空客在美设厂正面对撼波音

    最大的竞争对手在自家后院设厂可能会让波音感到“很受伤”，不过从经济上看，这也不是什么大不了的事。毕竟波音已经失去了这些美国订单，所以这些飞机究竟是在美国还是在法国生产，也就无所谓了。

    波音真正应该担心的是，EADS可能可利用空客的扩张，加强对华盛顿的影响力。毕竟说到底，虽然民用航空对两家公司也很重要，但更重要的是国防和航天业务。对于波音来说，它的两种业务基本贡献了相等的收入和利润。而EADS的国防和航天业务却贡献了总收入和利润的三分之二，只有另外三分之一是来自空客的民航业务收入。

    波音和美国其他的军火承包商之所以能主宰美国的军火市场主要是因为他们与国会的军火商利益代表保持着紧密的关系。EADS也对美国国会进行游说，推动军火合同，但它有一个致命的缺点——它在美国缺乏一个大型的生产实体。波音和美国其它军火承包商把大多数生产放在国内进行，因此支持这些军火合同就是支持为美国创造工作机会。

    于是EADS也变聪明了，它意识到，如果想在美国扩张市场，就必须把生产设施迁移到美国。因此，EADS2004年在密西西比为其欧洲的直升机部门开设了一家组装工厂后，该公司在美国攻击直升机市场上的份额翻了一番。

    在直升机领域取得胜利后，EADS又在另一个领域对波音发起挑战——这回是一张400亿美元的美军空中加油机订单。EADS承诺将在莫比尔的新工厂生产这些加油机，可问题是当时这个工厂还没立建立起来。但波音的工厂是现成的，波音计划把产品线中的一款民航飞机改装成空中加油机。经过好几年的角力，EADS最终败北，并且损失了数亿美元。

    在加油机合同中输给波音的经历可谓十分惨痛，换做其他公司，经历了这样的失败可能就直接放弃，打道回府了。但EADS是个百折不挠的竞争对手。它知道，它的军用和民用飞机业务要想有所突破，就必须在美国扩大自己的市场份额。

    但光是口头承诺开设工厂还不够——这个工厂必须真正建立起来。把一份合同交给一个已经投产的工厂，保住几千人的工作，这在政治上的说服力远远高于把合同交给一个还没建成、或者还没招到工人的工厂。

    通过在美国成立一家功能完备的生产工厂，雇佣数以千计的美国工人，EADS摇身一变，也成了一家“美国”工厂。下一次与波音竞争政府合同时，它的机会就会大得多。消除了波音的“地利”优势，再加上对华盛顿的战略游说，EADS的竞争地位将大大改善。波音也要小心应对，否则很快它就会发现，自己在两大主要业务领域上都将处于守势。

    译者：朴成奎

    But while it may bruise Boeing's ego to have its biggest commercial aircraft competitor roll out new planes in its own backyard, it isn't that big of deal, financially speaking. After all, Boeing already lost those American orders, so it really doesn't matter if the planes are constructed in Mobile or in Toulouse.

    What Boeing should be worried about is EADS using this Airbus expansion to augment its influence in Washington. After all, while commercial aircraft is important for the two companies, their defense and space business is almost as, or even more important to their respective bottom lines. For Boeing, its revenues and profits are split nearly equally between the two business lines, while at EADS defense and space makes up two-thirds of its revenues and profits, with the other third coming from Airbus.

    Boeing and the other US defense subcontractors have been able to maintain their dominance over the US market by maintaining very close relations with their representatives in Congress. EADS also lobbies Congress and pushes for contracts, but it always had one fatal flaw – it didn't maintain a big manufacturing presence in the US. Boeing and other US subcontractors kept the bulk of their manufacturing at home, so a vote for them was a vote for US jobs.

    EADS got smart and realized that if it wanted to gain a bigger presence in the US it had to relocate its production facilities to the states. When it opened up an assembly plant for its Eurocopter helicopter division in Mississippi in 2004, EADS saw its US market share of attack helicopters double.

    High off its Eurocopter victory, EADS later challenged Boeing for a $40 billion contract to build refueling tanker aircraft for the US military. EADS promised to build its tanker in Mobile, but it hadn't built the facilities yet. Meanwhile, Boeing's facilities were already built - it planned to use a modified version of one of its commercial aircraft to do the job. After years of back and forth, EADS ultimately lost out to Boeing in a multi-year drama that cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

    The grueling experience competing with Boeing over the tanker contract would have been enough for most companies to simply give up and run back home. But EADS is a tough competitor. It knows that if it wants to push the needle in both it's commercial and defense businesses it has to build its market share in US.

    But promising to build a facility doesn't seem to be good enough -- it needs to built. The political drive to save thousands of jobs by handing a new contract to a facility that is already humming is far more powerful than handing the contract to a facility that has yet to be built or staffed.

    By establishing a full manufacturing plant now and employing thousands of American workers, EADS is setting itself up to be as "American" as Boeing the next time it chooses to bid on another government contract. Wiping out the national champion advantage, along with some strategic lobbying in Washington, should effectively level the playing field for EADS. Boeing would be wise to step up its game as it could soon find itself on the defensive on both of its main business lines.