Boeing company is among the world’s largest aerospace corporations and the leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners, security systems as well as space and defense systems. The company has both tangible and intangible assets. The tangible assets include measurable and physical assets that are relied on during company operations, which include plant and equipment. Intangible assets are non-monetary assets that cannot be physically measured, such as copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, and patents. Boeing records $11,398 million on intangible assets, while the tangible assets are $122,227 million (Guru Focus, 2020). Lockheed Martin corporation has its intangible assets at $13,817 million and tangible assets at $33,711 million (Guru Focus, 2020). The underlying performance shows that Boeing has more total assets as compared to Lockheed Martin Corporation.
Boeing identifies four major competencies that have played a big role in their competitive edge. These include systematic integration, technical and functional excellence, customer knowledge and focus as well as product innovation (Kashirin et al., 2016) Boeing has enjoyed strong relations with several companies and has a strong international presence that facilitates global sales and production. The financial resources and assets acquired by the company have prolonged the success of the company over the years, giving Boeing a competitive edge.
The value chain identified indicates the importance of activities within the company according to their role in service and product delivery process. The primary value chain activities of Boeing consist of logistics, operations as well as marketing and sales. Boeing has developed a strong relationship with suppliers and has managed timely delivery processes. Their service and manufacturing operations have improved productivity and maximized efficiency. The company has relied on the marketing funnel approach to structure sales and marketing activities. Boeing support activities include the research and development of new technology and innovation. The budget for R&D in 2019 has been $3.2 billion. Boeing has beaten its rival Lockheed Martin, whose expenditure on research and development has amounted to $1.3 billion (Pandian, Pecht, Zio, and Hodkiewicz, 2020). Boeing has impacted innovation in aerospace technology, defense, and security systems through the development of new products. The VIRO analysis shows that the financial resources and the distribution network are valuable, difficult to imitate, rare, and organized to capture value for Boeing company. It has illustrated the sustained competitive edge in Boeing company against its competitors.
