Lockheed Martin Case Study

Lockheed Martin Corporation relies heavily on defense contracts from the U.S. Government. In fact, 84 percent of the company's net sales were made through being a prime contractor or subcontractor for the U.S. Government. These sales come from both the Department of Defense (DoD) and non-DoD agencies. The next largest area of revenue is from foreign governments that make up 15 percent of net sales. The remaining net sales come from commercial or other customer sales. A slow economy could cause decline or reprioritization of funding for the U.S. defense budget. This is also true for

Employees- Employees expect from the company to provide them with a source of income. They also want to work for the company they are interested in. The company they feel proud about and want it to progress.

The relationship between employees and companies are becoming more and more complex all over the years. This relationship is extremely important since it directly affects how the employees fells about the organization, what are their attitudes about the company and how they effectively perform in their jobs.

The second key stakeholder is the employees. An employer is an individual who works either full-time or part-time under a contract of employment for a business and they are getting paid. The main reason why employees are one of the components for the stakeholder of a company because the business/company provides the employee with a livelihood. If an employer works really well, they are more likely to get promotions and move up from different roles, for example – a sales assistant to a supervisor. If an employee doesn’t get treated right due to issues such as discrimination, they are more likely to not be satisfied with their job and they will not work towards their best potential. They are also more likely to quit. If an employee quits, this will cost the business/organisation more money to find someone else to replace their old employee. The advantages of employees are that this will increase the country’s employment percentage because more people are joining the labour force; this will provide the employees a better standard of living because they are earning more and this will increase the level of staff motivation because this will motivate them to do their best and they can receive promotions and

One of the most successful companies in this century is Microsoft. This company has been known to be treating their employees as their major assets as one of their ways to remain successful in the future. They conduct leadership and management development training for their employees to keep them globally competitive in their jobs and as influential people (Microsoft,

Lockheed Martin Corporation is the largest Defense Contractor in the world with $46 billion in net sales in 2015 (10-K, 2016). Has been the prime contractor in many of the Air Forces biggest projects in recent years. No other contractor has been awarded a fighter or attack aircraft contract since 1988.

Our financial reporting analysis consists of Lockheed, the largest defense company in the world and Boeing, the largest commercial aircraft producer.  Both companies rely heavily on government funding, contracts, and regulation.  Future growth for the two companies relies on sales of Lockheed and Boeing’s aircrafts such as the Fighter Jet F-35 and the Dreamliner 787.  Although these companies have many similarities, their core business varies.  Furthermore, to properly compare these two companies, financial analysts have to make adjustments to their quarterly and yearly filings.

The company’s stakeholders include primary groups of customers, employees, shareholders, owners, suppliers, etc. and secondary groups of community. All stakeholders have their own self-interests. While employees want secure jobs with high earnings; customers want quality products with cheap prices, which may eventually result in the company and employees’ low income. Being said that, the corporation owes all stakeholders the obligations to meet their interests. That brings in the ethical issue of conflicts of interest, one of key problems at Enron. CFO Andrew Fastow created financial partnership to hide Enron debt, from which he allegedly collected $30 million in management fees. The action obviously made Enron financial data look good, but at the same time deceived the company’s investors about the real performance. Many investors may make their investing decisions based on those false data. And that’s when the collapse begins.

Most important, the employees can earn stock, which gives them voice within the company to make pertinent decisions.

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.

My company is FedEx. The company's stated mission, as per its website (2013) is that it "will produce superior financial returns for shareowners by providing high value-added logistics, transportation and related business services through focused operating companies." This mission statement highlights the following stakeholders: the shareholders and the customers. A further stakeholder not mentioned but critical to FedEx is the company's employees. For example, an often-cited maxim at FedEx is People-Service-Profit, highlighting that it is the people who deliver the value-added for the customers, and that this is how FedEx delivers profits. The company also mentions its partners as key stakeholders, and there will be the usual tangential stakeholders like governments, competitors, potential customers, and suppliers. Most of these are external stakeholders the internal ones are the employees and the shareholders. All managers, even senior managers, are employees and most are shareholders as well.

Lockheed Martin is a major security and aerospace company headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Employing over 97,000 employees worldwide, Lockheed Martin is principally focused on research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services (Lockheed Martin at a Glance, n.d.). Lockheed Martin is organized into broad business areas to include aeronautics ($17.8 billion in 2016 sales), missile and fire control (6.6 billion in 2016 sales), rotary and mission systems (13.5 billion in 2016 sales), and space systems (9.4 billion in 2016 sales) (Lockheed Martin at a Glance, n.d.). To better understand the global giant that is today’s Lockheed Martin, a historical look at the two companies that merged in 1995 and their respective accomplishments is essential.

Other significant stakeholders that deserve priority are Enron’s employees. The employees present threats to Enron in two ways: they can form coalitions to exercise their legal rights, and they can also leave the company. They will most likely sue the company as they have lost vast amounts of their retirement savings (Moscoco and Deans, 2002). The urgency in this situation matters a lot as some employees are reaching their retirement age. When it comes to employees leaving the company, it is important to note that these employees have the necessary skills and are essential for the business to succeed. Here is where we see the opportunity. How is Enron going to recover without them? That being said, Enron has to do something to retain its employees.

The entrepreneurial sprit which began the foundations of Lockheed Martin remains alive within the company today. Although, the companies’ stricter guidelines do not allow an employee to simply begin an entrepreneurial venture on their own, the company has evolved from an airplane manufacturer to an organization that is involved in everything from defense to space exploration. This massive diversification of interests was brought about by intrapreneurial ventures. It was Lockheed Martin that coined the phrase “Skunkworks”, meaning specialized teams dedicated to discovering new projects. The origin story of “skunkworks” is well known and shows the tenacity and innovation that Lockheed Martin is capable of. In 1943, an engineer named Clarence “Kelly” Johnson and a group of young engineers were asked to design and build a jet fighter to help the US Army prepare for the growing German threat. The small group was isolated and the project was kept secret operating out of a circus tent because available and private space was scarce in the Lockheed Martin facility. The group was given one hundred and fifty days to complete the project, and they completed the jet in one hundred and forty-three (Miller, 1995). This spirt of innovation and growth marked the true beginning of the boom in product development which continues to this day under the same name, but this time trademarked.

In reviewing this article it was observed that some employees were skeptical of the merger between Chrysler and Daimler-Benz. Daimler-Benz employees were proud of the elite image and were concerned about having that tarnished by another company. Chrysler employees voiced concerns about the addition of a foreign partner to one of America's auto manufacturers. Employees needed reassurance that this merger was going to be a success! In light of all the adversity both companies faced since announcing their plans to merge, how did they remain so steadfast in their commitment to pursuing this merger? What kept them believing this merger was a good deal that deserved a second look? To answer these questions I want to step back and discuss what I