James Dyson: The Engineer Entrepreneur

With sales of over £514.7 million⁵ and a presence in 45 countries worldwide as of 2007, DAL had emerged as the market leader in the vacuum cleaner market, cornering a 46 percent market share in the UK market and 32 percent in the US market.⁶

Analysts noted that Dyson's journey from launching a Ballbarrow⁷ in the 1970s to building one of the most successful multinational brands in the 2000s had been anything but easy. There were plenty of challenging moments that punctuated his career, be it in the initial struggles to get funding for his venture or the patent litigation involving a major rival, which came much later.

As of 2006, he was also the 746th richest person in the world, with a net worth of about US$1 billion.⁸

According to some analysts, Dyson was probably the greatest entrepreneur that the UK had ever produced. Some felt that Dyson was a perfect example of an artisan entrepreneur - an entrepreneur who is a serial inventor and is good at spotting and satisfying demand for practical consumer products. Just as was the case with Dyson, it takes years for such entrepreneurs to achieve a commercial breakthrough, but once they do, they become the toast of the nation...