Satisfaction doesn’t come easy to the billionaire inventor. There would be 5,127 prototypes of his first bagless vacuum cleaner before he was content. That passion for improving everyday products soon drove Dyson towards things other technologists might have considered dull: hairdryers, air conditioning units and hand dryers. More recently this tireless zeal for innovation led him to boldly enter markets dominated by existing players – be that electric vehicles or noise-cancelling headphones. Not all of his endeavours thrive but Dyson banks the lessons learned along the way and moves on. Not satisfied with being a force in the UK, Dyson set about turning his Wiltshire-based operation into a global group, relocating his headquarters to Singapore to maximise growth in fast-growing, Asian markets. All this has helped drive annual sales to more than £7bn. Now fascinated by what robotics and artificial intelligence may be able to do to improve everyday household appliances, Dyson remains fully charged.