Business Analysis and

Communication Strategy of
Boeing

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The Boeing Company

Table of Contents
1. Introduction & Background.................................................................................................2
2. Analysis of Segments......................................................................................................... 2
2.1 SWOT Analysis.............................................................................................................3
3. Boeings Communication Strategy......................................................................................4
4. Recommendations to improve communication...................................................................5
5. Conclusions........................................................................................................................ 6
References............................................................................................................................. 7
Appendices............................................................................................................................ 9
Appendix A......................................................................................................................... 9

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1. Introduction & Background

The big aerospace giant Boeing was founded in 1916 in Seattle, USA. The company grew remarkably
over the years and today it is the market leader in manufacturing military and commercial aircrafts.
Throughout its successful journey, Boeing acquired/merged and/or established strategic alliances with
many giant local and international enterprises in the aerospace industry. The names of some
prominent companies are: Rockwell international, North American Aviation, Hughes Space and
Communications, Jappesen, and McDonnell Douglas (Boeing, 2013a). Boeings network has been
expanded to more than 150 countries and the company has approximately 22000 suppliers around
the globe. It is reported in the annual report of 2012 that the number of companys employees in
different countries crossed the benchmark of 170,000. The workforce consists of innovative, skilled,
and extremely talented employees including engineers with extensive knowledge and practical
experience of the aerospace sector (Boeing Annual Report, 2012).
The key objective of Boeing is to achieve a certain level of quality and performance of each product or
service to satisfy internal and external customers including employees, customers, suppliers, and
shareholders (Boeing, 2013b). Boeing embraces a set of standards and short-term objectives to
achieve major goals, mission, and vision of the company. These standards cover different aspects of
improvement such as technological excellence, focused management, future integrity, continuous
improvement, financial strength, and staff training and motivation. In terms of financial performance,
Boeing has successfully retained its revenue due to its rapid growth in the aerospace industry. Boeing
achieved the benchmark of $66.3 billion of total revenue in 2007 which was 8 percent more than the
preceding year. In the 2008, the total revenue decreased due to the severe impacts of financial and
economic crises and stayed $60.9 billion. In the following years, Boeing performed well and achieved
the target of $68.7 billion in 2011 when the commercial airplane division contributed $36.2 billion
revenue to the overall figure (Stock Analysis on Net, 2012). In this figure of commercial planes, almost
70 percent belongs to the outside world.
This report aims to cover two key aspects. The first aspect is to analyse the business segments of
Boeing using SWOT analysis as an analytical tool and second is to demonstrate how Boeing
communicates its values and policies to its stakeholders both internal and external. At the end, based
on the findings, the author recommends a communication strategy that Boeing can adopt to improve
its communication with stakeholders.

2. Analysis of Segments
Boeing basically has five primary segments including:
o
o
o
o
o

Commercial Airplanes Boeing Defense;

Space & Security (BDS);
Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA);
Network & Space Systems (N&SS); and
Global Services & Support (GS&S)

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As the name mentions, the commercial airplanes and defense segment produces aircrafts for
commercial and military use. This segment represents the 70 percent operations of the company and
largely covers both the local and global markets. On the other hand, the BDS unit primarily entails
research and development activities. Furthermore, it produces security and space systems which
include surveillance equipment, defense systems, intelligence systems, network and tactical systems,
anti-submarine aircrafts, reconnaissance aircraft, and space exploration etc. (Aerospace & Defense
Intelligence Report, 2013). The BMA segment conducts research and develops military systems for
observation, safety, and security. In addition, this segment produces manually operated and automatic
weapons for global strike. The N&SS unit produces communication and space products such as
space information and intelligence systems, computers with artificial intelligence abilities, command
and control equipments, communication equipment, strategic missile and defense information
systems, and other cyber and space exploration equipment. Finally, GS&S segment is responsible for
providing support and services against products. It also includes logistic operations, upgrades,
training, and other operations supporting military operations and platforms (CSI Market, 2013).
Appendix A provides an overview of each segments financial performance.

