Mathis C. Nowak G. Soutra C. hallouly Z. Szakal B. Strategic position & economic intelligence. --EADS Study-- --Skema Business School 2009/2010--

Transcription

1 Mathis C. Nowak G. Soutra C. hallouly Z. Szakal B. Strategic position & economic intelligence --EADS Study-- --Skema Business School 2009/2010--

2 1_Agenda 1. Agenda 2. External analysis: Pestel 3. External analysis: Competitive forces 4. External analysis: Market/segments analysis 5. External analysis: Threats and opportunities 6. Identification of the Key external strategic issue 7. Internal analysis: Mission statement (with its impact on society) 8. Internal analysis: Stakeholder analysis (identification/ Powerinterest matrix) 9. Internal analysis: Resources and competences analysis 10. Internal analysis: Company value chain analysis: Competitive advantage analysis 11. Internal analysis: Strengths and opportunities 12. Closing the loop: Matching the external analysis with the internal analysis: Identification of the key strategic issues for the company 13_EADS and ethic

3 2_External analysis: Pestel External analysis: PESTEL analysis of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company. Political analysis: Aeronautic industries are considered as key strategic industries for every country. Defense, aerospace, aeronautic industries are a key industries always supported by governments. It supplies the armies with new aircrafts, communication systems It also supplies air companies with commercial aircrafts The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) is supported by European governments which need a strong aeronautic, aerospace and defense industry. It is both a diplomatic and economic requirement. On the diplomatic point of view, having the best defense technologies is important to have power at an international level. On an economic point of view because keeping high technologies industries in aeronautic and aerospace provide countries with jobs and new technologies competing with other countries. It is why EADS is watched out by nations security intelligence. It is to preserve the industry from industrial spying. The political area is certainly one of the key drivers for change of EADS.

4 Social analysis: EADS employs 120,000 people around the world. And this amount does not include all the suppliers with which it works. The most part of these employees are based in European facilities and research centers. EADS is also a manufacturer of peace keeping equipments and solutions. So we can say it is essential for countries to have access to its services to improve social security at a national level. It supplies United Nations with equipments for humanitarian operations. Besides, EADS signed the Global Compact treaty, which commits the company to respect the nine universal principals of the Human Rights. EADS also commits itself to respect international laws concerning the weapon trade (like the OECD treaty of 1997 for preventing Defense industries from corruption). Environmental analysis: EADS has to face the environmental issue for the civil activities: developing the future technologies, by taking in account the necessity to use less polluting technologies (for aircraft for example). EADS starts to prepare the future (for example, EADS received the Certificat Environnement, which proves the compliance of the company s production and projects with environmental protection). And for the military production activities: dealing with the future run out of oil to develop new technologies. Economic analysis: The defense, aeronautic and aerospace markets are demanding. Companies competing on this market have to manufacture high-quality and secured products and to be competitive. For instance, it is a delicate task to make cost savings on aircraft production. It is because you always have to ensure the total safety of the finished product. Another issue faced by EADS is the high exposition to the variations of the exchange rates. As you know, EADS makes most of its products in Europe, and so its costs are calculated in euro whereas it has to sell in dollars. It is a major problem for international industries. Technological analysis: The technological aspect is certainly one of the key drivers for change of EADS, because it is one of the high-impact factors likely to affect the success or failure of strategy. Technology is the core business of EADS. The firm has to manufacture the best technology to compete. EADS has to manage projects combining diverse type of technologies, to hire the best engineers in different scientific fields, and to prevent projects from industrial spying. Very recently, Airbus announced it had foiled several spying attempts in its Chinese facility, located on Tianjin.

