From Denis to Dave, a Double whammy for Boeing!
- Prashant Kavi (PK)
- Aug 27, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 1, 2024
Marketing taglines can come back to haunt you, as Boeing is now discovering to its chagrin, following sustained set of troubles, related particularly to the jinxed 737 MAX programme. Boeing’s much vaunted tagline, coined in an era when the plane maker, at the peak of its engineering prowess, seemingly could do no wrong, is now increasingly being subjected to vicious trolling with a rather effortlessly reversed derivative - “if it’s a Boeing, I’m not going!”
It is also interesting to observe how fortunes have flipped for the incumbent CEO, Dave Calhoun after he took over from his predecessor, Denis Muilenberg, as CEO in the aftermath of the very tragic twin 737 MAX 8 fatal accidents in 2018/19.
Follow this trail of public statements with an uncanny leitmotif, to understand how the CEO position at Boeing, is sadly, turning out to be just a game of musical chairs, with no fix in sight for the beleaguered plane maker:
Denis Muilenberg, June 2015 (Press Statement upon being named CEO)
“The opportunity to lead the people of Boeing in service to our commercial and government customers is a tremendous honor and responsibility. Our company is financially strong and well positioned in our markets. As we continue to drive the benefits of integrating our enterprise skills, capabilities and experience – what we call operating as 'One Boeing' – we will find new and better ways to engage and inspire employees, deliver innovation that drives customer success, and produce results to fuel future growth and prosperity for all our stakeholders.”
Denis Muilenberg, April 2019 (Press Conference)
“We have gone back and confirmed again, as we do the safety analysis, the engineering analysis, that we followed exactly the steps in our design and certification processes that consistently produce safe airplanes. It [B737 MAX8] was designed per our standards. It [B737 MAX 8] was certified per our standards.”
Denis Muilenberg at U. S. Senate Committee Hearing, 29 October 2019
Senator Ted Cruz [to Muilenberg]:
You're the CEO - the buck stops with you. Did you read this document? And how did your team not put it in front of you? Run in with their hair on fire saying, ‘we've got a real problem here? How did that not happen? And what does that say about the culture at Boeing if they didn't give it to you?”
On December 23, 2019, Denis Muilenburg resigned as the CEO and Board Director and the official statement from Boeing read:
“A change in leadership was necessary to restore confidence in the company moving forward as it works to repair relationships with regulators, customers, and all other stakeholders.”
Dave Calhoun, March 2020 (New York Times Interview)
“It’s more than I imagined it would be [on turning around the situation at Boeing], honestly. And it speaks to the weaknesses of our leadership. I’ll never be able to judge what motivated Dennis, whether it was a stock price that was going to continue to go up and up, or whether it was just beating the other guy to the next rate increase. If anybody ran over the rainbow for the pot of gold on stock, it would have been him.”
Dave Calhoun, March 2020 (Call with Reporters)
“I watched the same movie you did—I think I was in the front-row seat, and I might come to exactly the same conclusions you do. My leadership role here at Boeing is intended to make changes that correct a lot of those situations.”
Dave Calhoun, January 2024 (at a Boeing Town Hall meeting with employees following the Alaska Air flight 1282 door-plug blowout incident)
We are going to approach this, number one, acknowledging our mistake. We're going to approach it with 100 per cent and complete transparency every step of the way. [Boeing] would ensure every next airplane that moves into the sky is in fact safe.”
In March 2024, Boeing announced Dave Calhoun will step down as Chief Executive at the end of 2024.
Dave Calhoun, 25 March 2024 (Message to company employees)
“It is the future of our company that is the subject of my letter to you today. I have been considering for some time, in discussion with our board of directors, the right time for a CEO transition at Boeing. I want to share with you that I have decided this will be my last year as CEO of our great company, and I have notified the board of that decision.”
Dave Calhoun at U. S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing, 18 June 2024
Senator Josh Hawley [to Calhoun]:
“I think you’re focused on exactly what you were hired to do. You’re trying to squeeze every piece of profit out of this company. You’re strip mining it. For the American people, they’re in danger. For your workers, they’re in peril. For your whistleblowers, they literally fear for their lives, but you’re getting compensated like never before. I think the American public, when they fear to get on their airplanes, they understand your safety record. And frankly Sir, I think it’s a travesty that you’re still in your job.”
From harshly castigating his predecessor (although he is also on record for apologizing afterwards) to finding himself in the same situation as his predecessor now and sounding very much like Denis Muilenberg was, towards the end of his tenure.
And even though Dave Calhoun has offered to step down at the end of the year, clearly that is not perceived as good enough and several sections of the industry and government have already started calling for his immediate removal after what they claim has been a tepid effort in the last four-years of his reign, towards fixing any of the problems that plague Boeing. The wheel comes a full circle!
"A man’s got to know his limitations."
-[Dirty] Harry Callahan, Magnum Force (1973)
Postscript
At the time of publishing this article, Robert K. "Kelly" Ortberg had been appointed Boeing's new President and Chief Executive Officer, effective August 8, 2024 and his tenure has run into rough weather almost immediately, with over 30,000 workers striking work seeking better compensation. Not fair for a new incumbent, but then Kelly Ortberg might have known what he was getting into when he took on this role and responsibility. Will he be able to rescue and resurrect Boeing? Everyone's watching.
Author's Note
Those of us from Gen X, who grew up knowing Boeing as the predominant big airplane manufacturer (Airbus was just about starting to come into its own then as a credible rival) and were in large-measure inspired to join the Aviation industry, dreaming of working on those big gleaming Boeing jets, are rooting for it to reclaim its preeminent position as a foremost airplane manufacturer and a technological and engineering colossus. I am sure even rival Airbus, would welcome an end to Boeing's troubles because collectively the industry needs a stronger and better Boeing, to compete and spur relentless innovation that our industry so desperately needs.
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