2.1 SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is an analytical tool which is often used by the analysts to identify and analyse the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to any organisation (Ferrell, 2012). In this section of
the report, the SWOT analysis of Boeing Company is conducted on the basis of its different
segments.
The foremost strength of Boeing is its leadership role in the aerospace industry mainly due to the
success and competencies of commercial and military aircrafts. The large scale operations and
dynamic and eye-catching designs of aircrafts add a significant value to its strengths (Boeing, 2013c).
Moreover, Boeing supplies aircrafts and other security and defense systems to more than 150
countries with the support and collaboration of other prevailing giant companies in the aerospace
sector. Boeing has an effective control over its activities and also monitors the quality and
performance of its alliances. This is the reason that Boeings sales turnover and overall profitability
level always higher than its competitors (Storbeck, 2013). Moreover, the long-term relationship of
Boeing with US Air Force and NASA gives it a massive competitive edge over competitors.
Over the years, Boeings focus is tightened towards the research and development tasks for
manufacturing products & services that meet the changing needs of internal and external
stakeholders. The company allocates up to seven percent part of its profit for research and
development activities. The commercial segment is extremely important for Boeing as it contributes
around 70 percent to its profit each year and also helpful in increasing the market share by catching
the attention of potential customers (Boeing, 2013c).
In contrast to the strengths, the Boeing Company massively exposed to achieve the time schedules
and many times in the past the commercial airplane division faced the issue of delay due to many
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reasons (Sanders and Cameron, 2011). In this regard, an ineffective internal and external
communication, lack of control over the suppliers activities, and taking the engineering services from
third parties are prominent reasons (Data Monitor, 2011). Due to the delay problem the key competitor
of Boeing, Airbus is taking control over the market share of Boeing. This is the reason that the
financial performance of Boeing has affected in 2010 when the commercial segment faced a 6.5
percent decline in profit level (Boeing Annual Report, 2012). The profitability level of other segments
also turned down by 13.1 percent in the similar year. However, in the following year Boeing recovered
sharply. Boeing has also faced several legal penalties as a result of certain happenings and events
including intellectual property disputes, environmental responsibilities, employment issues, and
disputes related to the commercial contracts (Data Monitor, 2009).
The revolution in travel and tourism sector and changing needs and demands of customers are
creating many opportunities for aircraft manufacturers. Boeings commercial aircraft are in high
demand in the travel sector and the demand is increasing on annual basis (Boeing, 2013d). The new
emerging Asian markets such as India and China have great potential for Boeings products. In this
regard, the commercial aircrafts are popular for travel and tourism purpose and security and defense
systems are required by them for making their defense system unbeatable (Miller, 2012). Although the
financial distress and the economic downturn have brought difficult time for the airline sector, but to
some extent some acquisition/merger opportunities are also available to Boeing to make their supply
and logistics system effective. The strategic alliance of Boeing with British Airways and Global Airline
Inventory Network are the upshots of these prospects (Trotman and Simnett, 2001).
Boeing also has several threats where its competitors, environment, and employees are prominent.
Airbus is the core competitor and key threat to Boeing particularly in the commercial aircraft division.
Additionally, the Chinese commercial airplanes sector is the emerging threat to Boeing as the Chinese
government announced the launch of properly commercial aircraft in 2020 (The New York Times,
2007). In the past, Boeing has faced several labor strikes and these strikes challenged the goodwill of
Boeing to great extent in the global market. The company also faced the delay issue due to this
problem (Data Monitor, 2011). Further the rapid changes in the environmental laws and rising
frequency of earthquakes in Japan are the genuine threats because most of the suppliers of Boeing
are in Japan.

3. Boeings Communication Strategy

Boeing communicates its values and policies electronically. It also passes messages to its community
through press releases, signs, and gadgets. Boeing uses three electronic forms to communicate with
stakeholders: companys website, intranet and extranet (Hutt and Speh, 2009). The intranet is often
used to communicate with internal customers i.e. employees. Communicating internally is an integral
part of Boeing. Through this the company communicates its beliefs, values, and targets to achieve its
ultimate mission and vision. Important announcements are normally communicated internally using a
specific advertisement pattern which is revised each year. A leadership message, changes in

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employment acts, rewards, deductions, and other necessary announcements are transmitted to
employees through the intranet (Hutt and Speh, 2009).
Aside from communicating internally with employees, Boeing also broadcasts information externally to
existing and potential customers electronically through the website. A specific section of the website
focuses on updating latest news about the company. It also contains many articles that interest to
external stakeholders such as customers and shareholders (Boeing Investor Relations, 2013).
Another source of electronic communication is extranet which is often used by the company to
correspond to suppliers. Boeing uses extranet widely for effective monitoring and controlling as well
as for targeting potential suppliers (Hutt and Speh, 2009).
Boeing also uses institutional communication through which the company is able to endorse its ideas
and opinions. Some examples of such advertisements are: A single note can change the world in
support of music; command the network, control the battle space an encouraging advertisement for
supporting US Army; our world is built on partnership for praising business partners and other
stakeholders; and made with Japan for giving value to Japanese suppliers are the best examples of
communicating Boeings policies and values to its community partners (Boeing, 2005).
Although Boeings internal and external communications are very effective and controlled but from the
past decade the company is constantly facing some issues due to lack of communication particularly
with the suppliers. In this regard, some prominent issues are supply chain problems, delay in
delivering commercial planes to customers, and material related problems (Data Monitor, 2009; 2011).
Cohan (2011) found that Boeing has less control over managing and controlling suppliers because of
too many outsourced suppliers. Boeing is dealing with several high tech manufacturers of plant and
machinery for aircrafts all over the globe. The inadequate efforts of Boeing for communicating with
suppliers have resulted in certain delays in the Boeing Dreamliner 787 (Cohan, 2011). In the mid
2010, Boeing consulted with a company to reform its organisational culture of commercial aircraft
division to address the delay issue. This effort was also unsuccessful because of certain gaps in
external and internal communication patterns (Sanders, 2010).

