Dyson’s approach to innovation creates radical new designs of established products. Eventually, however, larger competitors catch up by copying out-of-patent design concepts. At what point in this cycle should Dyson quit the market for each product?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Well-established Dyson products have become cash cows. It is an assumption that when larger
competitors are free to copy out-of-patent design concepts they will create products that sell much more
cheaply than Dyson’s, although this is not inevitable, at least initially. Conventional wisdom suggests
that Dyson should certainly quit a sector before it starts losing money. Since its products have high
reputational content (unique levels of functionality and performance) and sell at a high price, there is
presumably room to continue to draw on that reputation for some time, even as it pares back costs and
reduces (or holds) prices despite inflationary cost pressures. Thus far, Dyson has managed to create a
stream of incrementally-improved models that provide consumers with reasons still to prefer Dyson to
the alternatives (mindful that an increasing proportion of its sales of cleaners will be repeat purchases).