IRobot chairman, known for rumba, explains 'Failed own business' and talks about 'difficulty in building a business model'
Build A Rover, Send It To The Moon, Sell The Movie Rights: 30 Years of iRobot
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/build-rover-send-moon-sell-movie-rights-30-years-irobot-colin-angle/
Chairman Angle talked about the 30th anniversary of the difficulty of building a business model. When iRobot was founded in 1990, there wasn't even a “robot industry”. “No one had tackled the difficult problems of spatial navigation, voice recognition, machine vision, etc.,” said Angle.
In addition, Chairman Angle said that when he actually launched these businesses, he had unexpected problems. At the time of launching Roomba, iRobot thinks that the customer 'will activate the cleaning robot once a week' and did not think 'to activate the cleaning robot every day'. Due to higher-than-expected actual usage, the first-generation Roomba broke two years earlier than iRobot predicted. The series of failures 'learned that reverse logistics and generous return policies are important to the business,' said Angle.
In addition, “consumer trust in robots” was another issue, Chairman Angle said. Consumers who oppose buying robots argue that they are refraining from buying robots because they are “not sure they will work well”.
Given these issues, Chairman Angle argues that 'a good business model is harder to build than a good robot.' 'The robot industry has long failed to raise money because it lacked a good business model,' he said.
Chairman Angle made all the mistakes he made before establishing a sustainable business model, including ' iRobot's failed business ' as an example. Below is a list of businesses that iRobot has failed.
◆ 1. Manufacture the rover, send it to the moon, and sell the movie rights.
◆ 2. Sell research robots to universities and business people.
◆ 3. Earn royalties with robot toys.
◆ 4. Develop and license a nano robot that removes lesions that appear from arteries such as arteriosclerosis.
◆ 5. Sell robots to the petroleum industry to increase oil production.
◆ 6. Sell robots that inspect nuclear power generation facilities.
◆ 7. Sell educational robots to museums.
◆ 8. License technology for floor cleaning robots for business use.
◆ 9. Development and sales of smart home solutions for supermarkets.
◆ 10. Realize and sell 'Robot War' entertainment experience using location information service.
◆ 11. Sale of demining robot.
◆ 12. Develop and license the robot operation system.
◆ 13. Sell robots that can be controlled via the Internet to data centers.
◆ 14. Development and sales of agricultural robots.
Chairman Angle argues that 'these failures are closely linked to success.' As an example, “◆ 3. Earn royalties with robot toys” emphasizes the importance of large-scale production, and “◆ 8. Licenses floor cleaning robots for commercial use” refers to the fact that floors are provided to robots. Chairman Angle said that he learned the navigation technology in a wide space from '◆ 11. Sales of demining robots' about how to clean the room, and said that such a failure resulted in Rumba.
“I learned the importance of expanding a business until it finds one that works,” said Angle Management. “The most important factor in expanding a business is risk management. Great entrepreneurs are not willing to take risks. There is no entrepreneur who can manage the risk. ' iRobot said that the greatest accomplishment in 30 years was 'making robots an everyday existence'. Chairman Angle said that iRobot's pioneering robotics industry has attracted a lot of money from investors and attracted attention to robot companies around the world.
In terms of future prospects, Chairman Angle says it is his mission to focus on the question, 'What else can robots do?'
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