4. Recommendations to improve communication

In section 3, some problems are identified caused by the communication issues. In order to confront
those issues Boeing is required to improve its communication patterns. In this regard the Supply
Chain Information Management System is most appropriate technique which is defined by the Lan
and Unhelkar (2006) as a system that deals with control of material and information flows, structural
and infrastructural processes relating to the transformation of the materials into value added products,
and delivery of finished products through suitable channels to customers in order to maximise
customer value and satisfaction (p. 141). This definition explains the importance of communication
and information flow throughout the process of manufacturing, processing, and delivering product to
the customer. The definition also shows a required integration of people, processes, and technology
where people communicate with each other during different stages of production using technological
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equipments. The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the most reasonable software that provides
an effective way of communication in managing organisational resources and other activities. The
software has many features where supply chain management is of its key characteristics. Although
Boeing is already using an ERP system for managing resources and supply chain but there is an
urgent need to use it to address communication issues with the suppliers (Moad, 2007)

5. Conclusions
The critical SWOT analysis of Boeing uncovers the fact that the organisation is passing through some
weaknesses due to lack of communication with stakeholders particularly with suppliers. Although
Boeings communication strategy is sound and the company is using digital technology to transmit
information internally and externally but to overcome existing issues, the company really need to
employ modern technology that will allow it to enhance communication with suppliers. For this reason,
it is recommended to Boeing to enhance the use of ERP software to overcome supply chain
problems.

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References
Aerospace & Defense Intelligence Report (2013). Boeings products and business segments. [online].
Retrieved from: http://www.bga-aeroweb.com/Boeing.html [Accessed: 15 November, 2013]
Boeing Annual Report (2010). Available online retrieved from:
http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/companyoffices/financial/finreports/annual/2011/annual_report.pdf
[Accessed: 15 November, 2013]
Boeing Annual Report (2012). Available online from:
http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/companyoffices/financial/finreports/annual/2012/annual_report.pdf
[Accessed: 14 November, 2013]
Boeing (2005). Boeing Advertisements. Boeing Frontiers, 3(9), [online]. Retrieved from:
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2005/february/qt_ba.html [Accessed: 15 November,
2013]
Boeing

(2013a).

The

Boeing

Company

The

giants

merge.

[online].

Retrieved

from:

http://www.boeing.com/boeing/history/narrative/n079boe.page [Accessed: 13 November, 2013]

Boeing (2013b). Mission and vision. [online]. Retrieved from: http://www.iamboeing.com/about/mission.cfm [Accessed: 14 November, 2013]
Boeing (2013c). About us: Boeing in brief. [online]. Retrieved from:
http://www.boeing.com/boeing/companyoffices/aboutus/brief.page [Accessed: 13 November, 2013]
Boeing (2013d). Current marketing outlook 2013-2032. [online]. Retrieved from:
http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/cmo/pdf/Boeing_Current_Market_Outlook_2013.pdf
[Accessed: 15 November, 2013]
Boeing Investor Relations (2013). Achieved quarterly earnings and financial reports. [online].
Retrieved from: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/companyoffices/financial/quarterly.page [Accessed: 16
November 2013]
Cohan, P. (2011). Boeing's Dreamliner Delays: outsourcing goes too far. Daily Finance, 21 January
2011
CSI

Market

(2013).

Boeings

Business

Segments

Description.

[online].

Retrieved

http://csimarket.com/stocks/segments.php?code=BA [Accessed: 15 November, 2013]

Data Monitor (2009). Company profile: The Boeing Company. London: Datamonitor
Data Monitor (2011). Company Profile: The Boeing Company. London: Datamonitor

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Greeff, G. and Ghoshal, R. (2004). Practical E-manufacturing and supply chain management. Elsevier
Ferrell, O.C. (2012). Marketing strategy text and cases. 6th edition, Cengage Learning
Hutt, M.D. and Speh, T.W. (2009). Business Marketing Management: B2B: B2B. Cengage Learning,
(pp: 308-309).
Lan, Y-C. and Unhelkar, B. (2006). Global Integrated Supply Chain Systems. Idea Group Inc (IGI)
Miller, S. (2012). Boeing Projects High Demand for Aviation Personnel in Asia Pacific. Flight Services
Communications, Singapore
Moad, J. (2007). Boeings big supply chain wager. Managing Automation Magazine, 23 July 2007
Sanders, P., (2010). Boeing has new delay for Dreamliner, Wall Street Journal, [online]. Retrieved
from:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959704575454582232255168.html

[Accessed: 25 November, 2013]

Sanders, P. and Cameron, D. (2011). Boeing Sees Long-Delayed 787 Deliveries Starting in Third
Quarter. The Wall Street Journal, 19 January 2011
Stock Analysis on Net (2012). Boeing Company Income Statement Annual data. [online]. Retrieved
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http://www.stock-analysis-on.net/NYSE/Company/Boeing-Co/Financial-Statement/Income-

Statement [Accessed: 14 November, 2013]

Storbeck, O. (2013). Airbus wins market share, but profit still grounded. The Global and Mail, 07
October 2013.
The New York Times (2007). China to develop large commercial aircraft by 2020. The New York
Times, 12 March 2007.
Trotman, K.T. and Simnett, R. (2001). Cases in Strategic-Systems Auditing. Business Measurement
Case Development and Research Program, KPMG/University of Illinois

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Appendices
Appendix A

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