In the coming decade, as companies move from the industrial age into the knowledge economy, more and more organizations will find that the cost of not knowing how to manage knowledge work and knowledge workers will have a significant impact on the bottom line.
The impact on the bottom line in Airbus' case was €4.8 billion ($7 billion).
Two years late and with significant cost overruns due largely to software and IT issues, the first Airbus A380 superjumbo just went into service with launch customer Singapore Airlines. The A380 is now the world's largest commercial airliner, capable of seating 525 in a standard three-class configuration. But the costs to Airbus were great: at a minimum, it's €4.8 Billion. With delays in the newer A350 program, which will arrive five years after Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, what will happen to Airbus next?
Far from being a unified company, Airbus' management and production teams span many European companies. The company is first now taking steps to unify these groups but is it a question of "too little, too late"?
