Sometimes, it takes a "public humiliation" to prompt the kind of soul-searching and self-scrutiny needed for a company to change the way it does business.
That certainly was the case with General Motors Co. (IW 500/4) and its approach to innovation, asserted GM's Tim Brumbaugh on Wednesday at the 2012 Front End of Innovation Conference in Orlando, Fla.
"And I think everybody in this room can agree that the bankruptcy and the pain that GM has gone through in having to utilize government funds to keep us afloat is probably the biggest public embarrassment that you can have," Brumbaugh said.
Since the government-backed restructuring in June 2009, GM has "really pushed the boundaries of how we view innovation," said Brumbaugh.
With that fresh perspective, GM realized that there are innovative ideas and technologies outside Detroit -- and outside the automotive industry -- that can be applied to vehicles.
That kind of thinking led the automaker to form General Motors Ventures LLC, its corporate venture-capital arm, in June 2010.
"We are a way to bridge that gap between what's going on in other industries and bringing it into the vehicle to help us design, build and sell the world's best cars, which is what General Motors is trying to do, and has done in their past," said Brumbaugh, who is deputy director of General Motors Ventures.
Since its inception, General Motors Ventures has closed on 13 investments worth around $60 million, according to Brumbaugh. They include a $7.5 million investment in Sunlogics PLC -- a manufacturer of solar-energy systems -- and a $6 million investment in Proterra Inc., which makes zero-emission transit buses.
Although he would not offer specifics, Brumbaugh said GM hopes that technology resulting from one of the 13 investments "will be in our vehicles by the end of this year."
"That would be a big strategic win for us," he said.
