DYSON AND THE BAGLESS VACUUM CLEANER / TUTORIALOUTLET DOT COM DYSON AND THE BAGLESS VACUUM CLEANER / TUTORIALOUT | Page 2

within a few months. After all it appeared to be a small company with
an eccentric
manager at its helm, trying to sell an overpriced product of limited
appeal in a very
competitive market with less expensive, conventional, mass-market
products made by
respected manufacturers whose names were, quite literally, household
words. The
result was very different. The story of the Dyson bagless vacuum
cleaner is not a
classic tale of “rags to riches”. The charismatic inventor James Dyson
was afforded
many privileges and opportunities not available to most. It is,
nonetheless, a
fascinating story and illustrates many of the difficulties and problems
faced by small
businesses and “lone inventors”; and demonstrates the determination,
hard work and
sacrifices necessary in order to succeed. The cliché against the odds,
which Dyson used as the title of his autobiography
(Dyson, 1998), is certainly appropriate and tells the story of the
development and launch of the first bagless vacuum cleaner- the
Dyson DC01. This case raises several significant research questions
in the field of innovation management. Firstly, how and
why did senior executives at leading appliance manufacturers across
Europe, such as Electrolux, Bosch and Miele, decide not to
utilise the technology offered to them by Dyson. Secondly, how and
why did senior buyers for many retail chains across the UK