General Atomics “Build It and They Will Come” Model

Quick on the trigger…

Aviation Week is currently running a profile on General Atomics CEO Tom Cassidy and his unusual approach to military production, and DefenseTech.org has some coverage. DID has run a number of articles covering the Predator UAV’s production and use, and under current plans the U.S. Predator fleet will expand considerably. While the General Atomics approach is an extremely risky strategy in more stable military fields, it offers food for thought as a possible business model for hot and quickly evolving areas:

“Tom Cassidy isn’t waiting for the paperwork to go through. Cassidy, the president and CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, is expanding the Predator production line, even building eight additional Predator Bs—a more capable version of the aircraft—without orders. “They’ll procrastinate for three years,” he says of his military customers. “Then when they want to buy, they think it’s like going down to the Ford dealership and picking one off the lot.”