Case Study: Customer Strategy at Airbus: Competing in the Superjumbo Aircraft Segment

CASE STUDY: Customer strategy at Airbus: competing in the SuperJumbo aircraft segment

Date: 22 July 2010

Executive Summary 4

Question 1: Reasons Boeing cancelled its development of the SuperJumbo 6

1.1 Differences in vision and mission 6

1.2 Boeing had an alternative to developing a new aircraft – stretching its current 747 6

1.3 Boeing already had market share in the category that airbus was trying to enter 7

1.4 Boeings market analysis did not show sufficient demand 7

Question 2: Strategic weaknesses in Airbus’s customer strategy 9

2.1 Strategic Analysis of Airbus 9

2.2 Shaping the organisation through vision, mission and purpose 10

2.3 Strategy development 12

2.4 Strategic decisions 14

Question 3: Airbus: driven by customer strategy or rivalry 19

Question 4: Airbus’s demand estimates and implications for a customer driven strategy 21

Question 5: Support for Airbus’s decision to proceed with the SuperJumbo 23

References / Bibliography 25

Executive Summary

Airbus and Boeing have different outlooks on the way that the airline industry is going to evolve. Airbus believes that there needs to be increased focus on passenger volumes, environmental issues and technological designs. Boeing on the other hand believes that developing a SuperJumbo won’t solve the air traffic problem in future as it only affects a small portion of the market.

The difference in predicting the future is what is causing the differences in strategy and market estimations.

There is a strong sense of rivalry between Airbus and Boeing and this has contributed to them, as well as experts in the aerospace field, differing in opinion for the need for a SuperJumbo.

Customers have indicated that would not be interested in an aircraft that is based on older designs and technology. But is this requirement enough for the considerable investment into a relatively small market?

Boeing and Airbus have used different methods of calculating...