineering company seeking to emulate Dyson's success, emphasizing innovation strategies. The report concludes with a discussion on the entrepreneurial myth surrounding Dyson's success and its implications for business practices, providing a thorough analysis of how organizations can leverage innovative measures for business improvement. The case study also addresses Dyson's early innovations and its impact on the market.

Running head: DYSON CASE STUDY
Dyson Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1DYSON CASE STUDY
Executive Summary
The following case study consists of the innovative ideas implemented in manufacturing
household appliances like vacuum cleaners, handheld dryers, hair dryers, and others by James
Dyson, the founder of Dyson Limited. As per the business myths, it is quite popular a story that
James Dyson had invented these appliances out of the frustration he had while using the age old
and primitive appliances that were typically manufactured before. However, it was found that the
prototypes of the models that were created by him were too expensive for the British market.
This is what the report has analyzed and found about, that is, the unique innovation that Dyson
had put forward in the market providing best quality service and the effect it had on the British
market as well as the company’s competitors. The case study analysis report has included a brief
introduction about the organization It was further followed by the situation analysis describing
the issues regarding the organization of Dyson Limited with the help of the analysis of the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in accordance with the case study. The reasons
behind the success of Dyson Limited are then discussed to find out if the success had been based
on radical innovation or incremental innovation. The next phase of the analysis report was
comprised of the emulation of the success behind the innovation strategy of Dyson.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Brief introduction to the case study about Dyson........................................................................4
Situation analysis of the issues regarding Dyson........................................................................6
SWOT analysis........................................................................................................................7
Reasons if the success of Dyson was based on radical or incremental innovation.....................9
Emulating the success of Dyson................................................................................................11
Further advice on the innovation strategy of Dyson..............................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference.......................................................................................................................................14

3DYSON CASE STUDY
Introduction
Dyson Limited is one of the chief British companies based on technology that was
established in 1991 by James Dyson (Dyson.co.uk 2018). It has been specialized in developing
household appliances like hairdryers, heaters, vacuum cleaners and others. Dyson Limited has
been revolutionizing the world of electrical and electronics equipment since its inception, trying
to change the face of the way these goods are sold to the customers. In order to do this, Dyson
Limited had started manufacturing the items they sold in a much different manner than the
typically manufactured household appliances. It started revolutionizing the way these appliances
were made with the help of various ideas that would somewhat lower the barrier between a
consumer and the manufacturer organization (Dyson.co.uk 2018). The innovative
implementation they had on their products made the consumers literally see through the product
they have been using. This made Dyson different than its market competitors and also made it
stand out against the others. This innovation has been described thoroughly in the following case
study and would be followed with a thorough analysis report on the case study. The case study
analysis report would include a brief introduction about the organization and detailed case study
about the various innovative measures that Dyson Limited had implemented in order to launch
various new household appliances (Maiocchi 2015). It would then be followed by a situation
analysis that would describe the issues regarding the organization of Dyson Limited in
accordance with the case study. The reasons behind the success of Dyson Limited will be then
discussed to find out if the success had been based on radical innovation or incremental
innovation. The next phase of the analysis report would then include the emulation of the success
behind the innovation strategy of Dyson following with further advices that the organization

4DYSON CASE STUDY
could make use of to reach further levels of success. This would present with a thorough analysis
report on how organizations can utilize innovative measures for the betterment of the business
process.
Brief introduction to the case study about Dyson
James Dyson, the founder of Dyson Limited had previously been using various
household appliances. As a matter of fact, while he was using an ordinary vacuum cleaner, he
had been analysing the working method of the appliance (Han et al. 2018). He had found that
after repeated use of the appliance, it had lost its suction powers sooner than expected. This
resulted into him opening up the vacuum cleaner to look into its mechanism. He had opened up
the bag inside to find the lining of the bag being clogged with a good amount of layer of dust,
which had resulted in deteriorating the fine material mesh of the suction capability of the vacuum
cleaner (Dyson et al 2017). Thus, he had the idea to invent his own set of innovative household
appliances that would literally be transparent to the customers. The innovation propelled Dyson
to establish his own organization that specialized in the manufacturing of innovative home
appliances.
The case study that has been under analysis states the fact about the innovations of the
organization Dyson Limited. Dyson had strategized to capture the market in a new applied way
of innovative technology in the manufacturing of their products. Such as, they have invented the
new and improved vacuum cleaner with a transparent body that enables the customers to see
through the mechanism behind the manufacturing of the vacuum cleaner itself. However, these
products are not at all economical for a customer as each of them would cost about 460 British
pounds, which is three or four times of the other vacuum cleaners available in the market (Dyson

