Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Embraer E-Jets E2: Flying High

Yemen, Gerry, Isab...

Case

Embraer E-Jets E2: Flying High

Yemen, Gerry; Isabella, Lynn A.

OB-1308 | Published March 17, 2021 | 28 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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This field-based case chronicles how Embraer, a recognized market leader in Brazil’s regional aircraft industry, designed and developed an almost entirely new aircraft, the E2-190. Given the success of the E1-190, a project to redesign that successful product was a bold move. Yet the E2 project excelled. It surpassed industry expectations, including being under time and under budget, and it logged many firsts, such as setting a world record for first flight and triple flight certification. The case explores how the project team created work groups and teams embedded within the company and leadership values to guide actions and decisions during this project, which was large in both scale and scope. Throughout the case, executives execute a change process and use influence and project-management tools, especially critical chain analysis, to align business practices with human behavior and scale the program with 98.5% scheduled reliability.

- Examine teamwork collaboration within and outside of a large organization. - Understand how leadership values are manifested in actions and decisions made (i.e., who to bring in and how they interact with values—congruency [value] and compatibility [how it shows up]). - Explore the management complexity of a project of large scope and scale and how one organization thought about the many parts. - Consider how middle managers can exert influence in support of change. - Compare experiences students have had within their own workplaces.