Rich List 2017
The Sunday Times Magazine • 13doesn’t have a free-trade deal with the EU. And guess
what? Our sales grew 35% in Europe last year.”
Should Britain become the Singapore of Europe —
a low-tax trading hub just off the Continent — as many
free marketeers now propose? “Yes. I suggested that to
George Osborne when he was chancellor.” What did he
say? “He said , ‘Well, I wish it was as easy as that!’ ”
Dyson knows what he is talking about. If you own
a Dyson vacuum, hand-dryer or hairdryer, the motors
that power them are made in Singapore , where Dyson
employs 1, 300 people. He opened a research-and-
development centre there in January — the company’s
fi rst outside the UK — part of a £330m investment in
the city state.
“Singapore is a great example. It has free trade and
high technology. The average national salary is $63,
Singapore dollars [£ 36,000 ]. You pay for education
according to how wealthy you are. You insure yourself
for health. But the maximum tax rate is 22%. Amazing.”T
o help make post-Brexit Britain more like
the Asian tigers, Dyson is opening his own
university. The Dyson Institute of
Engineering and Technology (Diet), on his
Malmesbury campus , will, he hopes, create
the James Dysons of the future. It will admit its first 25
applied-engineering undergraduates in September.
“We’ve had 650 applicants. Oxbridge is [only] three
times over subscribed,” he boasts.
They will work alongside Dyson engineers on real
projects for 47 weeks a year, rather than the usual 26 ,
and not only pay no tuition fees , but receive an annual
salary of about £16,000. “I’m horrifi ed that students
pay £9,000 a year for tuition, and then they’ve got to
support themselves and they end up with debts of
£50,000 to £60,000,” he frowns.
Once they graduate, the engineers will have to remain
at Dyson for a few years, “although we’d like them to stay
for ever”, he says. “You don’t have to work on algorithms
for Google, you can work on algorithms for Dyson.”
Initially, the University of Warwick will help with
teaching and validate and award the degrees.
Diet is just the sort of new higher-education
institution that the government wants entrepreneurs
and others to set up now that it is relaxing the rules that
determine who can establish colleges and universities
through the Higher Education and Research Bill.
Dyson agreed to open D iet after a meeting with
Jo Johnson , the universities minister. “When there is
a new secretary of state, I go to see them to ask , ‘What
are you doing about the lack of engineers?’ We’ll be a
million engineers short in three years’ time in Britain
if we don’t do something. Jo said , ‘Well, why don’t you
start a university then?’ I said , ‘I can’t.’ And he said , ‘I’m
passing a bill so you will be able to.’ So I said I would.”
Dyson also funds a school of design engineering at
Imperial College London , to the tune of £12m , and has“We should start
negotiating trade
deals right away. Since
when did the EU abide
by European law?” REX, GETTY
invested £8m in the Dyson Centre for Engineering
Design at the University of Cambridge , where 1,
young engineers build prototypes and collaborate on
projects such as solar-powered cars.
Many of “his” students will work on products that
use AI, which Dyson believes will be the biggest new
thing in tech because its potential is infi nite. It is
already transforming our lives. Many cars now come
with self-drive functions that enable us to take our
hands off the wheel , and, in some cases, our feet off the
pedals. Go to Heathrow today and facial-recognition
sensors are replacing boarding-gate staff for departing
passengers and immigration offi cers for arrivals.
Dyson already sells its fi rst robot product, the 360
Eye vacuum cleaner. The machine has a patented
360-degree camera that not only “sees” its
surroundings to help it manoeuvre around chairs and
under beds, it also maps its route to reassure the owner
that it hasn’t missed any areas. It shares information
over the web with other robots in the house — turning
on air purifi ers while the vacuum is working to keep the
air clean, for instance. “It’s a massive leap forward in
seeing, understanding and working,” he says.
What other AI products is he working on , I ask.
“Aha!” he laughs. “It would take too long to tell you.”
I’ve got time, I assure him. He shakes his head. Are
they likely to be for the home or is he moving into new
areas? “Well, some of them will be in new categories.”
A car? A plane? Dyson is an aircraft nut who has a
Harrier jump jet parked outside his offi ce , a Lightning
jet fi ghter hung from the ceiling of the newest cafe on
his campus and wants to display a Vulcan Cold War
bomber at Hullavington. “Wait and see,” he says.
I don’t like waiting, so I persevere. Whatever you end
up doing, will it be high-end and expensive, like most
of your existing products? “That’s not how we think.
We do a product that we think is the right product.”CLEANING UP
Dyson in 2000 with
one of his iconic
bagless vacuums