5 Legal analysis: EADS has to face a tough trade war on markets. Airbus for instance is often cited in the news for the commercial disputes with Boeing at the World Trade Organization. The last dispute concerned the United States Air Force decision to buy its new aircrafts from Airbus. The contract had been cancelled by its competitor. Protectionism on these fields is traditional. 3_External analysis: Competitive forces Potential entrants: threat of entry. The market of EADS is closed because of the high barriers to entry. So it is extremely difficult for new competitors to come in. The scale and experience barrier: The aeronautic and aerospace industries have important economies of scales. So, it would be too expensive for new entrants to try and reach such levels of production. It would also require large amounts of research and development budget. So it would require both money and time to get good production levels (because of the experience curve effects). The expected retaliation barrier: The retaliation of the existing companies would be so great that an entry would be too expensive. The retaliation could take diverse forms and could discourage any attempt to enter the market. The legislation and government action barrier: Governments action to boost their defense, aeronautic and aerospace industry can prevent competitors from entering the market. For instance, the Airbus/Boeing issue concerning us military tanker aircrafts. In this example, Airbus is seen as the new entrant on the us military aircraft market. Such barrier can take the form of tariffs, patent protections or regulation of markets. The differentiation barrier: Potential new entrants would have to offer products with higher perceived value than the existing offer. But as we underlined it above, it would spend both time and money to get an interesting differentiated new offer on this market, because of the lack of experience, of the economies of scale needed It is the case of today s Chinese aeronautic industry which needs time and research development improvements to enter the market. (CACC, a Chinese civil aircraft constructor has started to sell its first aircrafts).

6 Potential entrants: threat of substitutes For the civil aircraft market (Airbus), the threat of substitutes can be the train builder. If we compare the price/performance ratio between civil aircraft and train, it is sure that train is cheaper than aircraft even if train has lower speed performance. For the communication, defense and security market, new devices could enter the market. Otherwise, for the military aircraft market, the aerospace market, or the helicopter market there is no threat of substitutes. Potential entrants: threat of buyers Buyer power is important on the military aeronautic or aerospace industry, because buyers are mainly states which apply to the home preference rule. On other markets like civil aeronautical or outside the home country, competition is tough, and buyer power is much more powerful, because Switching costs are low for this market. It means that buyers can easily switch between one supplier to another. And so EADS gets a weak negotiating position. Potential entrants: power of suppliers EADS has a lot of suppliers (for instance, EADS Sogerma monitors at least 80 international suppliers coming from various different countries). It does not mean that the power of suppliers is low because they are numerous. For such industries which require high quality and technical and complex product to assembly aircrafts, satellites or helicopters, suppliers which make the more complex parts and expensive parts of the products have a high supplier power. Otherwise, other supplier which make products or parts which do not require high level of technical have a high switching cost. To identify who the main suppliers are and how high their supplier power is, we just have to look in which structure capital EADS has entered. EADS generally enters the capital structure of its most important partners. For instance, it entered the capital of Plant CML in the United States this year, Spot Image based in Toulouse, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited based in the UK (cf: annual report information). Potential entrants: competitive rivalry High barriers to entry prevent potential new competitors from entering the market. For the aircraft industry, Boeing and Airbus are quite similar in terms of size. It is why there is a tough competition between the two builders. As we said above, the military aircraft market has high buyer power directed by governments. Each government looks for buying aircrafts coming from its national industry. (Example: French government is in the capital structure of EADS, so it has no interest to buy aircrafts from competitors). Generally, competition does not exist on the home market, but is very important outside. Otherwise there is a tough competition on the electronic weapon and defense equipment market, because there are a lot of rivals.

7 On the market of EADS Astrium, a very particular market with high barrier to enter, the only potential competitor could be Virgin Galactic, whose aim is also to develop space tourism. Eurocopter takes the biggest helicopter share market as 40% of the world fleet has been made by its facilities. Conclusion: competitive forces of EADS: Justifications of this chart: This chart sums up the power of the five forces on five axes. Power diminishes as the axes go further. In terms of entry threat, the investment and time needed (the scale and experience barrier), the expected retaliation barrier, and the legislation and government action barrier are so important that they dissuade new entrants. Supplier power is medium, because despite the diversified portfolio of suppliers, they make key elements of the different aircrafts, satellites they are very important in the making process, and it is why EADS increases its participations in their capital structure. The rivalry, otherwise, is high for EADS. Because despite the home preference, competition is tough on foreign markets, and more and more governments look for developing only ambitious projects which would create higher return on investment. And let us remind that Airbus activity accounted for 60,2% of the EADS total revenues, and it is a tough market as we said it above. The substitute threat is low, because only train can be a substitute of civil aircrafts. There is no substitute to military aircrafts or helicopters. Otherwise, only the security & defense division which products electronic equipments and solutions could be easily substituted. But this segment accounted for only 11,6 % of revenues in 2008.

