Sharing the knowledge

Dame Julia Cleverdon – Business in the Community

Back in 1991 there was a riot in Oxford where cars were broken into or stolen.  There were all sorts of newspaper headlines about “Dreaming Spires and Burning Tyres”.  It turned out that a lot of lads were pinching cars around the Blackbird Leys Estate and driving about.

I ran John Neill who/was and is  the CEO of Unipart.  I said “Can you help Business in the Community understand what is happening?”  He sent two young engineers down to speak to the kids to discover what had happened and why they were pinching the cars, and they said in a cocky fashion that they could get into any car in the street.  “Show us” said the engineers, and sure enough they opened everything.

One of the engineers went back to John and said “ We need to engage these kids to show them that if they stay in school and do what they are told they will get a reward”.  The reward that Unipart came up with was that if the boys behaved themselves, they could go and work on Unipart cars, mending them, putting them together and racing them.  They started project TRAX which unlocked the talent of those young people and helped reduce crime.

Meanwhile, having seen what they had done, the other engineer went back and invented a car immobiliser devise which has also reduced car crime.