Friends, My friend Harold Meyerson just wrote this for The American Prospect, and it’s so good and timely that I wanted to share it with you. In the wake of the midair blowout of a door on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 earlier this month, the lead that Airbus has taken over Boeing in the manufacture and sales of the world’s commercial aircraft has, not surprisingly, grown.
Robert, my husband used to work for Boeing and could tell you all kinds of stories about the shitty things Boeing does. There are so many bad and bordering on illegal things they do. I hope they do a deep dive in Boeing in both the commercial and defense sides.
Besides the cogent comments in the article, I think no one is looking at the culture changes due to BA's increasing DOD work- which generally is more lucrative, less risky and not subject to commercial swings. The result is over attention and labor allocation to DOD biz at the expense of commercial. Many a US company has downsized their commercial sector to dine at the Pentagon trough...
My dad was a quality control supervisor at Boeing for over 40 years . He retired in the 80s. Unfortunately he passed in the late 80s. He would roll over in his grave if he could see what's happening now. He and the employees that he supervised were extremely proud of the safety of their planes. Then they sold the company to the bean counters and everything changed. Now we are seeing the results. The only way out of this is to turn control of the production back to the engineers. Under the engineers they built the safest aircraft in the world and made a profit. When you make a product That if something goes wrong, can kill hundreds of people you have to focus on quality, not quantity. The money will come if you build a quality product.
Outsourcing is too expensive. META outsources its customer service to an Indian firm whose employees have no interest in solving problems.
They just want to send long, long emails telling you how sorry they are and thanking your for your patience.It is all cooing and sweetness and no competence. The actual workers barely understand the issues. They read from scripts. I have 50 emails from their Indian outsource firm which if released would make Mark very uncomfortable. Outsourcing is stupid.
Airbus must comply with strict standards, and if it fails to meet those standards, there are stiff consequences. Boeing "should" comply with strict standards, and if it fails to meet those standards, it slips-slides-away from any real consequences. Huge difference! Airbus has to answer to workers and government officials in western European countries. Boeing can merely depend on its Republikkkan and MAGA friends and supporters.
Unrestrained capitalism is not a viable economic model. The US regulatory environment and corporate greed are at irreconcilable odds. Corrupt corporations and a constrained regulatory environment will continue to wreak havoc on our ability to compete globally. We as citizens of the United States lose in this battle of corruption.
If unions continue to gain strength AND they take on these corrupted management decisions, and the upcoming SCOTUS ruling on Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council allows regulatory agencies to continue to do their jobs, then maybe, just maybe, companies like Boeing can no longer operate with impunity and start figuring out how to compete in a way that is beneficial to all stakeholders and the ecosystem.
Profits first, safety never. The same with all corporations, they exist for one purpose and one purpose only, according to a ruling by SCOTUS over a century ago, to produce a profit for the investor.
The sad reality is that if Boeing focused entirely on building the best, safest aircraft in the world, and stopped cutting every financial corner, they would be printing money now and forever. The market is a duopoly and any great aircraft sells itself. Once they begin deliveries of each major new model (e.g. 787), the order backlog is soon overwhelming and this company once again becomes a cash machine. It does not matter how much they spend or 'save' in developing the latest model. It is a colossal failure of leadership dating back at least 20 years that the impulse for short-term greed took over and Boeing did cut nearly every corner imaginable. The culture of quality and safety was subordinated to short-sighted greed. The entire board of directors and the past 7 CEOs are all culpable. The entire board and current CEO should be replaced immediately.
This is a known issue. When Boeing corporate deserted Seattle for Chicago some years ago we realized that the company we knew and loved was gone forever. While much of the manufacturing is still in Seattle they moved the 787 to South Carolina. And the quality control in virtually every line has been sorely lacking.
What happened to Lockheed and Douglas? Here is another example of the monopolies of capitalism willing to sacrifice our safety and our lives for yet another Buck.
As it does so many times, it starts with "...company’s new-model CEOs, who no longer came to their posts from careers in production, but rather from the financial side of the industry. "
If you don't know anything about what the company does, you shouldn't trying to run it.
Living in Seattle for over 40 years (and my wife much longer, she was born here) I can attest to the dismay locals feel about the Lazy B. When corp moved to Chicago for no good reason, that really chaffed. It highlighted the drive to increase stockholder value over quality. How'd that work out? Like crap.
Very nice post! (Perhaps an unfortunate choice of words.) An additional factor in the decline of Boeing is their embrace of the corporate culture of McDonnell-Douglas in 1997. Up until that time Boeing had a solid reputation for quality and safety, but that started to change after the merger.
Though some commenters have blamed Boeing's defense business for the decline, I find that argument difficult to take seriously, as Boeing was the Air Force's almost exclusive supplier of strategic bombers, tankers and jet-powered transports for five decades beginning in the early 1950s.
As is the case for so many other corporations, the rot starts at the top. Let's not forget that their leadership and big investors poured millions into ALEC's efforts to modify corporate charters to make profit the sine qua non of American corporations.
