Mary Barra and the Lyft Investment: Leading GM into the Sharing Economy Through Acquisitions

Abstract

In January 2014, Mary Barra took over as the first female CEO of General Motors, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2008. She rose to the CEO role after joining the company in 1980 as a co-op student. During her time at GM, she saw the company go through extreme economic fluctuations, from a world-class brand with record sales to ► Chap. 11 bankruptcy and the subsequent $50 billion US government bailout that positioned the company for a new future. Since Barra’s takeover, the company had bought back the last government-owned stock and was back on its feet.

IMD EMBA 2017 graduates Tareq Ayub, Dario Donnini, Saidah Gomez and Riccardo Tediosi prepared this case under the supervision of Professors Carlos Cordon and Tawfik Jelassi as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a business situation. Copyright © 2018 by IMD – International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland (► www.imd.org). No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of IMD.