HSV injects young blood to management team

HOLDEN Special Vehicles (HSV) chairman John Crennan has argued that fresh thinking, being open to different ideas and having an ability to change are as important to the future growth of the performance-car division as new product.

Commenting on former Lexus product manager Scott Grant's appointment as HSV managing director, Mr Crennan also said arch-rival Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) could learn from HSV's example.

"Injecting the place with some new, youthful enthusiasm and, more importantly, some outside experience – not only with another car company that haven't done too badly for themselves in the course of the last 10 years or so, (but also with) somebody who has some prestige brand and niche experience in the form of Lexus – is a pretty good mix, combined with the other experience we've got around the place," Mr Crennan said.

"I look at the contrast with our competitor at Broadmeadows, who seems to be doing all the opposite things to that, and I think you may be able to see a little bit of a reason why the (sales) graph is going the way it is.

"Perhaps more since David Flint's departure, that company has not been the same company that it was. So it's a good lesson in terms of ensuring that there is some intrinsic knowledge of the business that's been there since day one."

Mr Crennan (left) said that hiring the 42-year-old Mr Grant was carefully considered before the announcement was made.

"Scott and I got talking back in January," he said. "We spent an enormous amount of time together, with half a dozen meetings before we shook hands. This wasn't done in five minutes, we really thought very carefully about it."Leveraging some of the Toyota and Lexus know-how, while remaining true to the HSV way, is a formula Mr Crennan believes will help HSV grow in the coming years.

"The intention of Scott for us is that there is an injection of new blood, which is going to be fantastic, introduce a new style and some new culture, freshen it all up but still maintain the intrinsic stability that we've had in our organisation for 20 years," he said.

Under Mr Grant, there will be a host of activities aimed at maintaining the sales momentum that has been increasing since the arrival of HSV's VE Commodore-based vehicles towards the end of last year.

"(This is) a very important year … we've got some enormous things planned in the back end of the year to herald our 20th anniversary," Mr Crennan said. "We're going to be utilising and leveraging our 20th anniversary in no uncertain fashion and quite dramatic and terribly interesting activities that will help us set the stage for the years ahead.

"In addition to that, we've got some outstanding product plans. There is never going to be a dull moment, at least for the next 18 months, by way of what we've got coming down the track... with a lot of activities to sustain this business to keep it going and endure the long haul.

"Another initiative we took at the start of this year that I think is paying dividends for this – apart from the product group that meets every Tuesday that (work out) the product of the future – is a product sub-committee involving (racing drivers) Todd Kelly, Rick Kelly, Greg Murphy and Garth Tander... that push the mainstream product group and challenge a lot of the things and bring new ideas.

"That group from a base level really pushes ideas up to the product group that works pretty well for us."

Read more:

HSV to learn lessons from Lexus

HSV injects young blood to management team

New Grange has HSV's sights on Middle East

HSV Grange arrives at last

First drive: HSV Grange

HSV eyes Corsa VXR

HSV's E-Series is all class

First drive: HSV E-Series range