The Bombardier story

Citation

MacDonald, L. (2003), "The Bombardier story", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 75 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2003.12775bae.001

The Bombardier story

The Bombardier story

Who would have thought that inventing the snowmobile would also bring about the creation of an aerospace industry. With his invention of the snowmobile in 1937, Joseph-Armand Bombardier laid the foundations of a manufacturing empire in the global transportation industry. In the succeeding years, Bombardier Inc. has become a leading company in the manufacture of civil aircraft. Thousands of executives fly every day in Learnt, Challenger, and Global Express business jets. Millions travel on underground trains, automated metros and commuter trains also manufactured by a Bombardier company.

The Bombardier story details the company's six-decades climb to the top of its field. The book recounts that the 1970s were stormy times for Bombardier as rising energy prices, a maturing snowmobile market, and major economic forces sent the entire industry into a downward spiral. The book describes how close the company came to ruin, and how it was saved by diversification. Firstly into the railway industry, and this is when the book becomes particularly interesting, the aircraft industry. Chapter 8, Turning into Aerospace, records the fascinating account of the company's entry into the aerospace industry.

Since its foray into rail manufacturing in the 1970s, Bombardier had met with remarkable success, within 25 years the company risen from a minor player to one of the major players in the industry.

The trouble with this success, however, was that Bombardier again was in danger of becoming a one-product firm. By the mid 1980s the company was looking for a third industry that would restore a balance to the growth trajectory. The chapter outlines the decline of Canadair and the background to its purchase by Bombardier. Between 1989 and 1992, Bombardier acquired three more aerospace companies, Short Brothers, Learjet Crop and de Havilland.

Interestingly entitled Portrait of a Turnaround Artist, Chapter 9 examines Bombardier's approach to rescuing ailing and troubled companies. The company's approach seem to work, by the fiscal year ending 31 January 1994, the three failing aerospace companies purchased by Bombardier was generating $135 million on sales of $2.2 billion. How did Bombardier pull it off? How did its gentle turnaround artistry succeed? Larry MacDonald answers these question in well written detail in the succeeding chapters.

The Bombardier Story holds the readers interest from cover to cover. It is a story of inspiring entrepreneurship also of outstanding leadership and management skills. Above all it is a tribute to a company that is largely responsible for the creation of a successful Canadian aerospace industry.

For further information, please contact: John Wiley and Sons. Tel: +44 1243 779777; Fax: +44 1243; E-mail: customer@wiley.co.uk

Larry MacDonald