Dexter: “The joy of invention and the challenges of small business”
Selling the first Dexter™ and shipping it off to the UK in 2001 was a moment of collective triumph*. Selling the last couple of Dexters and shipping them off to China in 2018 was a moment of quiet personal satisfaction. Extrapolating the number of Dexters sold in 18 countries over 18 years, our invention has helped develop the bronchoscopic dexterity of thousands of anaesthetists. That is a satisfying thought.
Invention is not for the faint hearted and Edison’s one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration is possibly understated. It involves transforming a perceived need (proficiency in a seldom used gold standard high stakes technique) into a unique concept (non-anatomic modular bronchoscopic dexterity trainer) into a protected commercial product (Dexter™). Academic validation requires publication of original research in first tier journals and takes years of work. That is the fun part, and represents maybe a third of the requirements of a successful business.
The difficult part involves money and when you are told that first products are infrastructure investments rather than profit makers, you should listen. This advice typically arrives during the flush of excitement that accompanies concept and prototype development and tends not to cut through. At that stage we were winning awards, Best Scientific Exhibit IARS Honolulu 2000, Best Instructional Exhibit PGA New York 2000, Best Awards NZ Institute of Design 2001. It took 16 years to break even.
Product development costs are eye-watering and we were fortunate to receive a government grant to assist with this. Personal funds were required for joint venture formation, IP protection, tool and mould-making (see eye-watering above). Batch manufacturing was efficient but another expense prior to income from sales.
Indebtedness is understandably a feature of start-up companies. Other features are passion, energy and “smell-of-an-oily rag” efficiency. The defining characteristic though is business naivety and explains why the great majority of start-ups fail within two years. “Build it and they will come” is not an effective sales strategy when you are a start-up manufacturing export company with a 10kg product, living at the bottom of the world. It is one thing to have a cool and effective product, quite another to make a business out of it.
Indebtedness is also an anchor to progress. It prevents scaling, engagement of commercial expertise and product development. It also erodes the individual synergies that inspired company formation in the first place. You hope to generate sufficient sales volumes over a compressed time frame to progress independently. In a specialised cash-strapped health education market, that is tough to do. Near misses for scaling also occurred from time to time with aligned mature corporates who could see a good product but not a good business case. They provided a lesson in hard economics. Turnover was sufficient for survival but not progress.
The commercial reality may seem sobering but the real rewards of invention are the same as its drivers – passion, interest, a creative outlet and the experiences that result.
Dexter™ has introduced me to some remarkable people - generous, passionate, sincere, highly intelligent and lacking self-interest. They serve as my professional role models and a potent antidote to the ego-driven “talk the walk” versions. The Dexter project has provided lessons in life, business and academia, and respect for anyone who does anything successfully. It has been a focus of interest, research and contribution, unchained from the anaesthetic machine. I have had the satisfaction on countless occasions of seeing the light come on in the eyes of a trainee or colleague as their hands start to move properly working with Dexter. This is particularly true when the less adept persevere, to achieve the same standard of proficiency as the naturally gifted. It has also been very satisfying to witness the next generation of colleagues take over and improve that teaching.
Dexter™ has also led to some wonderful life experiences in far flung places, Asmara and the Red Sea in Eritrea, Muscat and the Wahiba Sands in Oman, Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Ndutu in Tanzania, the Argus in Cape Town, watching the All Blacks beat Wales at Cardiff Arms park, and then lose to England at Twickenham (OK not so great), enjoying success in the Honolulu surf and the streets of Manhattan, and an hilarious evening in Queenstown with a table of Australian reps parodying the physical skills associated with driving a bronchoscope.
Creating something original is difficult, demanding and deeply satisfying. Dexter was a cool idea, well executed, that delivered its intended educational goals. It has done some good. As a business it was more a virtuous hobby than a commercial powerhouse, but it is satisfying, twenty years after inception, to have Dexter™ wander into history with some rich personal experiences, a sense of contribution and books in the black.
Dr Colin Marsland
New Zealand
* Dexter™was invented by a group comprising Dr Colin Marsland and Dr Brian Robinson from Department of Anaesthesia Wellington Hospital, industrial designer Bernard Guy and Chris Chitty of Robotechnology Ltd. The joint venture Replicant Ltd was incorporated in 1997, came under the sole ownership of Colin Marsland in 2012 and was wound up in 2018.