Vol de Nuit. The Dream of the Flying Car at Lemond Automobiles SA
Résumé
The case describes the development of a radically new product within a large automobile company. It illustrates: (1) the difficulties encountered by the development team, both technically and concerning the organisational conflicts arising due to competition for resources, differing views of strategic priorities, internal resistance and insufficient relationship management with internal and external partners; (2) managing a project with ambiguity (unforeseeable influences): the importance of pursuing several parallel concepts and of having the ability to fundamentally re-define the project mid-course; (3) enterpreneurship internal to large organisation: the role of external partners to provide resources and expertise in the development of radically new products; and (4) the importance of relationship management: internal resistance and external friction may become the key challenges of a radically new project.