Elio Engineering Case Study analysis
Elio Engineering. Inc
BH-565: Management of Technology
7/18/2014
Question 1: Describe Elio Engineering? How would you characterize its position in the Industry?
Elio Engineering is a private company, founded by Paul Elio and Hari Sankara, categorized under engineering services and manufactured automotive vehicle bodies car seats. It designs the new technology of the seats for the automobile industries called No Compromise seats.
Question 2: What is Elio Engineering Vision?
Elio Engineering’s vision per the case study is to design and manufacture new advanced, low-cost, high-tech and safe ABTS called No Compromise seats for the entire automotive industry and potentially saving millions of lives around the world.
Question 3: Describe the strategic options as of February 1999? What issues should the company consider in evaluating its strategic options?
Elio Engineering had achieved a great distinction by February 1999 because their prototype test had been proven very promising and OEM customer’s response had also been favorable. Based on the prototype performance, Bostrom made a licensing deal with Elio Engineering in mid-February.
At this point, Elio Engineering had to consider if Bostrom was the right partner for their vision. Also how much royalty fees should they charge for their services?
Question 4: What is the structure of the automotive seat industry in 1998? How attractive was the industry?
The Structure of the automotive seat industry in 1998 looked like the following:
Two Tier-one companies – JCI and Lear Corp with almost equally split about 60% of the market and dominant share worldwide.
The number-three player, Magna, has about a 10% share in the U.S.
Many of the competitors already had an ABTS seat in their product portfolio or were currently working on the technology. So it was already a mature industry with stagnant technology.
The industry was not attractive because competition would be fierce with the 70% of
BH-565: Management of Technology
7/18/2014
Question 1: Describe Elio Engineering? How would you characterize its position in the Industry?
Elio Engineering is a private company, founded by Paul Elio and Hari Sankara, categorized under engineering services and manufactured automotive vehicle bodies car seats. It designs the new technology of the seats for the automobile industries called No Compromise seats.
Question 2: What is Elio Engineering Vision?
Elio Engineering’s vision per the case study is to design and manufacture new advanced, low-cost, high-tech and safe ABTS called No Compromise seats for the entire automotive industry and potentially saving millions of lives around the world.
Question 3: Describe the strategic options as of February 1999? What issues should the company consider in evaluating its strategic options?
Elio Engineering had achieved a great distinction by February 1999 because their prototype test had been proven very promising and OEM customer’s response had also been favorable. Based on the prototype performance, Bostrom made a licensing deal with Elio Engineering in mid-February.
At this point, Elio Engineering had to consider if Bostrom was the right partner for their vision. Also how much royalty fees should they charge for their services?
Question 4: What is the structure of the automotive seat industry in 1998? How attractive was the industry?
The Structure of the automotive seat industry in 1998 looked like the following:
Two Tier-one companies – JCI and Lear Corp with almost equally split about 60% of the market and dominant share worldwide.
The number-three player, Magna, has about a 10% share in the U.S.
Many of the competitors already had an ABTS seat in their product portfolio or were currently working on the technology. So it was already a mature industry with stagnant technology.
The industry was not attractive because competition would be fierce with the 70% of