For Automakers, R&D Increasingly A Strategic Business Investment

摘要

Ken Baker, VP/R&D at General Motors' Research and Development Center in Warren, Mich., takes the long view of his company's R&D. The Kettering era, he says—referring to Charles Kettering, inventor of the self-starter and GM's visionary first VP—was superseded in the 1950s by a time characterized by almost academic experimentation and intrigue and considerable emphasis on basic and applied science. That, too, came to an end, says Baker, the result of a revolution in R&D thinking: "Today, it's more a business and strategic investment for the company."