Organisations, Innovation and Complexity: New Perspectives on the Knowledge Economy

University of Manchester
9-10th September 2004

Conference Aims | Paper Abstracts | Programme | Further Information

A case study of the 3 largest aerospace manufacturing organisations: an exploration of organisational strategy, innovation and evolution

Liz Varga

liz.varga@cranfield.ac.uk

Complex Systems Management Centre,
Cranfield University, UK

Abstract

Many of the most successful firms have placed a strong emphasis on strategy. Strategies help decision-makers in organisations to think though what the organisation needs to achieve and how it can achieve it. Implementing strategies and acting strategically places a focus on the long term and the things that really matter. The allocation of resources in line with strategic plans ensures that short-term interruptions do not deflect from long-term goals. Strategies need to be adaptable to changing circumstances, balancing the possible with the probable.

This paper considers what the Chief Executive Officers of the top three aerospace manufacturers say about their strategies and how these strategies are being implemented. The aerospace manufacturing industry is interesting from a number of respects: its dependency on innovation, its global nature, its relationships with government and other firms and the different characteristics of the civil and defence markets. The triad is also interesting because of the portfolio mixes which include largely defence, largely civil and a balanced portfolio organisation.

Limited to what the Chief Executive Officers have to say in their latest Annual Reports and what these reports state about the organisational structures, this case study attempts to describe how these organisational forms help or hinder the process of business conjectures led by strategies. It considers the internal diversity and richness of the people and their ability to generate novel and innovative ideas and the extent to which they are free to step onto a new path and deny current knowledge. The generative capacities of encounters between individuals and of innovation “at the interfaces” between organisations is also discussed. And the effect of performance in the market and changes in market demand on each organisation’s strategy is reviewed.

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