the disaster is all full of internal errors

In January 2005, Airbus celebrated in Toulouse in the euphoric launch of the A380, presented as the fatal weapon to permanently establish leadership of the European aircraft manufacturer to Boeing. Less than two years later, the society debate in a crisis which could jeopardize its future: the delay of two years of the A380 addition to increasing uncertainty regarding the conduct of the A400M military program and contradictory statements about the opportunity to engage in the construction of long-range over-water A350 XWB, intended to compete with the Boeing Dreamliner. In place of the announced marginalization of Boeing, Airbus today admitted a delay of ten to fifteen years on its competitor! At the same time, EADS, its parent company, saw its share price fall by 40, with for corollary a multiplicity of legal proceedings for the Group and its leaders.

The Airbus situation is all the more paradoxical that it owes nothing to violent cycles of air transport, since it is growing and enjoys global growth. The crash of Airbus and EADS is the result of any external shock, economic conditions or financial markets. the disaster is all full of internal errors. The most immediate is industrial, related to the failure of the Hamburg plant assembling and wiring of the sections of fuselage. But this failure is itself derived from major disruptions that are to the same principles of the Organization of EADS and the Airbus production. Technological arrogance, which led to exclude CAD Catia platform developed by Dassault Systèmes, universal reference in the aeronautical and automotive industry for the benefit of heterogeneous systems. Then, the loss of contact with the market and customers on the one hand, the technical realities of the other. An industrial organization absurd, based not on efficiency but on the preservation of the political balances between States, based not on a design of enterprise platform, the design, Assembly and marketing, but on a logic of arsenal controlling all of the tasks. Finally a calamitous governance, inherited from the foundation of the group, which provides a dual Franco-German command at all levels and based on the delegation by States of their responsibility to shareholders in both groups, DaimlerBenz and Lagardère, whose core business lies elsewhere and that display their commitment to disengagement of Aeronautics sector whose development is part of a very long-term horizon.

Internally, the acute crisis of EADS and Airbus is very instructive.

1. The first source current difficulties is interventions in the States and particularly of the France in the management of EADS and Airbus, whether it is the change of leaders, the choice and the calendar of programs, organization and implementation of sites and jobs. The solution goes through the commonality and the simplification of the structures of the group, including the Elimination of duplication, and certainly not by the rise of States in the capital. The salvation of Airbus will play in its ability to reconfigure and to refocus on its products and its customers, in any case in the payment of public aid for sustainability concepts, an organization and a structure of obsolete jobs. Of Boeing shows which sorely shaken by the challenge to its monopoly, was completely restructured, with its sites, eliminating 35,000 jobs, strengthening its range on four models before refounding leadership around the technological revolution of the composite with the launch of the Dreamliner.

2. The crisis of Airbus and EADS is a new demonstration of the perversity of the economic pseudo-patriotisme, which a caricature example was given by the mobilization of all Government and public services to halt restructuring and restrict the dismissals of the Sogerma subsidiary heavily deficit, while the heart of the activity of the Group was threatened. The application of the principles of economic patriotism is a lethal for Airbus threat, as it would lead to sanctuarize the juxtaposition of different State square meadows that lead the group. The interest of the company and its employees such as the rescue of a centre of excellence for Europe key passes, in this case, by implementing the second plan of the short-term objectives promoted by States.

3. The fall of Airbus is not an isolated case among the companies which the State is a shareholder. SAFRAN, in the general indifference, is heading towards a disaster. The Group was born of the will of the State to merge two heterogeneous activities, Snecma and Sagem mobile aeronautical engines.

For the time being, is therefore found in France, in the strategic sector of Aeronautics, stability, consistency and performance are on family capitalism by Dassault, while State enterprises sink in a systemic crisis. It would be oppressive to the intrinsic superiority of family capitalism on state capitalism, which has experienced remarkable success. But it stressed that a business cannot develop without a structured and transparent, share alternating not unpredictably "benign neglect" and daily interference in the management.

4 The woes of Aeronautics, Centre of excellence to international trade, highlight new acceleration of the deindustrialization of the French territory. The value added of the industry fell from 22 to 14 of GDP since 1980 and industrial production continued its decline despite the temporary resurgence of growth. Above all, the worsening of the deficit of trade balance (EUR 15 billion for the first half of 2006) reflects continuing degradation of the competitiveness of the secondary sector, rolled in the deadlock of the investment, the explosion of the unit costs of production ( 30 since 2000), the overvaluation of the euro against the dollar caused by the monetary policy of the ECB.

5 Saint-Exupéry said that "the aircraft did us discover the true face of the Earth." In the same way, the Airbus crisis made us discover the true face of the France and Europe. The aircraft manufacturer was erected as a symbol of the Europe of projects, based on voluntary cooperation between States. This model has imploded due to the limits laid down in the integration of industrial operations and the failure of governance of EADS, the lack of capacity of arbitration and decision-making leading to immobility and inertia of shocks. Is exactly the situation of the entire European Union, because you have built the political Europe which was obliged to counterpart of the single currency, a foul for the States of the consequences of the integration of the continent. Aviation remains one of the areas where the France is among the world leaders, with the accumulation of knowledge, competence, technologies and rare processes. The image of the country, these exceptional strengths are offset, or even wasted, by choice of structures and archaic organization, significantly behind in the mastery of new technologies and adaptation to the environment of globalization, an erratic strategy and governance tainted by public authorities. Airbus, the image of the France, must reinvent itself to survive and now faces a moment of truth, where the key to the relief through the break with the ideas, structures, morals, and men who have failed.