Andrew Gaule of Global Corporate Venturing Academy interviewed Geoff McGrath, vice-president of UK-based automotive and industrial technology company McLaren’s corporate venturing arm, McLaren Ventures, about the company’s focus away from racing today at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium.
McLaren is currently in the process of diversifying to grow into a global technology company, according to McGrath, who underlined that its increasing focus on real-time data analytics has led to the company’s fastest growth period in its history, without any external investment.
McLaren also hopes to apply the data tools it developed for motor racing to other industries, and McGrath noted that clients secured to date have all been multinational players.
Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline hired McLaren to increase performance of its robotic production lines, and worked with McLaren to understand how patients used a specific drug. As it turned out, McGrath said, they had not been using it correctly.
McGrath underlined how most industries still gather data and analyse it retrospectively, and how there is a growing need for what he called predictive intelligence, the ability to understand the effects of any intervention in real-time.
McLaren has signed a 10-year agreement with professional services provider KPMG, and will set up a predictive auditing process for the firm. It is also in the process of setting up satellite offices in Singapore and San Francisco, where it will operate accelerators to work with startups.
McGrath concluded with an example from the oil industry, which is similarly only looking at data retrospectively when drilling. He joked that the question: “why are you looking backwards, you’re clearly drilling forwards?” could result in some animosity before the industry realises it does need to indeed change its approach.