#7 Human Resources and Leadership: What workforce trends is the industry experiencing?

In the Aerospace and Defense industry, each company is trying to sissify its customers' needs through innovation rapidly. For example, Boeing company is working on its new aircrafts "737 max" which will have a new, advanced engines. Boeing has secured more than 600 orders on its new aircrafts, but Boeing plans to deliver the first 737 MAX in 2017. On the other hand, Boeing's arch-rival Airbus has generated a competing model called A320neo that has garnered more than 1200 orders, the company plans to deliver the first order in 2015 which means two years earlier than Boeing's first order. Because of this difference in time between the two companies, Boeing is pushing the team to beat the date. In addition, Boeing announced that the new-engine variant will have 4% lower fuel burn than the competing A320neo's.

In my opinion, the Aerospace and Defense is very high competition industry. Boeing is investing heavily in engineering, and in its workforce to innovate more, and to finish its order as soon as possible, to reduce the time difference between them and Airbus's orders. Boeing has secured more than 600 commitments from airlines to buy the new 737 max, but they are trying to increase the number, and to beat its competitor Airbus. However, I don't think Airbus is just waiting for 2015, sure they are trying to avoid any future surprises, so they could doing the same thing as Boeing though, but with less pressure to increase their sales, and the orders' time difference which is Airbus's main achievement point.

By Saoud Sulaymani

• #7 Human Resources and Leadership: “How do companies in this industry tend to structure themselves? What functions represent the majority of their workforce? For example, 75% of the workforce might be hourly manufacturing labor while 25% is admin, sales/marketing, and executives.”

The Defense and Aerospace industry is a very diverse market place and consists of companies that range in size. As company sizes increase, they also tend to diversify their product in order to appeal to a larger customer base. Companies, such as Embraer, are world known and have great reputations within their field, however; they often do not have the capital or desire to diversify and expand.  Being a company focused on producing Aircrafts, a majority of the functions within are aimed towards assembling quality crafts. Boeing, the largest Defense and Aerospace in the world, produces products in a majority of fields within the industry, and needs to have an appropriate amount of their labor force working within each sector. Boeing’s largest subdivision is their production of aircrafts.

Dubai Emirates Airline recently purchased 50 widebody 777-300 aircrafts from Boeing for $18 billion. Dubai Emirates Airline also has an option to add an additional 20 crafts to their order increasing its size to $26 billion. The widebody 777-300 has a flight range of 14,685 kilometers, which aided Boeing in producing the most efficient jet for Emirate’s purposes. This deal was a cornerstone in Boeing’s prestigious history, being their largest order ever. Many countries feel that middle-eastern counties have an unfair advantage in the airline business, as they can often obtain fuel at cheaper prices. Such advantages cause rapid expansions to occur in companies such as Emirates and Qatar Airway. I feel as if every company should specialize in the product or products that suit them best and devote their workforce accordingly. Boeing, a superpower amongst the industry, must dedicate appropriate percentages of their workforce to each individual sector. 

#7 Human Resources and Leadership: What are some current events in your industry? What is the impact of these events on the industry?

Human resources is the term that can be coined as "HR" which refers to individuals who make up the workforce and responsible for implementing strategies. The department of defense is compromised of the human resource sector. Human resources is a dominant field in providing for general management to a wide variety of things such as, human matters, budgetary support, and strategies that need to be implemented. Some operations that the human resources is responsible for is the management of commercial travel for the department of defense. The human resources sector is also responsible for negotiating with workers in the department of defense about personal matters. For example, if a worker or trainee gets sexually harassed at work, human resources respond to these victims and provide counseling.

Some current events that have been surrounding human resources in the department of defense has been providing guidance to specific issues such as antiterrorism and force protectionism, equal employment opportunity, and other topics that workers in the department of defense look for guidance towards. The equal employment opportunity has been a hot topic that has been regarded towards human resources. The department of defense and its human resources “DHRA” has been committed to a discrimination free work environment, meaning that if workers encounter a problem while at work, they give their complaint to human resources and is negotiated and solved from there. In the aerospace industry, human resources works the same way in providing an environment that is committed to discrimination free work environment and where employment decisions are solely based on the merit. Both of these industries believe in human resources as a strong sector in protecting and providing strategies to the workplace.

#7 Human Resources and Leadership: Who have been some influential leaders in your industry for the past 20 years?

The Boeing Company is known as one of the most prominent companies in the Aerospace and Defense Industry. Its highly respected status would not be the same today if it weren’t for the leaders that have carried this company for the past 20 years. Current CEO, president and chairman of the board, James McNerney Jr., supervises the overall strategic direction of The Boeing Company. He also puts a strong emphasis on ethical conduct for his employees in order to keep the gears on this successful business running. As time progresses, the difficulty of product development significantly increase because quicker changes must take place and customer needs continue to vary.

