When 'ruthless' Boeing cut costs, the damage spread
When 'ruthless' Boeing cut costs, the damage spread
Boeing's leaders are tepidly admitting the shareholders-first, workers-be-damned strategy was flawed. It's an admission a generation in coming.
The arc of Boeing’s fall can be traced back a quarter century, to when its leaders elevated the interests of shareholders above all others, said Richard Aboulafia, industry analyst with AeroDynamic Advisory.
“Crush the workers. Share price. Share price. Share price. Financial moves and metrics come first,” was Boeing’s philosophy, he said. It was, he said, “a ruthless effort to cut costs without any realization of what it could do to capabilities.”
To drive down costs, Boeing chose to aggressively confront first its workforce and then its suppliers rather than partner with them. It left both, Aboulafia said, “angry and alienated.”
That’s just what monopolies do. I’m sure there’s a line of Cassandras out the door saying “I told you so” for the merger with McDonnell Douglas.