8 4_External analysis: Market/segments analysis EADS is one of the world biggest corporations in Aerospace materials. His name means European Aeronautic Defense and Space and consequently reflects its position on the market. It s portfolio of products is very wide on cover most of the market segments, either civil or military range. EADS is divided into 5 companies, each having their own positioning and products. Airbus: Airbus A320 family A310/A300 family, A330/A340 family, A350 XWB family, Airbus A380 family, A ST, Executive and private aviation These planes families allow EADS to propose to its customers, aircrafts able to carry 100 persons to 600 ones. The range of these products is also much variable, some are interregional, others are intercontinental. By developing the A380 program, Airbus anticipated the evolution of the market into huge hubs. The A350 XWB family is moreover an answer given to the B770 Dreamliner from Boeing, Airbus main competitor. Thanks to such a portfolio, cover all the market segments expect lighter aircraft which are specialties from a constructor like Embraer. Airbus military: A400M, EADS CASA C-212, EADS CASA CN-235, EADS CASA C-295, EADS CASA FITS, A310, multi role tanker transport (A310 MRTT), A330 multi role tanker transport ( A330 MRTT), Air refueling boom system Airbus military represent for the corporation, both threats and opportunities. The A400M program is lasting more time than planned and is also more expensive; consequently, countries like South Africa withdraw their orders. The replacement of MRTT fleet in USAF is on the contrary a huge opportunity for Airbus to develop itself on the US market (>30B ). Airbus does not seem to propose competitive solution in AWACS and electronic war programs. It also only has the Eurofighter which is not acquired by much army forces. Eurocopter: Colibri EC 120 B, Ecureuil Family, Eurocopter (EC) 135 P2/T2, EC 145, Dauphin family, Super puma family Eurocopter military: EC 120 B, Fennec family, EC 635, Panther family, Cougar family, NH-90, Tiger HAP/HCP, Tiger UHT The Eurocopter division manufactures and sells a wide range of civil and military helicopters. The company manufactures from single and twin-engine light and medium helicopters to 10-ton-class and advanced combat helicopters. Overall, Eurocopter s products account for 30% of the total world helicopter fleet.

9 Defense and security systems: Defense and communications systems Defense electronics Military air systems MBDA (Milan, Exocet, etc) Astrium: Astrium Satellites (E/O ie Earth Observation, Telecommunication, Galileo, etc) Astrium Space Transportation (Ariane V, M51, etc) Astrium Services (Paradigm, Spot, etc) Astrium operates three different entities, Astrium Satellites can be considered as providing the content transported by vectors built by Astrium Space Transportation being operated from areas like Kourou. Astrium Services offers services like Paradigm for UK government; this contract has for aim to reassure all military communication. Astrium works in majority with civil products but also with military ones. Other businesses: Regional aircrafts Turboprop (TBM) 700, Turboprop (TBM) 850, Turboprop (TBM)Gt training aircraft Conversion services Fiber reinforced equipment components for aircraft interiors Support services for civil and military aircraft Growth in global aerospace and defense market 5_External analysis: Threats and opportunities Opportunities Experts plans that the performance of the market is forecast to accelerate, with an anticipated growth rate over the of 6.2%, which is expected to drive the market to a value of $910 billion by the end of Hence the company is well positioned to capitalize on the growing aerospace and defense market. Then, the EADS corporation can count on a strong order book, it is consequently easier to prepare the future, investing for example in projects like A350 or unmanned vehicles, products where he has delay regarding his main competitors. The order book grew by 17.9% to a value of billion in During this year, Airbus achieved record deliveries and expanded to a total of 3,715 aircrafts, representing six years of full production. New orders were strong, as Airbus booked 777 net orders, with a value of approximately $100 billion at list prices, which represents a 54% share of its market. These figures show

