Boeing’s reputation is probably at an all-time low, as we increasingly learn about the corners that the company has cut in order to maximize profits, at the cost of safety. Not only is Boeing’s reputation bad, but the company is also facing increased regulatory scrutiny over its production practices, to ensure that things improve.
Continue reading: Boeing Management Changes: CEO & Board Chair Step Down
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all very true, Ben.
The pressure on Boeing has been enormous amidst continual failures and the need to right the ship.
Everyone needs a strong Boeing but they have been getting weaker by the day.
The government has every reason to push to effect change and that begins today.
In an industry like aviation, don't underestimate the ability of the government to push for change and to ensure that the US remains the gold standard for aviation.
Right now Boeing is not and neither is United
The new Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope seems like a typical bean counter according to her bio on Boeing's website. Doesn't seem like they're completely returning to being engineer-led like many had hoped.
The CEO and the Board Chair is an okay start, but WAY more leadership heads need to roll. Way. More. The new CEO is likely to be just as bad given their background. This is lipstick on a pig, at best. But, at least I'm relishing the Schadenfreude I have watching the Boeing company destroy itself. I hope regulators absolutely crush Boeing.
Aside from Steve Mollenkopf, not another engineer on Boeing's board. Nothing but bean counters and lawyers. Commercial aviation should be split off from the cost-plus DOD business and have the HQ moved back to Seattle.
The rot at Boeing is typical of the US as a whole. Everything financialized, outsourced and treating the workforce like dirt. Calhoun even canceled development of a new midsized airliner after the 737 max grounding. I wonder if that pig will get an $80M golden parachute like Muilenberg?
When you see the 737 Max crisis that they still have 2 uncertified Max and the 777-9 that was presented in 2013 still uncertified you have a BIG problem.
Boeing will be acquired by Northrop Grumman or Lockheed Martin. It's only a matter of time.
Leahy was a salesperson (and a damn good one), not really the C-suite type though. They need a Tim Clark!
Or hell, I hear Al Baker's available............
This is definitely needed.
Calhoun has all the vision of a blind man, and has accomplished (check notes) jack squat, after being thrust into that position by the board to show "See? We got rid of the last CEO who clearly didn't know what he was doing either!?"
Someone who gives a crap about the future of the company, beyond seemingly the next quarterly report.
I said so jokingly in a previous post, but the more I think about it, the more (maybe) his militaristic management style might make sense at Boeing......... go get Al Baker.
Unless the next CEO is steeped in engineering and moves HQ back to Everett it’s basically a PR exercise
"Part of the problem is that publicly traded companies in the United States are so focused on short term stock price rather than looking at the long term."
This has been obvious for a number of years. Boeing will now become a business school case study, such as GE under Jack Welch. However, as long as boards are beholden to stockholders of significant numbers of shares (private entities, mutual funds, public pensions) rather than the health of the company this will continue to happen. One would hope that whenever management wants to ramp up production with fewer employees the board would really act appropriately and grill the decision makers as to the long term effects of those decisions.
Maybe actually ask individual stockholders (boards to have access to addresses)? I'll be Pollyanna and say make them watch The Solid Gold Cadillac.
They'll hire more C-suiters that are yes-men to goosing the share price at any cost (human lives, airframe groundings, etc.).
1. Boeing will be sold at a fire-sale price...
2. OR they'll take their medicine, invest a LOT of money, and emerge a more solid company that actually focuses on quality and safety.
Smart money is on #1.
Boeing will now become a business school case study, such as GE under Jack Welch
Agreed, which definitely shouldn't be a surprise, considering that Boeing's downfall became a freefall under Harry Stonecipher + Jim McNerney..... both of whom were previous acolytes of Jack Welch, working directly under him.
Is it really an "overhaul" of leadership when they're just pulling other insiders?
As alluded to in the comments, way too many MBAs and not enough engineers running the show at Boeing. As example:
- B777-9 is still floundering. By the time it is implemented, a clean sheet design could have been released
- Dropped the ball on the USAF B767 tanker, repeatedly delays with subsequent issues
- Outsourcing in the name of dividends via Spirit Aerospace; now its come around and bit them on the arse
- B787 had multiple of production and quality issues due to outsourcing of parts and moving production from Seattle to save on labor
- MAX program has been a lost cause from the word "go"
- lack of a fresh, clean sheet design since B787 which was released 13 yrs ago.
I'm very much opposed to government intervention (think Biden and EVs). However, it would be a crime if Uncle Sam fails to read the Riot Act to Boeing senior leadership.
The markets have not reacted very significantly to this announcement.
The share has not dropped but not rocketed either. The message seems to be:"It's a move in the right direction but more needs to be done".
Let's see if they can find a CEO that can both satisfy shareholders and insufflate a durable and positive culture change in the company.
Hopefully the markets have now understood their expectations of Boeing's returns were bloated.
