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Oxford Instruments is one of the UK's success stories - a science-based company which from the earliest beginnings in a garden shed has become a successful quoted company and a world leader in applied superconductivity. Its success is due in major part to the entrepreneurial skill of Sir Martin Wood, and the company has become a model for the new science-based university spin-offs. Audrey Wood has written a first-hand account of its evolution which provides real evidence of the challenges of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology transfer, and raising finance.
List of contents
- Chapter 1: First Steps
- Chapter 2: The Superconductor Breakthrough
- Chapter 3: The Juvenile Company
- Chapter 4: Triumphs and Trials
- Chapter 5: The Slow Climb from the Morass
- Chapter 6: Medilog
- Chapter 7: Magnets for Modelling Molecules
- Chapter 8: Where is the Company Going?
- Chapter 9: Making the Human Body Transparent
- Chapter 10: What of the Rest of the Group?
- Chapter 11: Strategies for the Future
- Chapter 12: The Road to Flotation
- Chapter 13: The New Public Company
- Chapter 14: Seeds for Future Growth
- Chapter 15: Boom Years
- Chapter 16: 1987
- Chapter 17: The Renaissance of Oxford Magnet Technology
- Chapter 18: Link Scientific and a New Japanese Initiative
- Chapter 19: Helios - a Product Ahead of its Time?
- Chapter 20: Through the Long Recession
- Chapter 21: Issues of the Nervous Nineties
- Chapter 22: Towards the End of an Era
- Chapter 23: The Beginning of a New Era
- Chapter 24: Bridges, Networks, and Nurseries
- Afterword by Richard Coopey
About the author
Audrey Wood was the co-founder of Oxford Instruments with her husband Martin, and remained a director until 1983 when it became a public company. Born in China, she was later educated at Cambridge University where she read both Natural Sciences and English Literature. For various periods in its early history, Audrey Wood was in charge of the company's administration, finance, marketing, and publicity, in addition to holding the legal position of Company Secretary until 1982. She travelled extensively to hold exhibitions and to visit customers in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, USA, Japan, and Australia. Audrey Wood resigned from the Board in 1983 when Oxford Instruments was floated on the stock exchange, but has remained in close contact with the company.
Summary
Oxford Instruments is one of the UK's success stories - a science-based company which from the earliest beginnings in a garden shed has become a successful quoted company and a world leader in applied superconductivity. This book is a first-hand account of its evolution which provides real evidence of the challenges of entrepreneurship.
Additional text
Magnetic Venture provides a valuable, detailed account of the develpment of Oxford Instruments. The book is unusual, being less the history than the autobiography of a business. Audrey - for 24 years a director and key figure - is an insider reporting events in which she participated. With her access to the firm's folk memomry and records and her perceptive approach, she provides a unique account of a pioneerng business.