10 that EADS which as we must not forget, a young company has a lot of potential. EADS is young; this is not the case of companies like Airbus. In addition, Eurocopter won orders of 4.9 billion, including 715 new aircraft as well as after-sales service. The order intake was well-balanced between serial helicopters (59%), support and services (35%) and development and other activities (6%). At year end, the order book was 13.8 billion for 1,515 helicopters. The Astrium division recorded 11 billion order book in 2008, securing around three years of activity. In addition, defense and security division recorded an order book of 17 billion. A record order book provides stability for EADS in a fragile global economy and helps the company to attain strong revenues in the future. In addition, it also improves investor s confidence in the company. Threats The global economy is in a severe recession inflicted by a massive financial crisis and sharp fall in customer confidence. This represents the deepest post World War II recession by far. As EADS conducts businesses on a global scale, there is a relationship between the company s operating results and economic trends in major countries around the world. An economic downturn poses challenges for EADS. The current tightening of credit in financial markets adversely affects the ability of EADS s customers to obtain financing for significant purchases and operations. It could also result in a decrease or cancellation of orders for the company s products and services. In addition, it may also impact the ability of the company s customers to make payments. In addition, we can observe high fluctuation on the currencies market and EADS sells a majority of its products in US Dollars but produce them in Euros so depending of macroeconomic events; it may have important impacts on the selling prices of EADS products. In addition, EADS market is a particularly intense one in competition and of very difficult access. As a result of competition, Airbus was affected by downward price pressure. In addition, the contracts for many aerospace and defense products are awarded, on the basis of home country preference. EADS constitutes a multinational combination which in turn helps the company to broaden its domestic market. But the company may also remain at a competitive disadvantage in certain countries, especially outside Europe, relative to local contractors for certain products. The strategic importance and political sensitivity attached to the aerospace and defense industries means that political considerations would play a role in the choice of many products for the foreseeable future. 6_Identification of the Key external strategic issue A corporation of the EADS size have particular constraints due to its size, to its implantation all over the world and to the products it sells, in particular the military range which have high interactions with political and foreign affairs of concerned countries.

11 On the political aspect, we can show the example of the Rafale from Dassault Aviation that France try to sell to Brazil. We observe that this is France and not Dassault which sell it by positioning a resources, the Admiral GUILLAUD, who directly work for Nicolas SARKOZY. Moreover, the technologies that can be given to Brazil have received before the redaction of the proposition, the accord of French Ministry of Defense. France also negotiates a permanent place in the Security Council of UNO for Brazil and voted for Rio de Janeiro This show how much politics intervene in that kind of problematic. As a global company, EADS has also to manage the currencies fluctuation. For example, when 1 =1,5$ costs and margins of EADS are not the same at all. In a product like the A380 which public price is 325,000,000 US$, the variation is more that 60,000,000. In order to defend themselves from these external impacts, EADS try to outsource its production in Euros and US Dollars areas. Thanks to such a strategy, it can put the emphasis on X or Y sub-contractor depending of its localization. The evolution of the market has also impact and EADS cannot control too much these evolutions. For example the A380 program answers to a hub moving philosophy whereas the B770 Dreamliner answers a point to point one. Regarding military range, threats evolves. For example, huge face to face conflicts like the Cold War has now a fewer probability to happen. However, it is interesting to develop unmanned vehicles. 7_internal analysis: Mission statement EADS is provider of aerospace, defense and related services. The company is composed by 6 different business divisions: -Airbus -Defense and security -Astrium -Eurocopter -Military Transport Aircraft -Other businesses Mission statement of EADS is special for each business unit, so we have to describe activities and aims of the 6 business divisions of the firm. Airbus Airbus division develops, manufactures and sells commercial jet aircraft. Today their lineup is composed by 14 aircraft models from 100 (A318 Jetliner) to 525 seats (A380). Airbus owns the biggest passenger-aircraft in the world: the A380. Military Transport Aircraft (MTA) The MTA division has several activities.