5DYSON CASE STUDY
et al 2017). Therefore, this matter has been established in the case study that the latest innovation
in the manufacturing of the household appliances by Dyson Limited indeed was a promising
effort in presenting something new to the customers but it was not available at a reasonable price
(Goto et al. 2014). The case study has also been stating the fact that Dyson wanted its customers
to have a clear idea about the product they are buying from the organization and wanted to be
true to their technology. This would result in acquiring the trust of the customers, which would
be beneficiary to the organization (Park et al. 2018). This is why Dyson would extensively test
their products before presenting them in the market.
The case study also focuses on the earliest innovation of James Dyson in presenting the
dual cyclone cleaner and the ways by which the now competitors of Dyson Limited have shut
down the innovation standpoint. Dyson had previously offered licence to these organizations
before but had got rejected (Gnanapragasam et al. 2017). Ever since then, Dyson had been
successful in the innovation of the various household appliances and had made prominent mark
in the market with these innovative products.
The case study also identifies the success of Dyson Limited as an entrepreneurial myth,
which had been out of the frustration that Dyson had been developing while using his own
vacuum cleaner (Pisano 2015). The early innovation that Dyson had implemented was the
ballbarrow, which is a wheelbarrow attached with a ball instead of a wheel, that had also been
developed due to the frustration that Dyson developed while he used a paint ballbarrow and
found its faulty air filter. This was again one of the reasons that compelled Dyson to create his
first prototype which was the first of the 5,127 prototypes that have been created so far (Harmer
et al. 2015).

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His innovations had reached its way through a small Japanese company that funded his
prototype, resulting in the invention of G-force vacuum cleaner which has been a luxury item in
the Japanese Market. Ever since then, Dyson had been inventing various home appliances with
uncommon innovations but it focused mostly on the innovation of different kinds of vacuum
cleaners. Later, Dyson had launched its first washing machine, the CR01 Contractor, and ever
since then there has been latest inventions in almost every one of the new product that Dyson had
launched (Dietrich 2016). However, it has faced criticism for the increased pricing of the
products but there has not been any complaints raised regarding the quality of the products.
In explanation of the high pricing of the products, James Dyson stated that to maintain
balance between the quality of products and the business expenditures, the prices of the products
had to be made higher than usual or the business would have faced severe funding problems and
would have failed to launch any of its quality products further.
Situation analysis of the issues regarding Dyson
Dyson Limited had been one of the pioneer British business organizations in the
development of innovative household appliances. The appliances that this organization presents
in the market are known mostly for its transparency, both in the figurative as well as literal form.
The customers so far could not complaint about the quality of the product they have been
presented with by the organization (Dimbylow et al. 2017). The controversial issues that prevail
with this organization is the high pricing of the innovative products that the company has been
presenting to its customers. The issue that has been created here shall be further analysed as per
the situation that has been there in the organization due to the innovations so far. This would be
done with the help of SWOT analysis of the innovations and its impact on the organization of

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Dyson Limited so far. The SWOT analysis would consist of Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats that the latest innovations in the household appliances have brought
about in the organization (Maya and Betancur-Rodríguez 2017). This would be described in
details as follows:
SWOT analysis
The SWOT analysis for the situation would include the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and the Threats about the situation which would further help in describing the
impact the innovations of the home appliances that have been on the organization (Landaeta et
al. 2016). The SWOT analysis will be described in details in the following way:
 Strengths: The Dyson Limited organization had been producing various ranges of
innovative home appliances in the British market. The products have been a
brainchild of the founder of the organization, James Dyson. As per
entrepreneurial myth, the products have been developed out of frustration of the
founder while he had been using traditional products and found them to be faulty
(Paulson and Schramm 2017). He had also noticed that these products were made
by different companies with no structural difference with each other and barely
the manufacturing companies thought of improving the problems that the products
have been imposing on the customers. Thus, the primary strength behind the
innovation of these products have been the idea that made its way into James
Dyson’s mind while no one else had been thinking of implementing them. This
proved to be one of the most unique qualities that proved beneficiary to the
organization.

