Getting a peek behind the curtain at Segway

[GregRice]

I just read an interesting book on leadership that talked about Dean Kamen and Segway. The book is titled, Startup Leadership. It gives some of us a peek behind the curtain at what happens to to many entrepreneurial companies. Read a book extract here;
http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/book-extract-motivational-issues-finding-the-right-mix-114071300593_1.html

[JohnM]

No comments?

[Ralfus]

Just read the thread on the handicap topic and wanted to post my views.
Having ridden Segway for 4 years and being observant of the public re-action to them, I found that the poor reception is a result of the rushed roll-out and not enough anticipation, combined with the perceived high prices and unsafe features. This is result of Dean wanting to micro-manage in fields where he had no expertise. Now there are contrarians who should have been on-side from the beginning. The Segway is ideal for me, an active senior who cannot walk any distance. I recently found myself confined to a wheeled walker, and suffered heavily. Fortunately, I am left alone in my town,and have shown the best manners possible. I limit my building access to malls only, no stores.

[KSagal]

My understanding of this site is that it is a Segway Enthusiast site. It is not a Dean Kamen fan site, although clearly the two topics frequently overlap.

I never worked for the man, and while I have spoken with him on many occasions, and can attest to his motivational skills, I cannot attest to his management style.

Furthermore, there are character assassination sites all over the place who attack a man because of his views. This may or may not be the case here, as I also do not know the motivations of the author.

The vast majority of start up companies do not last as long as Segway Inc has. That alone does not mean too much, but clearly it exists, and to a degree that decries some of the conclusions in the article, but at the same time, I do not know the amount of direct input Dean ever had, or if he has any now.

Several years ago, the company was sold to an entrepreneur from England. I would presume that Dean's influence was minimized at that point, if not before. However, how the company has done since then is unclear. This piece seems to place the success of the company on the management skills of Kamen, but since he has not been involved in the management of the company for a long time, and I have not seen a significant and obvious change in the fortunes of the company since he left, I wonder if that is a valid analysis. I simply do not know enough of the inner workings of the company itself to know what it was like, as compared to how it is now, and the evolution of the corporate climate during the last 15 years.

Also, that entrepreneur died shortly after purchasing the company. Did that have a major impact on the corporate climate? Again, I do not know.

This much I do know, the company still exists. That defies the odds, and seems to indicate there are layers that were not discussed in the excerpt from the article that is the topic of this thread. Casting blame is an easy thing to do, and a common topic in literature and prose, but working in actual life is rarely as two dimensional as this article made it seem. The company did not make as many machines as some did predict it would. People did not flock to buy them as some predicted. That is all true.

The economy is not in a growth mode either, and has not been for many years. Is that a factor? Segways are expensive, and people have far less relative disposable income than they did a decade ago, and the average income and buying power for households has been on the decline for many years. Is this a factor? I would guess so, but how much I do not know. I do not know if it is fair to put segways into a leisure craft environment, but that environment is in a real and active decline because of economic pressures.

Lastly, I do not personally happen to like 'inside stories' nor trust them. I have personally been involved in several situations in my last half century, that have been reported upon for public consumption, and the story reported was almost always wrong, slanted, or both. I have been in the inside of skydive drop zones that may have had an accident or notorious event, and seen reporting that was totally erroneous, but made for a good story, a much better story than what actually happened. ( a few times I would have rather lived the story that was reported rather than what actually happened, as the reported story seemed more fun)

I have also been involved in corporate purchases and mergers, who had a very different culture and personal impact from the inside compared to the press releases and articles in trade magazines had indicated.

Life is subjective. Life is complicated. Publishing a trash shot about a successful inventor and business man (Kamen has done very well for himself on most any scale, mentoring great minds, inventing and patenting wonderful items, amassing a comfortable income, managing a premier think tank at DECA, founding FIRST and other organizations, and much more) from an author I do not know is a hard thing to comment on.

[Ralfus]

I have only recently been able to participate in blogs and have no intention of disparaging any one.
Dean; a genius and far ahead of his time, so is the Segway- there i so much specialized proprietary engineering making it an object of fear and sometimes derision not to mention price.
Currently I am trying to justify new Li-ion's before the 2009 rebuilts die.
I bought a 167 for parts and use the tower,THe NiMH batteries won't respond, some cells have 0 VDC, 3 VDC, 18 VDC. Anyone have ideas??
I am in Canada and use my XT in the winter, temps about 10F.

[Lily Kerns]

Just read the thread on the handicap topic and wanted to post my views.
Having ridden Segway for 4 years and being observant of the public re-action to them, I found that the poor reception is a result of the rushed roll-out and not enough anticipation, combined with the perceived high prices and unsafe features. This is result of Dean wanting to micro-manage in fields where he had no expertise. Now there are contrarians who should have been on-side from the beginning. The Segway is ideal for me, an active senior who cannot walk any distance. I recently found myself confined to a wheeled walker, and suffered heavily. Fortunately, I am left alone in my town,and have shown the best manners possible. I limit my building access to malls only, no stores.

From what I have read, Canadian attitudes toward the Segway are changing slowly so you will want to keep up to date on current progress in your area. I'm sure that good manners have contributed to your acceptance.

Here in the US, ADA 2010 makes their use acceptable even in stores unless they can _prove_ that their use would be unsafe. Most stores have been willing to do this although I have had a few issues with people who didn't know the law--and didn't want to know it! I used mine recently at a very large convention with rather cramped quarters. I didn't run into anyone, but only the Segs amazing responsiveness kept half a dozen people in too big a hurry from running into me!

Don't be afraid to gradually increase your range of use wherever it would be feasible and appropriate.