Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity

Chapter 20. Innovation in large organisations

CASE STUDY 7: GKN – LIGHT COMPOSITE DISC JOINT ^[65]

Decisions, decisions

To spin or not to spin, that was the question that senior management of GKN's Automotive Driveline Division (GKN ADD) was facing in October 2001. Over the past decade an innovative product – the Light Composite Disc Joint (LCD) – had been developed internally, offering a number of customer benefits. But there were two main reasons why GKN was hesitant to embark on full commercialization within the Group, the first was that there was not widespread confidence that sales would be of a scale acceptable to GKN; and secondly, it was felt that the product was not close enough to its core.

Dr Andrew Pollard, GKN ADD's project champion who had been involved in its development since the early 1990s, had spent about one year developing a business plan which had recently managed to attract the interest of two investor consortia: one based in London, one in the Midlands. Particularly the London-based one was very keen to proceed. In the business plan the concept of Spinning-Composites Ltd, as the business was to be called, read as follows:

Spinning-Composites Ltd is a spinout operation from GKN plc with the aim of exploiting composite shaft and coupling technologies developed in GKN's Automotive Driveshaft Research and Development centre. Confidence in the potential of the new business ...