Profile of Persistence
When it comes to persistence, Allen Breed, CEO and founder of breed Technologies, is an example of the penultimate tenacious entrepreneur. Beginning in the 1960s as a designer and producer of sensors for missiles, this U.S. inventor literally fought with his intended customers during a long and costly campaign to have them accept his product. His story is a success story twenty tears in the making.
In 1973, almost 10 years after initiating the concept for a new invention designed to save lives, Breed was once again turned down by General Motors. His design for an air bag was rejected because it had too many moving parts. After a month of redesign he presented his new prototype to GM. It was a simple device using a ball and tube sensing method that could detect a collision in 25 milliseconds and instantly release an air bag. It was less expensive than previous models and was awarded half a dozen world patents…and once again GM turned him down.
But Breed was, and remains, a tireless fighter who would not give up on his invention. For 10 more years he pushed for acceptance of his concept. Again and again he was told that the air bags cost too much. Or they would injure babies. Or they would not be accepted by consumers who were not amused by the idea of a balloon-like object popping from the steering wheel. He was turned down by automakers from around the world. For some unknown reason, car manufacturers wanted no part of the air bag nor its safety features.
“Despite market research indicatings, as early as 1970, that consumers did want air bags and would pay for them, despite field tests that said they worked reliably, despite federal [U.S] mandates requiring they be adopted, air bags and all their partisans, were the sworn enemy of GM, Ford, and Chrysler. From 1970 to 1984, when the federal government mandated the phase-in of air bags, the recalcitrant Big Three played cat and mouse with both regulators and the market. Detroit announced and then either cancelled or deferred the introduction of air bags nine times. The Supreme Court called the industry’s long standoff ‘the regulatory equivalent of war.’ Only a high-court decision handed down in 1983 and an act of Congress passed in 1984 brought it to an end.”1
Today Breed, a hale and hearty 68-year-old executive, heads a billion dollar corporation. His products are sold to over twenty of the world’s automakers, including the reluctant Big Three. His air bag sensors are to be found under the hoods of close to forty million vehicles. In 1995 sales exceeded $400 million, with a pretax net of $110 Persistence has made Breed a billionaire. And saved thousands of lives in the making.
References
1. Anne Murphy, “the maker of Things,” Inc magazine, November 1995, pp.40-49.