Book Description

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: The future of many firms in the aerospace sector is uncertain. Factors like the financial crisis have made the industry unstable. Companies that are unable to adapt to different markets have difficulties to survive. Hence, engineering products nowadays demand to acquire a knowledge-based perspective of work like peer production or mass collaboration , to promote open management standards and to focus on services with more value-added, which means that companies need to reeducate itself and to make constant investments in intangible resources. Furthermore, the new competitive landscape [ ] demands that companies are aware of emerging driving forces like globalization, more sophisticated customers and competitors, increased technological capabilities, shortening of product life cycles and diversification. These issues emphasize the demand of flexibility and speed in responding to fast-changing environments. In addition, one of the biggest problems that the firm where I worked for one and a half year, and to which this study is dedicated, are facing is the asymmetrical changes affecting service markets. This firm turned from being highly competitive, based in quality management and technical expertise to be unable to deploy its expertise in other segments. Many competitors acknowledged earlier that the market is changing and achieved to seize a better position. Consequently, the firm was prejudiced. This master thesis aims to build a framework for a systematic assess of professional service markets, using the engineering approach of Bornemann and Reinhardt. It is based on the theory of the structural capital and a strategic process to appropriate required capabilities in the target markets. At the present, what this company lacks are not the physical resources or technical competences, but capabilities that enable the firm to leverage new competences to address new markets. Service industries, including engineering services providers (hereafter ESP), have the particularity that the core competences and the critical success factors are based on intangible assets. Hence, this thesis shall contribute to a development of a strategic view of intangibles. Building this framework will help managers to understand the process of developing and formulating an effective strategy, which meets the industry demands, and consequently, it will show how to react to new business paradigms. As a starting point it can be stated, [...]