Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has been on the job since August, or
roughly three and half months, and he addressed Boeing employees on
November 20, providing his frank assessment of the issues
confronting the aerospace giant. The CEO specifically called
out:
- Bloated management ranks
- Wasteful spending
- A culture of infighting and shirking responsibility
Conversations with several Boeing employees following the
address relayed to me that the message was well and positively
received by many of the company's employees. They know and
recognize the issues, but aren't in a position to enact change
unless led, which is what Ortberg appears to be doing with
deliberate energy.
The first two issues addressed by Ortberg are relatively easy to
define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (yes,
"DMAIC" is alive and well), but the third item is a bit
harder to define and measure, but ultimately is the feature of
Boeing's corporate culture that is the root cause of many
