The crash of the Boeing Dreamliner in India at Ahmedabad is, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote, “heartbreaking beyond words”. First and foremost, it is the people who have lost their lives, and their families and friends, who should be in our thoughts.
But inevitably this is also a savage blow to the airline industry as a whole, to the company operating the aircraft, Air India, and most of all to the beleaguered manufacturer, Boeing.
It would not be right to make any judgements until the full facts are known, and it may well be that the causes of the crash have nothing to do with Boeing or its 787 Dreamliner, which up to now has had an excellent safety record. But it would be naïve to think that there will be no further damage to the reputation of the company, for there exists a story of how what was once a beacon of US manufacturing prowess could have gone so wrong in recent years.
It is about ethics, about how the pursuit of short-term profits can not only undermine engineering competence built up over many years, but also lead to human tragedy – and ultimately to financial disaster too.
In short order, a group of managers trained by the legendary Jack Welch at GE brought his aggressive style of management to Boeing. They put pressure on managers to cut costs, moved the headquarters away from Seattle where the planes were assembled, outsourced parts of manufacturing to suppliers which were then further squeezed down – and according to a Federal Aviation Administration audit failed to meet quality control standards in their production of the 737 Max. That was the aircraft involved in two fatal crashes, in 2018 and 2019.
The new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, is trying to rebuild the culture of engineering excellence. He was asked in an interview in Aviation Week last month what was the most effective thing he could do to improve safety and quality. He replied: “Major culture change is one of my key turnaround focus areas… That’s literally why I’m here in Seattle. That’s why, right after this interview, I’m going out on the factory floor to talk to people building the 737 Max.”
Well, anyone who has reported on how polished chief executives present themselves to the press will have a certain scepticism about this sort of statement. But to be fair, Ortberg was head of Rockwell Collins, one of the suppliers to Boeing, so he knows what it was like to be squeezed by his client to cut costs. He has come out of retirement to do the job and, as he said, moved to Seattle to do so. And so far his actions have been generally welcomed as a clear break from the culture of recent years.
It matters enormously that he is successful in turning the company round for two broad reasons. First, because Boeing is the largest US manufacturing company, and a huge defence contractor. But more than this, because if the American hard-headed style of management underperforms the more co-operative European and Japanese ways of running companies, that is terrible news for US commercial dominance in the years ahead. After all, Boeing’s sole rival in producing large commercial aircraft, Europe’s Airbus group, has been vastly more successful.
Until 2019 Boeing was the world’s largest aerospace company by revenue. Now it is number two. And, in 2023, the number of Airbus aircraft in service passed Boeing for the first time. The order book for Airbus planes is longer than that for Boeings, and it will at best take a decade for the American company to claw back the advantage it lost to its European rival.
There is a narrow message here, and a broader one.
square NEWS AnalysisThe videos that could show why Air India plane crashed, according to experts
Read More
The narrow point is that Donald Trump wants to revive US manufacturing. Well that is not going to happen if the country’s largest manufacturer, Boeing, continues to lose ground to Airbus.
The broader point is that there is a more general feeling within America that the country has somehow been heading in the wrong direction, prioritising financial engineering over real engineering: Wall Street over Main Street. It’s not just about jobs going abroad; it’s about favouring the short-term vis-à-vis the long-term, about people getting rich by speculation rather than hard work.
So if Ortberg can succeed in turning Boeing round, then it would show that focus on excellence matters more than trying (and actually failing) to make the fast buck. There is nothing helpful to add at this stage about the impact on Boeing of this latest catastrophe.
What is worth saying is this: ethics matter in business. Investment in technology and people is more important than the next quarter’s profit figures. And while Boeing has been a dreadful story of what happens to a once-great company if badly run, there is hope that lessons have been learnt and it will rebuild its reputation.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( A decade of disasters: can Boeing recover? )
Also on site :
- She helped build Disney’s theme park database. Now Sheila Jordan is leading a $38.5 billion Fortune 500 giant’s digital transformation efforts
- ‘90s Country Star, 60, Shows off Slimmed Down Look at Intimate Show: ‘Beautiful'
- 2 HGTV Stars Turn Heads In Cheeky Bikinis