Lear

Written Assignment: Lear Won’t Take a Backseat Case Study 2-1

Victoria Lopez G00022141

Grantham University

Abstract

In our textbook we study a company, Lear who in the past made solely car seats. The case study explains that Lear rose to victory and in 2000, thanks to acquisitions and expansion into new product areas, their sales climbed to $14.1 billion. Prior to gaining much success they teamed up with GM to envision the interior of the Chevrolet Express LT, a new luxury van which Lear helped design and build. Soon after that Lear decided to invest in an animated virtual reality package from Alias Wavefront, a software subsidiary of Silicon Graphics. By using technology Lear built their prototypes from the new Reality Center which was complete with a triple projection screen and three digitized boards. Lear went a step further a made it possible for designers to send their work back and forth over the Net—thereby creating a virtual workplace. This paper looks into Lear’s strategic advantages afforded from the virtual reality.

Keywords: General Motors

Written Assignment: Lear Won’t Take a Backseat

Our textbook teaches that managers or leaders confront elements that influence the competitive environment and they must take multiple views of the strategic landscape. Lear confronted all the elements by utilizing the new Reality Center. The Reality Center allows Lear to create their prototypes; utilizing the old fashioned, brownish-orange sculpting clay was a slow, muck-filled process. Let’s take a step back and evaluate where Lear came up from. For decades, Lear Corp. made car seats. With the much needed help from technology Lear envisioned the interior of the new Chevrolet Express LT, a new luxury van. After an almost impossible 2 year turnaround time, the first models started coming off a GM assembly line. Through that success and flexibility that Lear made, GM...