Let's hear it from James Dyson
Date: 31/01/2010
Every now and then I read other books about invention. I’m reluctant, being big-headed enough to think that as guides to invention go, our own ‘A Better Mousetrap’ is the one to beat. But I’d happily accept second place to James Dyson’s 1997 autobiography ‘Against The Odds’, which I’m now reading for the third time.
The copyright is held by Giles Coren, so maybe it’s not strictly an autobiography, but no matter. Though it isn't a 'how to' manual, ‘Against The Odds’ should be read not just by every inventor but by every politician, manager, banker, business adviser, investor - indeed, by anyone who has ever said ‘no’ to an inventor, or might feel the urge to say it in the future.
In fact, ‘Against The Odds’ should be required reading in schools for every national curriculum subject including religion. Learning it to exam level might be the only measure left that can reverse our national retreat into a smugly delusional comfort zone labeled ‘manufacturing doesn’t matter any more’.
For a flavour of the book, consider the following extract. I’ve chosen it because it includes James Dyson’s impassioned take on one of my own major gripes: that while we’re constantly told that innovation is vital to our future, it’s now pretty much written in stone (certainly by NESTA, the quango originally and ironically set up to help inventors) that individual inventors have nothing of value to contribute to innovation. This is suicidal nonsense, but let’s hear it from James Dyson, at the point where as a young art student he has decided that product design is the way to go:
'So my dream was to be a Brunel. But this was never an age of invention. It has been an age when the great monopolies (companies) have been able to dictate that progress has ended. And they did this when they were satisfied not with their product, but with their control of its market. The public has been easily convinced by advertising, and receptiveness to revolution has dwindled. Furthermore, such ‘invention’ as is now allowed is the prerogative of multinationals, not people. Where are our Wright brothers? Where have the Edisons gone? And the Henry Fords? They are not there. We have broken new frontiers but where are the names? Who invented the space shuttle? The nuclear submarine? The wind farm? When you go for backing for your crazy scheme it is not enough to be a man, you have to be a group of men. And where is the fun in that?
Cash is king. You can put years of your life into an idea, its development and realisation, and every paltry penny you had along the way... but your prospective backer, the banks or corporations, will ask you only how much you are putting up. They will back your money, but not your invention. And in a world of spreadsheets and accountants, advertising and shiny-suited businessmen, we are growing timid, afraid of our own potential for creation.
So I had to master not only engineering, but product design, finance, marketing, management, and be sure that when the time came, I would be able to take my vision - whatever it may be - to completion entirely on my own. I would have to be a new kind of Isambard Kingdon Brunel. Rougher, tougher, sharper than before.'
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