Robert, my husband used to work for Boeing and could tell you all kinds of stories about the shitty things Boeing does. There are so many bad and bordering on illegal things they do. I hope they do a deep dive in Boeing in both the commercial and defense sides.
Besides the cogent comments in the article, I think no one is looking at the culture changes due to BA's increasing DOD work- which generally is more lucrative, less risky and not subject to commercial swings. The result is over attention and labor allocation to DOD biz at the expense of commercial. Many a US company has downsized their commercial sector to dine at the Pentagon trough...
My dad was a quality control supervisor at Boeing for over 40 years . He retired in the 80s. Unfortunately he passed in the late 80s. He would roll over in his grave if he could see what's happening now. He and the employees that he supervised were extremely proud of the safety of their planes. Then they sold the company to the bean counters and everything changed. Now we are seeing the results. The only way out of this is to turn control of the production back to the engineers. Under the engineers they built the safest aircraft in the world and made a profit. When you make a product That if something goes wrong, can kill hundreds of people you have to focus on quality, not quantity. The money will come if you build a quality product.
Outsourcing is too expensive. META outsources its customer service to an Indian firm whose employees have no interest in solving problems.
They just want to send long, long emails telling you how sorry they are and thanking your for your patience.It is all cooing and sweetness and no competence. The actual workers barely understand the issues. They read from scripts. I have 50 emails from their Indian outsource firm which if released would make Mark very uncomfortable. Outsourcing is stupid.
Airbus must comply with strict standards, and if it fails to meet those standards, there are stiff consequences. Boeing "should" comply with strict standards, and if it fails to meet those standards, it slips-slides-away from any real consequences. Huge difference! Airbus has to answer to workers and government officials in western European countries. Boeing can merely depend on its Republikkkan and MAGA friends and supporters.
Unrestrained capitalism is not a viable economic model. The US regulatory environment and corporate greed are at irreconcilable odds. Corrupt corporations and a constrained regulatory environment will continue to wreak havoc on our ability to compete globally. We as citizens of the United States lose in this battle of corruption.
If unions continue to gain strength AND they take on these corrupted management decisions, and the upcoming SCOTUS ruling on Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council allows regulatory agencies to continue to do their jobs, then maybe, just maybe, companies like Boeing can no longer operate with impunity and start figuring out how to compete in a way that is beneficial to all stakeholders and the ecosystem.
Pay the shareholders above all things. Do the at by cutting the workforce and accepting accidents. The cost of doing business.
Profits first, safety never. The same with all corporations, they exist for one purpose and one purpose only, according to a ruling by SCOTUS over a century ago, to produce a profit for the investor.
The sad reality is that if Boeing focused entirely on building the best, safest aircraft in the world, and stopped cutting every financial corner, they would be printing money now and forever. The market is a duopoly and any great aircraft sells itself. Once they begin deliveries of each major new model (e.g. 787), the order backlog is soon overwhelming and this company once again becomes a cash machine. It does not matter how much they spend or 'save' in developing the latest model. It is a colossal failure of leadership dating back at least 20 years that the impulse for short-term greed took over and Boeing did cut nearly every corner imaginable. The culture of quality and safety was subordinated to short-sighted greed. The entire board of directors and the past 7 CEOs are all culpable. The entire board and current CEO should be replaced immediately.
This is a known issue. When Boeing corporate deserted Seattle for Chicago some years ago we realized that the company we knew and loved was gone forever. While much of the manufacturing is still in Seattle they moved the 787 to South Carolina. And the quality control in virtually every line has been sorely lacking.
What happened to Lockheed and Douglas? Here is another example of the monopolies of capitalism willing to sacrifice our safety and our lives for yet another Buck.
And the Supreme Court is about to take over regulation… I feel so safe about all of this “NOT”!
As it does so many times, it starts with "...company’s new-model CEOs, who no longer came to their posts from careers in production, but rather from the financial side of the industry. "
If you don't know anything about what the company does, you shouldn't trying to run it.
Living in Seattle for over 40 years (and my wife much longer, she was born here) I can attest to the dismay locals feel about the Lazy B. When corp moved to Chicago for no good reason, that really chaffed. It highlighted the drive to increase stockholder value over quality. How'd that work out? Like crap.
The basic USA problem seems to be uncivilised, greedy, short term, cynical stupidity, everywhere.
Very nice post! (Perhaps an unfortunate choice of words.) An additional factor in the decline of Boeing is their embrace of the corporate culture of McDonnell-Douglas in 1997. Up until that time Boeing had a solid reputation for quality and safety, but that started to change after the merger.
Though some commenters have blamed Boeing's defense business for the decline, I find that argument difficult to take seriously, as Boeing was the Air Force's almost exclusive supplier of strategic bombers, tankers and jet-powered transports for five decades beginning in the early 1950s.
As is the case for so many other corporations, the rot starts at the top. Let's not forget that their leadership and big investors poured millions into ALEC's efforts to modify corporate charters to make profit the sine qua non of American corporations.