The course exercise is an important part of this module assessment scheme. It counts 30% towards the overall mark. You are required to read carefully the interesting case provided. Discuss it as a team, and come up with a set of recommendations to address the underlying problems.

This exercise should be implemented as a team work and should reflect the opinions of the team as whole. All members must participate and actively contribute to the analysis and discussions leading to the final proposal/ presentation.

1        Background

In 2008, San Francisco International Airport (known by its three-letter airport code, SFO) had announced a $383 million plan to renovate and reopen Terminal 2. Assistant deputy director of aviation security, Kim Dickie and her team, had selected Quantum Secure’s SAFE software suite as the new Terminal 2 credentialing system, but she needed to develop a business case quickly that would convince senior management to give the green light to fund the purchase. The case describes a scenario that occurs frequently in the real world, in which a management decision regarding aviation security matters, offers some real but qualitative value in ways that are difficult or impossible to quantify.

2        Key Points

Assume your team has been hired as a specialised aviation security consultancy group to help Kim Dickie, the Assistant Deputy Director of Aviation Security of San Francisco International Airport, to put together a strong business case to support the purchase of a new Quantum Secure SAFE software system.

Your team has to prepare and submit a presentation with a set of recommendations to assist Kim Dickie to propose a solution while facing senior airport executives. In your presentation, you must address the following key points:

1. Compliance of the new solution regarding industry best practices and the TSA national security policies. Show feedback obtained by the introduction of similar solutions in other airports.
2. Explain how well this new tool fits with the high level management strategy outlined for this SFO airport.
3. Quantification of the various cost savings, impact on risks and benefits introduced by the new SAFE system.
4. Calculation of the NPV, IRR and Payback period for the new project.

3        Learning Objectives

The objective of this case is to help students to deepen their knowledge on the management side of air transport security issues, by studying real challenges typically faced by decision makers. The discussion and analysis gives students the opportunity to consider all the factors that will drive decision makers without constructing comprehensive spreadsheet models. Analyzing the case suggests the limits of traditional numeric approaches in cases where perceived value (security) is sometimes difficult to quantify. The case prepares students to evaluate and justify important purchasing decisions regarding major aviation security systems, when interacting with financial gatekeepers such as CFOs and CEOs by introducing a framework to analyze the quantifiable benefits of a capital expenditure while keeping in mind important intangible benefits.

4        Actions and deliverables

Each team is supposed to:

1. Analyse, study and research the issues at stake (done through class discussions at the end of each day, plus some extra readings and internet research)
2. Prepare and deliver a 20 minutes formal presentation (done in the last day)
3. Engage in a 10 to 15 minutes oral discussion (after the presentation)

5        Evaluation and marking criteria

Team members will earn marks based on the following criteria:

• Correct identification and analysis of issues
• Strategic and management thinking
• Quality of the PowerPoint Presentation
• Quality of the oral communication
• Discussion

Marks for each team member can vary slightly, based on the performance achieved in communication, presentation and discussion. All members are invited to actively participate in the case discussions.

Missing group sessions, lack of contributions, poor performance and missing the final presentation can lead to a substantial deduction of individual marks.

6        Further readings

To better prepare this case, teams are advised to read and research in the following areas:

• Industry best practices in management of aviation security issues
• ICAO and other international standards on aviation security matters
• Regulations and policies from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regarding aviation security at airports
• IT and software solutions used in aviation security at airports
• Simple quantitative methods commonly used in project appraisal (Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Payback period)