Product details

This case reports the attempted sale of a small fleet of HS 478 (mentioned in the case study as Britcraft Jetprop), which is a medium-sized civil transport aircraft, to a European air force. The customer is disguised throughout the case as the National Air Force (NAF). The case contains background information on Hawker Siddeley Aviation Ltd (HSA) and its products, the HSA Manchester divisions, the HS 478 and the sales organisation. A sales campaign is followed from initial contact through several stages of negotiation to what appears to be an impasse. The customer''s government demands that an offset arrangement be made to cover a large part of the final contract''s value. The HS 478 sales operation from HSA Manchester is truly international. The product was designed for a geographically widely-dispersed segment of the world market and the sales effort is global. This case provides a basis for discussion of the problems facing companies like HSA who are world-wide marketers of expensive capital equipment. The case is left open for discussion by leaving out details of the final bartering. Teaching objectives are: (1) to illustrate that sales negotiations cover a wide range of technical and commercial issues, and involve many people with specialist skills from both the seller''s and buyer''s organisation; (2) to expose to students that bartering is becoming an increasingly important part of deals in which it is expensive to organise, difficult to cost and even more difficult to expedite; (3) to explain that a product such as this is seen as prestigious and strategic by the government of the buying nation and frequently in receipt of financial support from them.