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Re: Sir James Dyson plan to fill UK's engineering vacuum
#1 Mar 17, 2010 11:39 am |
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Hi Severus: Forbes is "the" list for the world of the "rich" and "famous." Sort of like Consumer Reports and product sales/recognition. On all other points, I agree with you. Harkens back to a statement I made here and elsewhere years ago that engineers make terrible CEO's especially of their own companies. Steve Jobs and Apple are the rare business exception. Typical of Sir James, he took too long to come to that business realization. Not choosing a family member, as one would naturally expect, to take the reigns of the helm speaks volumes. As well it will be a constant cause of problems for the new dyson CEO and its employees. Many of which are already insulted and demeaned by Sir james. Expect a cut in the 2500 dyson Malmesbury employees as the first order of business by the new CEO. Wonder how secure Dibster's job is? Should have gotten out when the gettin was good. As the saying goes: With all your getting, get wisdom. Dyson's stepping down now from all operational business ties [Chief Designer is a made up job for him to stay on the company dole] guarantees with almost absolute certainty that he will not make the Forbes list next year. I'd say he came to the realization this was his last year on the list. Good timing for a change on his part. Last year and last place. Carmine D. Hi Carmine, can you explain to me why I should pay any real attention to the 'reported' values placed on people who compile for Forbes and the various 'Rich lists'? While these 'estimated' values make for entertaining league tables and interesting figures for news articles, the accuracy of them is open to interpretation. The difference between exact net worth and estimated will vary from person to person. If you know from public filings that Steve Jobs has x stock in Apple, y stock in Disney and assets worth z you can calculate an approximate net worth at that moment in time and track it as the investment markets rise or fall. You might add a figure for cash in the bank, based on past returns, but it's likely the estimated figure would be far out from the actual by a fair margin. With someone in James Dyson's position, there's even less to go on. The Dyson family's biggest asset is 100% ownership of Dyson Ltd. Being a privately-held company, next to no financial information is publicly available. There's no quarterly release of comparative sales data with margins, no stock market value. How well the business is doing is solely based on what spectators think might be happening on the balance sheet. They might conclude: "Hrmm... recession, people with less money, credit. It's possible this will have a negative impact on high priced goods, such as vacuums. Dyson will possibly sell less than in previous years, so we'll knock x off our valuation of the business." If we're to believe what James Dyson said in the interview, sales are even better than previous years. Also, if as reported, a business has been able to reinvent a desktop fan and sell it $330, clearing out their 3-month allocation in a matter of weeks, I'd say that it's a reasonable indicator that they're in good form and while subjective, you might conclude that James Dyson is worth more than two years ago ...for all it matters to some.
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Re: Sir James Dyson plan to fill UK's engineering vacuum
#2 Mar 16, 2010 3:04 pm |
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Hi M00seUK: I'm relying on the article you posted here dated March 14, 2010 with James Dyson interview. I excerpted the verbage about bonuses from it. "Now" is the operative word to me. It doesn't mean 4 years ago. With the realization that the article/interview misrepresented this issue on this point [intentionally or not], I beg kindly to revise my statement to read instead: 6 years is a long time to come to a realization of a turnaround on employee bonuses. For any business man in James' position to hold such an opinion at all, at any time regardless of length, is well to put it bluntly simply outrageous. Worse still, it's even more shocking for James to say/print that the dyson bonus about face came as a direct result of the interviewer's suggestion 10 years ago. Such outrageous statements by James Dyson, from a business perspective, cast doubts on him as a business leader. It's as incredible as a decline from $2 Billion to multi-million in net worth in 3 years and saying during the same time periods that his company's profits and market shares are increasing year over year. Carmine D. Hello Carmine, As if often the case, we're discussing a series of unknowns. What we do know is that 10 years ago, Dyson didn't believe in offering bonuses. Here's a quote from an interview dated in 1999:- "...likewise, he thinks an interest in money is rather vulgar. He is not a fan of paying people bonuses to hit targets. 'I think the whole principle of bonuses is demeaning. If someone needs a bonus to motivate them, they are not the sort of person who should be in business, in my view. Somebody is here because they believe in what we're doing and want to go with that and make a difference, and get great satisfaction themselves, and achieve things."What we don't know is when exactly this policy was reversed - it might well have been two years later. Equally, while the interviewer at the time was likely one of a number of people to raise the question of performance-related bonuses, I very much doubt he was the only one. It's worth bearing in mind is that the Dyson in 1999 is quite different to the company it is now. Back then, they would have been investing in R&D, trying to expand production (against local frustrations) to meet international distribution demands. With cashflow likely a big issue, it was about more about making people believe in a cause, than paying out speculative bonuses and drag down the bottom line. In recent times, with cashflow demands more relaxed, it's now about getting new, reliable, exciting, well-marketed products out there. Everyone shares in that responsibility and they recognise that a bonuses structure gives a good return on investment. By all accounts, there's been a fair number of performance goals met over the years. Nothing 'outrageous' in that at all, in my view. You're blowing this far out of proportion.
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Re: Sir James Dyson plan to fill UK's engineering vacuum
#3 Mar 16, 2010 1:17 pm |
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Hello Severus: I agree with you. It is admirable that James Dyson recognizes errors in judgment and corrects them. Tho, 10 years is a bit long for the realization to sink in on his turnabout for bonuses. It's actually been a lot less than 10 years - I recall it being reported around 4 years ago that all Dyson employees were receiving a performance-related bonus for meeting growth targets. I think it's positive for any business to offer a profit share / bonus scheme to all employees - I'm doing the same with my business. When I was in previously in employement, only the sales team got bonuses, based on their sales commisions. Unlike the people who actually had to do their badly spec'd projects... now that *was* demeaning :-)
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Re: Sir James Dyson plan to fill UK's engineering vacuum
#4 Mar 15, 2010 11:07 am |
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Hi Venson, I've been a touch busy of late, but I'll look to pass some thoughts on this topic soon. On a related note, here's an interview with James Dyson in this press, this week, with a few good insights:- - Company did better than expected during 2009 "We increased our market share in every country we sell in”
- New product to be unveiled later in 2010 (clue: it will use a mains plug)
- James Dyson due to step down this year as chairman of Dyson Ltd
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article7061037.ece |
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Re: Samsung Navibot SR8845 . . .
#5 Mar 5, 2010 5:52 am |
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 It sounds reasonable enough in terms of price / features, if you're looking for a floor surface cleaner.
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