CEO of Boeing Commercial Airlines, James Albaugh, has done an especially superb job of gratifying the needs of Boeing’s target market. The present requires a strong understanding of the complications and inconsistencies in the economy. With the recent development of the 787 Dreamliner, Albaugh has been quite successful in meeting those requirements. The 787 Dreamliner is not only an innovative aircraft with a sleeker and cleaner appeal to it, but it is also environmentally friendly by being more fuel-efficient than Boeing’s previous models.

Another noteworthy figure that has been with Boeing is its Chief Financial Officer, who is retiring next year on April first, James Bell. Bell has been the CFO since 2003 and McNerney said, “As CFO he has created a world-class finance organization and culture of continuous improvement.” Without Bell’s meticulous financial analysis, Boeing’s success in revenue and profit would not be where it is today. In most recent news, Greg Smith will be taking over Bell’s CFO position. Smith and Bell will be collaborating until Bell’s retirement. Smith has more than 20 years of experience in the industry and before he was a corporate controller in 2010, he led the company’s financial planning and analysis and internal audit groups.

Boeing has had an extensive and intelligent group of leaders who have brought Boeing’s status to a high point. Its future looks bright because as one of the leaders step down, a younger, yet experienced, individual steps up to take the pressures and challenges.

#6 Entrepreneurship: How has the competitive landscape changed as a result of leading entrepreneurs in the industry?

The competitive landscape in the aerospace and defense industry occurs when any business provides a similar service or product in the same region. Basically, competition is essential in a market for a business to compete against competitors. For example, Boeing and Airbus have had competition in the market since the 1990’s, dominating the jet airliner market. The competition among both of these businesses have been in various ways such as competition through use of technology, and through outsourcing, The results of these various competitions produces advanced products from each company. For example, since these companies know that they are competing with each other, they want to perform higher in their products from differentiating from each other with different kind of advancements, like a fuel efficient engine.

A big difference between Airbus and Boeing is that Boeing’s production costs are mostly in U.S. dollars and Airbus’s production costs are mostly in euros. Since there are currency fluctuations, there are risks and benefits of the aircraft sold. Leading entrepreneurs in companies like these don’t necessarily exist, they are rather called CEO’s. However, competition landscape still does exist and effects the way competition is performed in this industry.
The airline industry is immensely competitive because of airport capacity, route structures, technology, and other large issues. These components all contribute to competition in these airline industries. New projects, such as the 787 airliner has been an undergoing project that has been in the process of production. Projects like these are part of the competitive landscape and leader entrepreneurs to develop new ideas and strategies to try to advance their future projects.

#6 Entrepreneurship: What are some current events in your industry? What is the impact of these events on the industry?

Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Jim McNerney said " the company is benefiting from world-wide expansion of passenger air traffic, even as the global economy faces head winds such as the credit crisis in Europe" . Boeing, the largest leading aerospace company, and the top aircrafts' manufacture around the nations. Boeing reported a 31% increase in third-quarter profit, sharply exceeding Wall Street forecasts. Even as the unstable global economy in the world, and specially in Europe, the company estimates to sell of 25 to 30 of the new model airplanes.

I would say, Boeing company is not only challenging its competitors, Boeing challenging the whole world! As we can understand from Boeing's Chief Executive, Boeing's products are indispensable. No matter what's happening in the countries' economics, and politics crisis. Boeing's products will be sold whatever going on. I think this is a clear message to Boeing's competitors such as, Airbus which means that Boeing will be always on the top.

Related breaking news to same company, Boeing's Chief Financial Officer James Bell, the best African-American employee in the plane-maker's plans to retire in April, and he will be replaced by Greg Smith. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204528204577011890129827730.html?mod=WSJ_qtoverview_wsjlatest)

By Saoud Sulaymani

#6 Entrepreneurship: In what areas of the industry are there opportunities for innovation?

In the Aerospace and Defense Industry, opportunities for innovation all rely on consumer needs and wants. Whatever becomes appealing to a companies eye will attract them into purchasing those innovative products. There are always opportunities for newer and better products to be made, and European commercial aircraft and jetliner manufacturer, Airbus, has undoubtedly taken advantage. With more and more airline companies buying the most recently developed A320, Airbus now has a new consumer whom which we should all be very familiar with: JetBlue. Except what was different about this deal was that rather than ordering the A320, JetBlue Airways Corporation stepped out of their way and came to a conclusion with Airbus by ordering 40 of the innovating medium-haul A320neo single-aisle aircrafts that come out in 2016.

With the opportunity to make a new aircraft, Airbus developed the A320neo, which is a re-engined and more fuel efficient model of the A320. JetBlue Airways has also switched their previous order of 30 A320’s to the more futuristic and larger A321 aircrafts. They invest much of their time and money into all of Airbus’ models by having a total of 92 of their models, including the A320, the A320neo and the A321.

In the Aerospace and Defense Industry, opportunities have to be taken advantage of years prior to the product’s actual availability to customers. Unlike the Food and Tobacco Industry, the Aerospace and Defense Industry deals with business-to-business companies. Since aircraft manufacturers are such a vital part in international businesses, thorough years of development have to be accounted for in order for a “near-perfect” product to be finalized.