Share price is now low, it's an opportunity for the market to express a reasonable expectation on returns and give room to management to implement a healthy strategy.
Speaking of crime, why has no one senior from Boeing gone to jail over the 737MAX? This is considering that they purposefully and intentionally withheld information on MCAS's existence and function to regulators, during certification.
Al-Baker's management style would never fly in the USA. He'd be out in a month, on a hostile environment or harassment charge.
As mentioned by others, Boeing's problems took off when they moved business people into leadership roles previously occupied by engineers. I recently finished Joe Sutter's fantastic memoir, "747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation." Joe Sutter was the lead design engineer on the 747, after having worked on the 727 and 737. He stayed on as a senior Boeing exec through the early 2000s. (Because of his engineering expertise he also served on the Presidential Commission investigating the Challenger space shuttle disaster.)
One constant theme in his memoir was Boeing's commitment to safety and engineering. As I listened to the book I kept thinking to myself that the corporate culture he described from the 50s through roughly the 90s, of engineering excellence that was the class of the world, is no longer present at the company.
just a thought about these executives who are dismissed.
I wonder what their Golden Parachutes will be for each?
Too bad there's no "Claw Back" feature!!
What they need is to get Alan Mulally out of retirement and bring Alan back to turn the ship around. The day Boeing starting to go downhill is the day they didn’t promote Alan and then have Alan left Boeing to become CEO of Ford. Similar to what Intel is doing to with Pat Galsinger, brining back some old school Boeing (pre-McDonald Douglas) back into the senior management will probably help.
Well, we all know how Al Baker has no love lost with Airbus, so maybe he'd be good at Boeing 😛
Agree with ImmortalSynn though, no way he would function in the USA. He doesn't seem to embody the spirit of political correctness that's required at a US corporation.
They need to clear out the the bean counter awfulness of McDonnell Douglas that took-over the company in what was meant to be Boeing acquiring McDonnell Douglas. Boeing effectively paid to be acquired itself and its been downhill since then. Like imagine allowing the people who destroyed their own business to the point you had to rescue them to take over your won business?? How do you think that would have ended??
If the new ceo is not a woman of color I will never fly on a boeing plane again
The outgoing CEOs made millions and will also have a generous exit package.
If only i could fail upwards like this with a bunch of money to retire.
Northrup or Lockheed will only buy the defense and the space. They will not touch the commercial side. The Commercial side could be bought by Elon Musk
US aerospace needs a complete overhaul. Let new entrants enter the airliner business.
There's nothing regulatory that's preventing new entrants from "entering" or doing anything else.
It's just the insane costs to develop, certify, manufacture, and market airliners, that's keeping other companies at bay.
The defense side is not in any danger.
And Elon Musk is quite possibly the one person on Earth who could make Boeing Commercial more screwed up than it already is.
.....I can see it now: the CyberMAX, powered by pilot neuro-link. 🙁
What a stupid and incorrect thing to say.
What really ruined the company was hiring and promoting finance people instead of engineers to senior management to run the company.
Finally, someone smart! Instead of these idiot jackasses suddenly on here blaming DEI for all of this.
Presumably this was a joke, given that the company has only ever been run by white males.
Fairly certain that the whole point of that post was to highlight the fact that everyone involved in Boeing's ruinous decision-making, was a wealthy White male.
And that DEI critics are ignoring an actual corporate downfall caused by non-minorities and non-women, while blaming DEI for imaginary corporate downfalls that haven't actually even taken place.
Has everyone forgotten Boeing also assassinated a whistleblower recently?
These executives stepping down also need to be investigated for any involvement.
Yet it's all middle aged white men at the top. Where these decisions were actually made.
But we all know you're just a limp little troll.
He will immediately do away with the flight controls and insist all flying been done through a single touch screen set between the pilot and copilot.
That's exactly what I said in the comments here back in 2020 when they appointed Calhoun. Boeing should have not skipped over Mulally. He played a major role on Boeing's last great plane, the 777. Then he went on to turnaround Ford while the other big 3 needed a bailout.
Seeing what unfolded since Calhoun, Boeing needs Mulally now more than ever. Too bad he's probably not coming out of retirement.
Do you have proof ? You’re suggesting that Boeing management hired someone to kill him ? If it was Tupolev I could understand as it would be polonium or the executive fell out of a window.
I am sure that idiots here complaining about DEI can rest assured when Boeing, once again, selects again a WHITE CEO to head the company further down the cliff. That wouldn't be DEI! HAHAH Boeing is not salvageable given the history of how the CEOs managing spread-sheets ruined this company and cared only about profits. Max is beyond redeemable. Avoid it at all cost. And Avoid Boeing.
"Funnily" enough, Boeing's board has rejected proposal to move headquarters back to Seattle, citing potential impact on day-to-day management roughly a month ago. One of the shareholders put forward this proposal, expressing lack of faith in current set-up and blaming decline on headquarters' relocation to Chicago...
