Customer Reviews

Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1999, Dean Kamen called journalist Steve Kemper and invited him to chronicle the development of a new invention, "the biggest thing I've ever done." Kemper bit, and the result is this gem of a book.

You may have heard of Dean Kamen as the archetypical American inventor, whose ideas made him a millionaire in his twenties, but who wears his uniform of a denim shirt, jeans and boots everywhere, from the workshop to the Oval Office to the boardroom. Or you may have seen the Dateline story on the revolutionary wheelchair (It climbs stairs! It rears up and balances on two wheels!) his company is even now jumping through FDA approval hoops. Or maybe you know a high-school kid competing in the FIRST robot-building team competition that is another of Kamen's brainchildren.

I loved this book, for a lot of reasons. First, it's unflinchingly honest. This is no worshipful paen to Kamen and the Segway, It is a balanced (pardon the pun) look at the inventor, his company, and the engineering and business behind the creation of the Segway, warts and all. Kemper writes an even-handed account, but the way he cares about his subjects shines through the entire book.

The author respects Kamen's genius, creativity, and sheer chutzpah, but also shines a merciless light on his many shortcomings. And Kamen IS likeable, and every bit the visionary wunderkind that the media paints. But reading how his team sometimes suffered in the Great Man's shadow made me squirm.

Although he professes to be neither an engineer nor a business guy, Kemper captures the spirit and creativity of engineering art AND business. He explores the sometimes-twisted and sometimes-sublime group dynamics that manifest when a group of people are pushing the technical envelope. He accurately describes both the "Eureka!" moments and the bone-numbing tedium necessary to turn a great idea into a complex, working whole.

Finally, the book is a great look inside the twenty-first century dream lab that is DEKA Research. The author gives tantalizing glimpses of the other on-going projects along with Project Ginger. And I pretty much drooled over the descriptions of Kamen's house. [...]

As someone who is very familiar with the events described, I know that Kemper did a reasonably good job describing the key events that led to the infamous Ginger leak in early 2001. The characters are conveyed well, he has a good handle on the story, and Kemper sees the flaws in Kamen's plan--and the biggest flaw is egomaniacial Kamen himself and the other ridiculously outsized egos he corrals for this project.

Regardless of what you think of Segway, this is an interesting story of
* what happens when "genius" is unchecked by lesser beings
* what happens when a business owner doesn't recognize that he lacks the skills needed to run what he created
* how VCs and investment banks approach new businesses in what I'll call a suboptimal manner
* what happens when someone thinks their (good) idea is more important than it really is.

There are lots of conflicts here that Kemper does a good job of outlining. All in all, it's not bad for a business book.

If Edison or Ford had allowed us a peak inside their laboratories, what would it have been like? Clearly visiting one of the various museums dedicated to them does not do justice to the events that went on there. While Dean Kamen?s legacy is not yet assured to be within this group, we fortunately will have a chronology.

Kemper has captured the mystique of the engineering marvel in a book that reads more like a novel than a traditional business book. The various, frank participant comments that he recorded allow us to gain insight into the engineering and management challenges that Segway has overcome.

Many within the startup and capital space suggest that every founder should be cognizant of when it is time to step down and allow others to run more of the show, and Kemper paints Kamen as no exception to this. The book illustrates how Kamen?s micro-management may have caused the project to take longer and cost more than it may have needed to. It also shows how Kamen?s belief in Ginger along with his charm and salesmanship may be what ended up making Segway a success in the end.

The book?s only shortfall comes from Kemper?s expulsion just prior to the Segway?s announcement and launch. Due to his loss of access to the project?s participants at this point, we are prevented from hearing reflections and thus being able to evaluate the success of the project?s culture and management style. Hopefully others from the Segway team will choose to codify their commentary on their experience at some point.

Code Name Ginger will allow you to understand what goes on from idea to creation. It would be difficult not to be drawn in to the engineer?s & manager?s struggle to overcome obstacles to bring the Segway to fruition. It is a look inside the whirlwind ?

"Ginger" is a terrific insight into the real day to day process of innovation. It appears that it doesnt come easily.
Great things never do.
The book makes you feel like you are along for the ride.
You feel the frustrations and embrace the challenges the team encoutered along the path to innovation(I am a Segway owner and have met Dean).
I think Dean has nothing to be embarassed about with this book. It exposes his incredible talent,humanity,kindness,and unwillingness to fail. It showcases his ability to pick the right people-most of the time....and build a great team.
He still is truly amazing in my book.
It has given me new respect for just how hard it was to bring this kind of innovation to market.
I just wish the process of following it didnt end where it did.
A great read ...left me wanting more.

I've always admired Kamen and his work. To get this up close, and personal view was a real treat. Kemper captured the people and the process in a way that made the book very compelling reading. His "fly-on-the-wall" perspective was fantastic. The meetings (especially the one described in chapter 15) are painfully familiar and funny. The same is true for the interactions between engineers and marketers. Great read!

Kemper provides an intriguing look behind the scenes of an interesting invention. Though the investors may end up holding the short end of the invention stick, Kemper does an excellent job of relaying the story of the invention, the investors, and the inventor, Dean Kamen. Anyone who wants to know how things move from "hey, I've got a cool idea!", to the drawing board, to "let's build one", and then to "let's build a better one," to how to get money for something, will enjoy this book.

If you are an engineer you will be unhappy with the scattershot presentation of the design & engineering challenges and their resolution. If you are interested in the marketing decisions behind the introduction of the Segway you will find that the planning was amateur and the execution thin. There is little to learn because pre-launch research into the views, beliefs, attitudes and needs of eventual buyers was ruled out due to an hysterical fear of revealing the nature of the product.
Where this book does excel is in giving readers a very real feel for the pace of the development work, the excitement and passion of some very talented engineers and the tensions and frustrations they felt working for a man who can only be described as extra-ordinary. Like many business case studies, this story illustrates what happens when the drive, courage and brains that, under constrained financial conditions and anonymity, delivers wondrous innovation; can, in the end, produce nothing more than the alloted 15 minutes of Fame when the constraints are gone and the dream surrenders to the ego.

I am only half way into this book, but I have to recommend it. It makes me want to run right out and buy the Segway to become part of the new world order. (Only trouble is, the thing is too expensive.) But reading about its creator is exhilarating, and it manages to be a page-turner inspite of the fact that it is "real world". If you know an inventor or wish you were one, this entertaining book can give you a flavor for the life of the real thing.

This was a great read about a genius's brilliant invention and the struggles to bring Segway to market. This was my 1st read on the invention-2-market cycle and it made for great reading. I kept the book by my side. It was a page turner. The insights into the cast of famous characers was most entertaining. Highly recommended.

I don't own a Segway, but I find it (and DEKA) interesting from an engineering perspective. This book is a largely non-technical view into the process of creating it.

Is it a good read? Yes. Would I recommend it to others interested in the topic? Yes. Could it be improved? Yes.

I wish it were more technical, which seems to be a reasonable request since the readership should be largely engineers and business people, not a general audience. It also needed a section of photos and/or diagrams of Ginger as the engineering progressed and to illustrate various features discussed in the book. (For example, the handle is described as W-shaped and then it becomes redesigned as M-shaped, but it wasn't clear if that was from the perspective of the rider or looking at it head-on.)

I also thought that the writing was awkward in places, and found the few transitions from third-person observer to first-person participant to be jarring. I do recognize that the author's presence was key to those few events, but it was jarring to the flow of the page nonetheless.

So, overall, I liked it, but given that it will probably be the only book on the topic, I wish it were better...