8DYSON CASE STUDY
 Weaknesses: At the time of its inception, the products of Dyson had been
tremendously innovative as well as expensive in comparison to the other
household appliances that have been in vogue in the British market since a long
time. This acted as one of the weaknesses in the strategic idea to introduce the
innovative products in the market. Although the products have been of extremely
good quality and provided a classic range of services, they have been hard to
acquire by a general class of consumers given its expensive market price (Phaal,
Farrukh and Probert 2015). For example, the products had been manufactured as
transparent devices to make the customers aware of the appliance’s working
structure, but not all of them were able to buy it since the price of the products
have been three or four times more than the general market price for these
commodities.
 Opportunities: James Dyson thought of the idea of imposing these innovative
technical appliances when he found that the household appliances like vacuum
cleaner, hair dryer, washing machine and others were treated as commodities and
no other organization was interested in introducing any new technology regarding
this to the market or have been competing with the other companies for providing
better support to the customers (Slater, Mohr and Sengupta 2014). Instead, the
companies were manufacturing these products as mere copies of each other with
least efforts to provide a better performance to the customers. Thus, it can be
analyzed from the above situation that the plans and ideas to innovate the home
appliances was a wonderful idea to bring about changes in the organization which
would only be beneficiary to them.

9DYSON CASE STUDY
 Threats: The innovations that have been presented by the Dyson Limited
organization have been successful in presenting state of the art quality of products
to the British market. It had been so successful in manufacturing the products that
a Japanese small organization had taken up the onus of making it a household
product in the Japanese market (Coskun, Kaner and Bostan 2018). This formed
somewhat of a threat to the other organizations in the industry that had previously
shut down the innovations but were now focused as the core competitors of
Dyson Limited. Dyson Limited had ever since been dealing with the legal battles
against its competitors who have imposed charges like patent infringement and
vandalism of intellectual property on the organization. For a nascent organization
like this, it can be serious threat towards the business organization that has the
potential to lead the organization towards its downfall.
Reasons if the success of Dyson was based on radical or incremental innovation
Radical innovation happens to be the mode of invention that has the ability to make an
existing business model be destroyed completely. On the other hand, the incremental innovation
happens to be a phenomenon in which an organization goes through several trivial changes on
the products, services and other business development features generally focusing on improving
the efficiency of the organization.
In this case, it can be seen that the innovations that were introduced by Dyson Limited
had completely changed the face of household appliances in the market that have been existing
so far (Gao, Hsu and Li 2018). Since its inception, it could be seen that Dyson Limited were
presented with numerous new innovations that had never been seen in the market before (Eesley,

10DYSON CASE STUDY
Hsu and Roberts 2014). James Dyson, the founder of the organization, thought of the idea of
imposing these innovative technical appliances when he found that the household appliances like
vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, washing machine and others were treated as commodities (Norman
and Verganti 2014). No other organization was interested in introducing any new technology
regarding this to the market or has been competing with the other companies for providing better
support to the customers.
Whereas, the innovative products developed by James Dyson had been extremely
innovative, for example, the vacuum cleaner manufacture by Dyson had a complete transparent
body that enabled the user to see through the mechanism comprising the vacuum cleaner (Cole et
al. 2016). Thus, the primary strength behind the innovation of these products have been the idea
that made its way into James Dyson’s mind while no one else had been thinking of implementing
them. Whereas, the competing organizations never thought of implementing any innovations in
the traditional manufacturing of these products, making vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, hand
dryers, and the other products as mere commodities.
Thus it can be inferred from the case study that the innovations that have been imposed
by the Dyson Limited organization have been radical in nature rather than being incremental in
nature.
Examples of Innovative Implementations in other countries
Vietnam: Vietnam is amongst very few of the countries that have rarely used the strategy
of innovating into the business process. This is because the Vietnamese companies fails to
emulate the concept of innovation altogether (Han et al. 2018). This is the reason that the
business organizations in the country of Vietnam has been seen to cluster within each other. The

