Staff Reports
Boeing has once again graced the headlines, but this time, it’s the kind of leadership shakeup that makes one wonder if they’re trying to turn the ship around or orchestrate an elaborate game of musical chairs. Robert “Kelly” Ortberg has been plucked from the ether to take over the CEO reins on August 8, succeeding Dave Calhoun, who announced his departure earlier this year. It seems managing a company waking up from a series of unfortunate events can be quite a challenge.
Ortberg arrives with a glowing résumé from his time at Rockwell Collins, suggesting he might know a thing or two about aerospace — but whether he can recover Boeing from the wreckage is a different story. While he sings a familiar tune about Boeing’s “tremendous and rich history,” one can’t help but chuckle at the irony, given that the company’s recent performances have looked more like a troubled teenager than a set of solid corporate foundations. With a staggering $1.4 billion loss in the last quarter, more than triple what they bled last year, one has to wonder if Ortberg is ready to handle an organization that seems to be stuck in the turbulence of bad decision-making.
📢Boeing announces retired veteran of the aviation industry Robert K. "Kelly" Ortberg as the new president and CEO, effective August 8, 2024.
💠He served as president and CEO of Rockwell Collins from 2013 to 2018, leading the company's integration with United Technologies and… pic.twitter.com/jrwuBMtDdM
— InsideArbitrage (@InsideArbitrage) July 31, 2024
It certainly doesn’t help that Boeing’s production numbers are plummeting faster than a lead balloon. Deliveries dropped by 32% year-over-year, with only 92 aircraft setting off into the wild blue yonder. How is a company like Boeing supposed to recover when it can’t even roll out a reasonable number of planes? It appears Ortberg has quite a mountain to climb, or rather a runway to clear before achieving any semblance of normalcy.
To add to the mess, the company has been embroiled in scandals that would make a soap opera writer blush. Following last week’s guilty plea regarding its involvement in two tragic 737 Max crashes, not to mention the hiccup of a door plug blowing out on an Alaska Airlines flight, it’s as if Boeing can’t catch a break. Years of mismanagement and a failure to prioritize safety have landed the company in hot water. Still, Ortberg is determined to make safety and quality the “forefront” of his new regime. One might wonder what the past few years were all about if that hasn’t been the case all along.
You’ve got to give Ortberg some credit; declaring a commitment to Boeing’s legacy while navigating a corporate Titanic takes a special breed of bravado. The question remains, though: will he be the captain who steers this ship to calmer waters or merely another passenger on the journey to the bottom? With 170,000 employees counting on him, the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s hard to imagine anyone rolling up their sleeves and tackling this task without a healthy dose of skepticism that these “promises” might be smoke and mirrors. The road ahead is proving to be anything but straightforward.
