City Watch: Question time; NATALIE GRAHAM talks to James Dyson, 52,

WHAT was your biggest break?

GETTING a bank loan for pounds 600,000 from Lloyds in l993 to set up our manufacturing plant at Bath - we are now at Malmesbury, Wiltshire. It was a very brave man, Mike Page, who gave me the money. What convinced him was asking his wife her opinion of a vacuum cleaner that did away with the bag, and she thought it was brilliant.

WHAT do you like best about your job?

DESIGNING and engineering new products. The reward is when consumers buy the product.

WHAT are you most proud of?

KNOWING that my vacuum cleaner is in people's homes.

WHAT advice would you give readers who want to succeed in business?

IF you have hope, enthusiasm and determination, you don't need anything else.

WHO have you learned most from and who do you most admire?

I LEARNED from Jeremy Fry, a friend who first employed me and gave me design work, that you can only be successful in business as an engineer by being concerned with how well the product works. The person I most admire is Andre Citroen, who invented a hydro- pneumatic suspension in the early 50s.

WHAT issue are you concentrating on now?

I AM very interested in encouraging creativity, which is why I am chairman of the Design Museum in London, and I am on the Design Council.

WHAT'S your next goal?

TO design and engineer products that work better.

WHAT would you do if you weren't running Dyson Appliances?

I WOULD be designing and engineering something.

HAVE you ever faced discrimination in your career?

YES, from venture capitalists and other company directors who think that designers and engineers don't know anything about selling.

WHAT has been your biggest disappointment?

THE fact that creativity and research are not encouraged more at school, and generally in people's workplaces. Creativity is way down everybody's agenda. Computers and machines can do almost everything except love and create.

HOW do you like to unwind outside work?

I RUN, and I go fly fishing for trout - I keep the big ones.

WHERE do you like to go on holiday?

MY favourite place is Provence, but I also love Italy and Mexico.

WHERE do you like to eat out?

ITALIAN restaurants, if given a choice. I love The Bluebird in London's Kings Road, which is modestly priced.

WHAT is the hardest thing you have had to do in your career?

PERSUADING the bank to give me money. Before Lloyds helped me I was turned down by countless banks, lenders, and venture capitalists.

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