The Dynamics of Innovation: Strategic and Managerial Implications

Jorg Bensinger, a group head of Audi corporation's R&D depart­ ment, had been waiting for long to find a chance to advertise his idea of a four-wheel drive for passenger cars to one of the board mem­ bers. Favorable experiences had been collected in drive tests with the lItis, a jeep-like c...

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Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Brockhoff, Klaus 1939- (Editor), Chakrabarti, Alok K. (Editor), Hauschildt, Jürgen 1936-2008 (Editor)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 1999
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Online Access:BTU01
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Summary:Jorg Bensinger, a group head of Audi corporation's R&D depart­ ment, had been waiting for long to find a chance to advertise his idea of a four-wheel drive for passenger cars to one of the board mem­ bers. Favorable experiences had been collected in drive tests with the lItis, a jeep-like car developed for use in the German army. The ex­ periences showed extremely good performance on icy roads and in snow. Bensinger's chance came in February of 1977, when he could talk to Ferdinand Piech, then R&D vice president of Audi and a technology buff. At this time Audi wasn't quite considered as a tech­ nological leader in the public. Technology based innovations were expected from Mercedes or Porsche by many customers. Piech, Ben­ singer, and others sensed that introducing the four-wheel drive to passenger cars could initiate a strategic change. Under great secrecy development work and prototype construction were commissioned. One obstacle seemed to be space requirements for the gear-box. Hans Nedvidek, former race-track engineer in the Mercedes team, was assigned to the team, and he developed an ingenious solution to the problem. It took until September of 1977 until other board mem­ bers were informed, and after some rallying the board found a con­ sensus in the next month to authorize further development steps for a four-wheel drive car. However, Audi is a subsidiary of Volkswagen Corp. The accord of the much bigger mother had to be secured
Physical Description:1 Online-Ressource (XII, 349 p)
ISBN:9783662039885
DOI:10.1007/978-3-662-03988-5

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