Impact on a day-to-day management.. how ironic... Maybe they were meaning mismanagement...
The most challenging part is the time it would take even the most well-meaning management to put the company on the right track.
In any case, Airbus needs a real scale competitor in order to avoid being complacent
I hope this is more than window dressing. The world needs at least two vital, competitive aircraft manufacturers to supply the demand for new aircraft. Airbus alone doesn't have enough capacity to fill all the outstanding orders.
it all started with the merger of McDonnell Douglas with Boeing decades ago, where the team MD. won the highest positions in the company and started to get more interested in the profits than making safe planes.
Greed is (not always) Good,
Ahhh the nice words used in Corporate America. Step down is the nice way to say they were fired. They are incompetent and will be replaced. Simply that.
Why is it so hard to believe that Boeing, one of the largest defense contractors from a country that’s been known to carry out regime change and skirt international law, ordered the killing of a whistleblower in a high profile case?
This is as meaningful to Calhoun as firing a college football coach. Pay keeps coming for not doing a job you did poorly. Wow, what a concept. How does a board accept this behavior being rewarded? Oh,sorry, they are all on each others boards. Classic fox guarding the hen house. Where is the SEC?
Dumb, sexist, racist comment. The next CEO needs to be the best person for the job. End of story.
Except that they weren't. 🙁
Some of them are still staying-on through the rest of the year, and most (if not all) will walk away with boatloads of money, plus all of their expectant benefits.
That’s what being fired at this level means. They did not decide to quit by themselves. BTW, that is what is wrong in Corporate America. If you get that high in your career, you can be incompetent and still make a lot of money. Why? Because it is not the case owner’s money. It is the shareholders’ money.
Any foreigner who keeps criticizing Boeing and American practices. I would ban you from coming to America if you hate us so much. We need our allies to stop attacking America just to make Europeans feel better.
I mean, you can double-down on an erroneous claim, but repetition won't make it true.
There most certainly *is* actual firing at that level..... and this ain't it.
And that's the problem today. We shut out those whom we disagree with. We have to (re)start talking to each other and understanding why we feel the way we do and just maybe we can return to a better place.
Sometimes we do unfairly. But it IS fair to call a ridiculously silly comment out for what it is...
Airbus can take one look at its sales, compared to Boeing over the last few years, and I'm sure it's feeling just fine. No "attacks" needed.
On one hand I agree that moving the HQ from Seattle was a backslap to its heritage, but the rationale was understandable - it's a multi faced corporation with other military and aerospace companies in many different locations. The Commercial company HQ was left in Seattle.
What's not been examined in greater detail, at least in these blogs, is the role of the subcontractors in the commercial production, and the lack of coordinated engineering and quality control between Boeing and specific subcontractors.
Regardless, it's a mess that will take to clean up and prove itself fully trustworthy again! And let's hope that they're smarter than just some PR campaign...they must prove their capability on the production line and inflight...
Finally. This is barely a start. He spent years failing to do what he was hired to do. Why will he magically be successful by the end of the year?
It's wild to think he'll have been CEO for a half-decade by the time he departs. It honestly feels like they just put him in to replace Muilenburg the other day!
With that said, I agree that it also feels like he's accomplished absolutely nothing within that time. In fact, Boeing seems like it's worse off now than it was in 2019, covid not withstanding.
Julia, as I mentioned above, my comment was indeed a joke. Obviously incompetent white dudes ran the company to its current existence. But you and I both know that some idiot is going to blame DEI in Boeing’s downfall.
Look, get rid of all upper management and go back to the good days of Boeing when the phrase was 'I ain't going if it's not Boeing' rather than, 'if it's Boeing, I ain't going' This is what happens when you replace engineers with money hungry business personnel; McDonnell using Boeing money to buy Boeing.
Definitely, both of them think human in control are retards.
One of them verbally reminds you everytime the trip is almost complete.
The other reminds you through their overlord on X.
Just two thoughts come to mind
1. Reshuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic
2. Golden parachutes.
Here's a breakdown of the known facts:
1. Whistleblower Claims: Barnett raised concerns about safety lapses at Boeing and filed a formal complaint with the FAA in 2017.
2. Legal Action: He was pursuing a whistleblower protection case against Boeing, alleging retaliation for raising safety concerns.
3. Deposition: Barnett's death occurred while he was in Charleston for a deposition related to his case.
4. Family's Doubts: Barnett's family disputed the suicide ruling, claiming he was in good spirits and expressed no suicidal thoughts. In one of this final conversations with a close family friend she testified that he told her: "If anything happens, it's not suicide"
Any reasonable person would agree this fact pattern points to foul play. The question now is, what evidence do you have that there wasn't?
99% of the car accidents are human errors. So yeah do not put humans in driver's seat