Publications
Publications
- April 2020 (Revised April 2023)
- HBS Case Collection
TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher
Abstract
TransDigm was a highly acquisitive company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial customers. Over the ten years ending in 2016, its stock price had increase ten times, and both EBITDA and revenues had grown at compound annual rates in excess of 20%. But in early 2017, investors, customers, and government officials began to question the implementation, sustainability, and ethics of the firm’s unique value creation strategy. That strategy consisted of three parts: value-based pricing, cost reductions, and new product development. In the short term, CEO Nick Howley had to decide whether to respond to the barrage of criticism; in the longer term, he had to decide whether to change the firm’s highly successful strategy.
Keywords
Acquisition; Ethics; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Growth Management; Performance Evaluation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Value Creation; Competitive Advantage; Aerospace Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States
Citation
Esty, Benjamin C., and Daniel Fisher. "TransDigm in 2017: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?" Harvard Business School Spreadsheet Supplement 720-855, April 2020. (Revised April 2023.)