12 Eurocopter -The division designs, manufactures and sells special aircraft (in-flight refuelling aircraft ). -It is responsible for the CASA FITS mission system, the transformation of the Airbus military derivatives, the avionics overhauls of transport aircraft and for the development and the manufacture of aerostructures. -EADS CASA is leader on the market of light and medium military transport aircraft. -It develops FITS (Fully Integrated Tactical System), a pack of military management and technical solutions. -It offers Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and VIP aircraft. They are designed on airbus models. The Eurocopter division designs, manufactures and sells civil and military helicopters from single light and medium helicopters to heavy and advanced combat helicopters. Today Eurocopter s production represents around 30% of world production. Astrium The Astrium division is one of leaders in space groups. It is a supplier of satellites, launchers and space products. This unit is divided in 4 different business units: -Dutch Space: launcher equipments, robotics, space instruments and solar arrays. -Infoterra: Earth observation data, services and related products. -Paradigm Secure Communication/Paradigm Services: military communication services. -Tesat-Spacecom: satellite communications equipments and subsystems. Defense and Security (DS) The DS systems division offers integrate systems solutions for the armed forces and global security and a wide range of platforms including EADS s role in Eurofighter, missile systems, defense communication systems, defense electronics and high-tech products for secure communication and services. Other business divisions EADS owns 4 more business units: -ATR (Avions de Tranport Regional): country aircraft. -EADS EFW: conversion of Airbus passenger aircraft into freighters. -EADS Socata: business aviation, personal and flight training market. -EADS Sogerma services: support services for civil and military aircraft.

13 EADS has many missions related to the nature of activities of each business unit. But generally EADS has to be leader in high and new technologies because its main mission is to offer at its customers best products of the high-tech market, especially when its customer is army. EADS has very powerful customers and contracts are very important so the quality of EADS s services has to be exceptional. They have not the right to make mistakes or to be late (definitely shareholders does not like the non-respect of the dead-lines, example of the A380). Because of the extreme competition in the market and the value of investment, EADS is obliged to have extremely secure networks and supply chain in every business units. 8_internal analysis: Stakeholder Analysis Identification of stakeholders: Main Shareholders: Daimler (Germany): 22.5% French State and Lagardère Group: 22.5% SEPI (Spain): 5.49% Governments: They have a real importance in EADS policy for several reasons. They are the most important customer of the company. Moreover they take decisions on authorization and homologation of EADS s products. Political Groups: Some states are shareholders of the firm, so their decisions depend of their political orientation. Main Customers: States Army, Governments, Airlines companies, Telecommunication companies, rich people. Employees: employees, especially engineers and managers. Main Competitors: BAE Systems Plc Lockheed Martin Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation Raytheon Company Boeing Company Cobham Plc Dassault Aviation SA Goodrich Corporation Saab SA

14 Matrix: Low Level of interest High Low Level of power High -Political Groups -Governments -Main Customers -Main Competitors -Main Shareholders -Employees.9_Internal analysis: Resources and competences analysis Resources 1. Tangible Resources 1.1 Physical Resources EADS has several physical resources such as (equipments, plants and properties ). Moreover these kinds of resources are adapted to each kind of division (airbus, defence and security ) in order to respond to the demand and the needs of each one. Some figures Properties, plant and Net Book Value in equipment 2008 Land, Leasehold improvement and buildings including buildings on land owned by others 4,006 Technical Equipments and machinery 4,917 Other equipments, factory and office equipment 1,543 Advance payments relating to plant and equipment as well as construction in progress 1, Financial Resources

15 Capital Repartition Revenue Analysis The company recorded revenues of E43,265 million during the financial year ended December 2008, an increase of 10.6% over EADS generates revenues through six business divisions: Revenue by Million d' Divisions 2008 Airbus 28,991 Defence and security 5,668 Eurocopter 4,486 Military transport aircraft 2,544 Other Business Divisions 1,528 Astrium 4,289 in In EADS they aim at increasing overall profitability and cash management They are not acting at cost structure alone, but they also pursue sensible investment to sustain profitable growth The financial strategy of EADS supports its main goal: rebalancing the civil and the defence businesses, in order to buffer the effects of civil aviation and optimize resource allocation.

