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Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream


Case traces the design and development of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Emphasis is on executive leadership and firm strategy in coordinating across a global network of partners in the production of a new aircraft.

Authors :: Rory McDonald, Suresh Kotha

Topics :: Strategy & Execution

Tags :: Product development, Strategy, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream" written by Rory McDonald, Suresh Kotha includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that 787 Boeing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the 787 Boeing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which 787 Boeing operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of 787 Boeing
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of 787 Boeing




Strengths Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of 787 Boeing in Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field

– 787 Boeing is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled 787 Boeing in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

High brand equity

– 787 Boeing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled 787 Boeing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Learning organization

- 787 Boeing is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at 787 Boeing is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry

– Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled 787 Boeing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped 787 Boeing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– 787 Boeing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. 787 Boeing has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of 787 Boeing in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Highly skilled collaborators

– 787 Boeing has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Organizational Resilience of 787 Boeing

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that 787 Boeing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of 787 Boeing in the sector have low bargaining power. Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps 787 Boeing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the 787 Boeing are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that 787 Boeing has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.






Weaknesses Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, 787 Boeing is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, 787 Boeing needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of 787 Boeing, firm in the HBR case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rory McDonald, Suresh Kotha suggests that, 787 Boeing is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, 787 Boeing has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.

Need for greater diversity

– 787 Boeing has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at 787 Boeing has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract 787 Boeing 's lucrative customers.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though 787 Boeing has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

High dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of 787 Boeing supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left 787 Boeing vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.




Opportunities Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream are -

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. 787 Boeing can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. 787 Boeing can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, 787 Boeing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that 787 Boeing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. 787 Boeing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Manufacturing automation

– 787 Boeing can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for 787 Boeing in the consumer business. Now 787 Boeing can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, 787 Boeing can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for 787 Boeing to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help 787 Boeing to increase its market reach. 787 Boeing will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.

Loyalty marketing

– 787 Boeing has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at 787 Boeing can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help 787 Boeing to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of 787 Boeing has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help 787 Boeing to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream case study. 787 Boeing can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, 787 Boeing is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.




Threats Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream are -

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. 787 Boeing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of 787 Boeing.

Environmental challenges

– 787 Boeing needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. 787 Boeing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream, 787 Boeing may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .

High dependence on third party suppliers

– 787 Boeing high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, 787 Boeing can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream .

Regulatory challenges

– 787 Boeing needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Strategy & Execution industry regulations.

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for 787 Boeing in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– 787 Boeing can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. 787 Boeing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Consumer confidence and its impact on 787 Boeing demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

Increasing wage structure of 787 Boeing

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of 787 Boeing.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Boeing 787: Manufacturing a Dream is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that 787 Boeing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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