Boeing Corporation: Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior Challenges

With only a few large companies across the globe (Boeing, MD, and Airbus), the commercial aircraft industry essentially exhibits the qualities of an oligopolistic competition with intense rivalry. Here is an analysis of competition in the commercial aircraft business using Porter’s Five Forces.

This is an analysis of the Airline Industry in Europe. The paper will cover the current market situation, including financials and market volume. Following this will be a Five Forces analysis on the factors that affect industry competition. The paper will conclude with key insights into the profitability of the industry and a SWOT analysis of one of the industry’s best performers and what rivals and possible future entrants can learn from their success.

Boeing pursues Product Differentiation strategy in order to create competitive advantage over Airbus. Boeing differentiates its products by increasing number of seating capacity, engine capacity, innovating new winglet designs and by manufacturing wide range of products in respect to the change in market

Given the competitive dynamics in the commercial aircraft industry, it is not likely that Airbus could have become a viable competitor without subsidies. These dynamics include investment costs in the billions for research and development of a new airliner, long break-even times, significant experience curve on the manufacturing side, and the highly volatile demand for aircraft. Due to a lack of market share, if Airbus entered the market without this support they would have suffered many years of losses resulting in a possible bankruptcy. However, Airbus credits its success to a good product and a good strategy instead of

Of considerable concern is that Boeing and McDonnel Douglas have a significant head start in the market. In a shrinking market, the Tri Star, though far superior to the competition, may have missed the window of opportunity. Airline revenues are down while labor and fuel costs are rising. This will drive down demand for all producers of wide-body aircraft.

In the market for large aircraft demand the emerging niche for very large aircraft (VLCT aircraft seating more than 400 passengers) saw only two competitors: Boeing and Airbus. Even though both competitors’ moves were clearly marked by technology enhancements, and different target markets but both exhibited strategic interdependence.

American airline industry is steadily growing at an extremely strong rate. This growth comes with a number economic and social advantage. This contributes a great deal to the international inventory. The US airline industry is a major economic aspect in both the outcome on other related industries like tourism and manufacturing of aircraft and its own terms of operation. The airline industry is receiving massive media attention unlike other industries through participating and making of government policies. As Hoffman and Bateson (2011) show the major competitors include Southwest Airlines, Delta Airline, and United Airline.

Airbus would need to sell 218 to 290 A3XX in the next 20 years in order to break even on the investment before repayment of RSP and launch aid. This sale number is in agreement with Airbus management who believed they would break even on an undiscounted cash flow basis with sales of 250 planes. If we counts the repayment of RSP and launch aid with a plane fee, the minimum sales of A3XX would be 373 to 497 aircrafts to break even on total investment.

Market Share Airbus will launch their new large, long distance plane A380 in 2006. This plane can be a dreadful competitive product to Boeing. If Boeing falls behind regarding innovations, fuel efficiency and other attributes of a long haul airliner, it will soon lose its market share. In order for Boeing to compete in the aviation industry, it is crucial to take on some risk and develop this new 7E7 project. This helps the company to fight against its competitors and recover from the slump in the industry.

Dominating the commercial aircraft market for decades, Boeing is considered to be the most highly competitive U.S aerospace industry. “U.S. firms manufacture a wide variety of products for civil and defense purposes and, in 2010, the value of aerospace industry shipments was estimated at $171 billion, of which civil aircraft and aircraft parts accounted for over half of all U.S. aerospace shipments. The U.S. aerospace industry exported nearly $78 billion in products in 2010, of which $67 billion (or 86% of total exports) were civil aircraft, engines, equipment, and parts” (Harrison, 2011). However, its position of influence has lessened in recent years. This is due to its main competitor, Airbus, who in recent years has made significant

Airbus operates in this industry by building airplanes with seating capacities ranging from 100 to 350 seats. Over the past few years, Airbus has been extremely successful developing airplanes in this size range, increasing its industry market share to approximately 33%. However, quantifying Airbus ' past financial success is difficult because prior to its 1999 1.6 billion euro IPO, Airbus was a private partnership. As a result, very little past financial information is available.

Boeing’s management has been concentrating on diversification of the overall company activities. The management has a concept that oversees the diverse employees, business partners and customer relations are important to creation of advanced aerospace services and goods for the diverse customers around the world. It has concentrated on creating good working conditions for its employees through creating an environment that is conducive. The environment refers to a welcoming, engaging and respectful environment with chances for both professional and personal development of the employee.

THE BOEING COMPANY: STRATEGIC AUDIT I. CURRENT SITUATION A. Current Performance Boeing performance has been outstanding for the past few years. Their Return on investment rose from three percent to 6 percent from 1998 to 1999, but it did drop to five percent in 2000. In 1996 Airbus claimed 42% of the market share, while Boeing had 64%. Boeing is looking at falling below the 50% mark. Boeing's profits have been doing quite well. They have risen drastically in the past few years, which can be seen in the profitability ratios. Boeing is doing fine when it comes to profitability, even though they have dropped slightly since 1999.

This is a case about three different companies dedicated to the manufacturing of aircrafts. Those three major companies are: Boeing, Airbus Industry and McDonnell Douglas; each of one was struggling to produce enough aircraft to satisfy a seemingly unquenchable need for passenger and freight transport around the world, developed in this form many kinds of aircrafts in different models and styles.

Competition Not just Airbus, but new competitors from the world's largest emerging markets like China, India and even Japan (Nolan, 2009).