Influencing process and cultural change in the aerospace industry
Author(s)
Kohorn, Adam B. (Adam Benjamin), 1971-
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Advisor
Paul R. Carlile and Daniel E. Whitney.
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Aerospace equipment manufacturers have expressed considerable frustration with the lack of success in implementing process and cultural change initiatives within their organizations. The objective of this report is to offer more successful methods of designing and executing change initiatives in the aerospace industry. This report provides an analysis of three particular change initiatives in execution at Pratt&Whitney Aircraft at the time of this writing. The successes and failures of three initiatives are analyzed and compared in the context of the major barriers to change faced by the industry. The arguments made in the discussion and in the following conclusions suggest that success depends on the application of entrepreneurial marketing and negotiations theories: 1. Solving a quantifiable, pressing source of pain for the customer 2. Results selling by providing a solution versus solely a technology 3. Focusing on a single customer with the budget and power to employ the new technology 4. Understanding the positions and interests of the parties involved 5. Establishing a bargaining range when faced with resistance 6. Enabling a give and take of concessions and tradeoffs in the bargaining process.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1999. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69).
Date issued
1999Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering; Sloan School of ManagementPublisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Mechanical Engineering, Sloan School of Management