11DYSON CASE STUDY
business organizations are seen to copy one another other than implementing any kind of
innovative measures.
This makes the organizations in Vietnam become least attractive and there is only
average sales noticed.
China: There have been many examples of China leading the path of innovation when it
comes to business strategies. China has shown its might as a nation with the mightiest of
innovative business strategies to the current day, and it has been completely undeniable to accept
this fact. For example, the innovation of WeChat, called Tancent in China has ranked as the 5th
most valuable organization in the 3rd quarter of 2017 (Han et al. 2018). China has also emerged
as the leading Global power in the world economy that has been mostly possible because of the
innovative strategies the Chinese organizations have imposed on their business structures.
India: India had recently started innovations in the business structures in their
organizations lately, making them reach the levels of international countries that lead the way in
the path of world economy (Han et al. 2018). From innovations in the factors of micro-edit to
making changes in the business structures by the organizations, there have been increasing
implementations of innovation strategies in the business organizations in India. This proves the
fact, how innovations impact an organization and also a country in the world of economy.
Pakistan: Pakistan’s business structures and economic conditions were previously not at
all up to the mark in comparison with the other organizations in the countries around the world.
However, it is now slowly implementing innovations in the business process and all the previous
problems are being eliminated one by one. Previously, Amazon did not deliver into Pakistan
directly, but the problem is now being mitigated by implementing innovative strategies (Michaud

12DYSON CASE STUDY
et al. 2017). This proves how changes can be made in the business structure with the
implementation of innovation strategies.
This proves that Dyson’s innovation would only lead the organization in the path of
progress.
Emulating the success of Dyson
Since the time of its inception, the success of Dyson had been based on the innovative
strategies that the organization had implemented to serve the consumers in the British market.
Dyson had strategized to capture the market in a new applied way of innovative technology in
the manufacturing of their products (Michaud et al. 2017). Such as, they have invented the new
and improved vacuum cleaner with a transparent body that enables the customers to see through
the mechanism behind the manufacturing of the vacuum cleaner itself.
However, these products are not at all economical for a customer as each of them would
cost about 460 British pounds, which is three or four times of the other vacuum cleaners
available in the market (Vaussard et al. 2014). Therefore, it can be emulated that innovative
strategy has proven to be somewhat beneficiary towards the business structure of the
organization of Dyson Limited.
Further advice on the innovation strategy of Dyson
Innovative strategies of Dyson had indeed been revolutionary, but these products are not
at all economical for a customer as each of them would cost about 460 British pounds, which is
three or four times of the other vacuum cleaners available in the market (Bakker et al. 2014).
Therefore, this matter has been established in the case study that the latest innovation in the

13DYSON CASE STUDY
manufacturing of the household appliances by Dyson Limited indeed was a promising effort in
presenting something new to the customers but it was not available at a reasonable price.
It can also be understandable that compromising on the products required for the
manufacturing of these goods would have been expensive take on the company’s promise to their
customers of providing quality products. Nevertheless, these can still be considered to implement
further benefit to the company to have further development.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that the latest innovations that Dyson Limited had implemented
in the manufacturing of the various home appliances to the market have been brought under
thorough analysis to find out if the implementations were a smart move towards the betterment
of the organization and the service provided to the customers. The innovative implementation
they had on their products made the consumers literally see through the product they have been
using. For example, the vacuum cleaner manufactured by the organization had a transparent
casket around its body that would enable the user to see through the mechanical parts inside it
and how these work to serve the function of a vacuum cleaner. This made Dyson different than
its market competitors and also made it stand out against the others. This innovation has been
described thoroughly in the following case study and would be followed with a thorough analysis
report on the case study. The case study analysis report has included a brief introduction about
the organization and the detailed case study about the different innovative measures that Dyson
Limited had implemented in order to launch various new household appliances. It was further
followed by the situation analysis describing the issues regarding the organization of Dyson
Limited with the help of the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in

14DYSON CASE STUDY
accordance with the case study. The reasons behind the success of Dyson Limited are then
discussed to find out if the success had been based on radical innovation or incremental
innovation. The next phase of the analysis report was comprised of the emulation of the success
behind the innovation strategy of Dyson following with further advices that the organization
could make use of to reach further levels of success. Thus, with a thorough report on how
organizations can utilize innovative measures for the betterment of the business process, Dyson
Limited and its innovative strategies have been analyzed according to the market and business
structure.

15DYSON CASE STUDY
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