16 The European Defence Budgets are under pressure, the ability to design customertailored, tax payer friendly, financial solutions will be a key asset for EADS defence growth For example in 2003 Eads gathered highly skilled resources in-house to capture important Private Financing Initiatives opportunities 1.3 Human Resources EADS is one of the most international groups in the world Its effective is very qualified and most of its employees (40%) are at least engineer or have a master degree. This selection of such skilled employees results in a high level of expectations in Human resources. Indeed EADS need to perform in training, mobility, career management, recruitment of the best talents and use its own internal relationship. At the end of March 2009 EADS had Employees (compared to year end 2008 with ) Country Number of employees France Germany United Kingdom Spain United States of America Other countries Total Key Employment

17 Board Executive Board Non Executive Board Jobs Chairman Chief Executive officer Directors Head Astrium Head Eurocopter Chief Technical Officer Chairman and Head EADS north America Head Airbus Senior Management Head Human Resources Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Chief Marketing and Strategy Human Resources Chief Operating Officer Head Airbus Military Head Defence and Security 2.Intangible Resources 2.1 Intellectual Capital : The Intellectual capital is one of the most important resources for EADS : Technical expertise in engineering makes the difference on the market. Experts use high-level technical skills most of their time, each and every day in one of the Aerospace and Defence fields that are of importance for the Group. The Experts : - Contribute to the development of knowledge in their field of expertise. - Advise the management for improving operational solutions. - Work in networks to seek out knowledge related to their specific fields. - Share their knowledge and train young experts and managers. - Secure our know-how by mastering Intellectual Property issues 2.2 Innovation - EADS remains competitive because of its ability to be more innovative, better, cheaper and faster in delivering products than its competitors. - The division of EADS promotes cutting-edge technologies, scientific excellence and contributes to global progress and delivers solutions for the challenges of societal issues (Environmental Protection, Mobility, Defence and Security, Safety)

18 - It aims to strengthen its position as a global leader in the aerospace and defence business and to deliver competitive and integrated solutions to its customers while targeting increased revenues and profitability. - EADS key strategic obligations include the saving and developing of core competencies and core technologies for platform and platform-based systems architecture and integration - It must keep the innovation pipeline constantly filled to replace ageing technologies and processes 2.3 Reputation EADS strives to deserve the reputation of financial reliability, and transparency with which it is increasingly credited by financial markets, contractors and customers. Competences To achieve competitive advantage in ways that others cannot imitate or obtain EADS employed and created different strategies and policies. EADS must do its very best to keep best the Expertise resources. Expertise is first a matter of people: -Therefore, EADS must develop its ability to manage Expert populations -Talent management is all about attracting, developing and retaining. -The Expert policy is to stimulate our inventive potential in the engineering community EADS suggested some key solutions to maintain its high level of intellectual capital and to keep to itself its high-skilled employees Attraction : Corpoation with Engineering Schools, Strong HR Marketing Development: Offer an alternative in terms of carreer management, compensation & benefits and development by creating an expert policy Retention : trough this expert policy it can generate retention policy The expert policy in EADS is one of the main competences by which the intellectual capital is maintained and developed. This policy has some objectives: - Identify experts and make them visible in the Group - Offer inside EADS identical career opportunities and recognition for both experts and manager - Diversify and open the number of careers comprising managerial and technical components

