OnStar Results Keep People Safe

OnStar, on the rear view mirror

The general idea was to marry wireless communications with automobiles; it was up to [former OnStar CEO Chester] Huber to figure out what that meant. Primarily the GM leadership was looking to justify GM's earlier multibillion-dollar acquisitions of Hughes Aircraft (which included commercial satellites) and Electronic Data Systems (which specialized in information technology). "At some point there was financial pressure from Wall Street," Huber says. "Why did we own these things?"

According to Huber, he was chosen for the initiative because, as a locomotive guy, he had no preconceived notions about EDS, Hughes, or the automotive division. "I was a neutral third party, the human equivalent of Switzerland," he says.

Fortunately, the team decided to focus Project Beacon on driver security and safety. Unknowingly, they were employing Christensen's now-famous "jobs-to-be-done" theory, which posits that customers essentially "hire" products to perform a particular job, and that it behooves companies to focus on the job rather than the product. For Project Beacon, which would become OnStar, that job was to provide peace of mind.  [emphasis added]

OnStar also stayed alive because of the team's sustained belief in the importance of the job-to-be-done. "We start this business and we goof up, and every once in a while someone's hair catches on fire," Huber says. "But at the end of the day, what we realized was that if we figured this out, we could save people's lives."

Reference: Lessons from Running GM's OnStar.