19 - Secure portfolio of technical competencies in the coming years by offering options of pure technical positions - Expert training : a development program fully dedicated to experts Moreover EADS has developed some ideas: - Increase the sense of belonging for the EADS experts - Develop the expert community - Launch a common process between Technical Directors and HR for matching EADS expertise with future needs 10. Internal analysis: Company value chain analysis: Competitive advantage analysis Thanks to its size EADS can be considered as a vertically integrated company. There is economies of scope and economies of scale. Economies of scope as the company is present on many markets, cross experiences are created. Economy of scales, as thanks to the volume and being in the same time an actor of military and civil range, same components for its products. These economies are sources of competitive advantages. The organisation of this company is a matrix one, it means that there are experts by products and also transverse functions like the purchasing ones, R&D, Strategy, etc; cross in the ones of division: Eurocopter, Astrium, Airbus, etc. This type of organisation is considered as an optimum by experts who wrote the last Strategor edition, for such domain of activity 11. Internal analysis: Strengths and opportunities Strength or Weaknesses In order to ameliorate a company s strategy, performance you must firstly identify what are the current strengths or weaknesses and then try to develop your new strategy bases on your strengths. That is the reason we are going to use a half of the SWOT analysis, the one related to internal analysis, that is to say Strengths and Weaknesses. EADS is a global company with production sites and selling points spread all over the world. This is a way of diversifying its risks. For example new market such as Asia and Latin America will be likely to provide an important growth, compensating maybe a decrease in more mature market like Europe and the USA. So the company produces and sells everywhere in the world, enabling it to have a balanced risks, and to be protected against regional crisis. Bu EADS has although a very broad and diversified portfolio, although Airbus accounts for around 60% of its revenue. The main business units are Airbus, Eurocopter, Astrium, security and defense. This very diversified portfolios gives EADS the same type of advantage as its global presence. In effect while a certain market will suffer of a decrease in demand or in supply other market will have more opportunities, enabling EADS to be very resistant to any kind of sector crisis. And finally we could add its investments, growth strategy as a strength because it shows top management decisions are made, the company is looking toward the future and manage its cash flows in a way to expand, consolidate its different business units.

20 But the company although has weaknesses it has to take care of. For instance, going through its financial statement 2008 we can notice a decrease in its cash and cash equivalent accounts. It tells us that the company holds less cash or short term financial instruments, and consequently that its liquidity has decreased. And liquidity is very important to run your business, every company has a Net Working Capital ( amount of cash required to run the company), and if your are running short of cash suppliers will stop trading with you, or charge you more interest for sales on credit. Then it will increase your costs. Secondly with a low liquidity ratio you will not be able to invest in all interesting opportunities, and you are affecting future company s cash flow, revenue. That is why EADS should find a way to prevent any decrease in cash. Another weakness is the variability of revenue regarding different region. For instance the Middle East and North America are suffering of a slowdown in sales affecting the global revenue, unlike other region such as Asia, Europe with France, UK, and Spain benefiting from an increase in revenue. Even if the company s revenue is balanced, if you use the cash flow generated by a profitable unit to compensate other deficit units, you are missing the opportunity of investing in this unit to make it even more profitable. EADS has to find a way to be profitable in every region. To conclude this internal part of the SWOT analysis we can say that EADS has more strengths than weaknesses. In effect its stability and future-oriented management give the company an advantage to compete against other. 12_Closing the loop: Matching the external analysis with the internal analysis: Identification of the key strategic issues for the company Political, technological and financial spheres are the key drivers for change for the markets of EADS. The political aspect is important because EADS has more share markets on its home business than on outside markets. Each government protects its own interests and so those of EADS. Otherwise, it is clear that EADS has to face a tough competition outside what we call home business. And nowadays, competition is getting tougher because of the entry of new potential competitors. First of all, Chinese aircraft and satellite builder, or Virgin Galactic (for Astrium) are potential future competitors of EADS. The technological sphere is certainly the second most important, because on this highly complicated business, EADS has a lot of obligations to meet, conditions of contract and strict legislation for building such products. Furthermore, research and development is a key department of EADS, because it will give or not give the future leadership of the group on highly demanding markets. R&D has also a lot of importance for EADS because the development of technological programs is very long and so is the cost. We have observed, with the development of the cost killing plan Power 8, an evolution of EADS in its relation with its sub-contractors. Now, there are included before in the value chain and they also finance the R&D. Their role is consequently not any more limited to production but also to conception. The order book is for itself important because it helps the company to forecast itself. Indeed, it is easier to launch a project when you are assured to have business to produce for the next 6 years. It also gives useful liquidities to the company, in order to invest in