Boeing - a Long and Repeated Road to Recovery

Boeing - A long and repeated road to Recovery

Doreen Donegan

Student ID: S00105763

Transforming an enterprise can be one of the more daunting challenges associated with keeping a company viable, growing and building its success. Transformation really means reinventing and streamlining each business process that impacts customers, quality and services. It requires enterprises to throw out old notions and practices and move out of their comfort zones. In the business world, transformational change involves a company making radical changes in its business model, often requiring changes in the company structure, culture and management. Companies may undergo transformational change in response to a crisis, or in order to reposition themselves in the business market. It may also occur in response to changes in technologies, or to allow a company to adapt to take advantage of a new business model.

The risks can often be great; often companies opt to stick to what they know. The processes have been tried and tested, and on-the-face-of-it seems to be working to achieve a goal. Companies can be afraid of change, mostly because they fear failure. Significant shifts in a company’s system for using information also often means the political and administrative landscape of the company will have to change. All of these forces combined can have the devastating effect of freezing a company from ever changing, and therefore, preventing it from growing. Unfortunately, this non action attitude and living in the status quo can be brutal in terms of staying competitive and could have serious financial consequences. An analogy can be put forward: A potential candidate puts forward a CV that states they have 20 years’ experience in a certain field. However, one could ask the question- do they have 20 years’ experience, or do they have one year’s experience doing something 20 times?  

The same can be said for companies. Companies can find a comfort zone and embed themselves there. Nonetheless, by doing this they are setting themselves up for strategic failure. With the constant changes in the business market, new technologies coming on board, and the looming threat of competitors, companies will become increasing irrelevant with each passing business year. And, this irrelevance can manifest itself in an alarmingly rapid manner. They need to redefine or to transform themselves in order to ‘be fit’ to weather the storm of the ever dynamic world of business and customer requirements.

Case in point: Boeing:

The history and legacy of the Boeing Company is one of technical vision, innovation, courageous decision-making and rational bet-the-company risk-taking. Boeing combined all of these qualities into a position of enduring aircraft industry leadership, as reflected in the statement: “Boeing….[is] an American corporation whose name has become synonymous  with technical excellence and integrity” (Serling, 1992). Nevertheless Boeing did not possess a reputation for what contemporary business commentators’ value most - reported corporate profits consistently growing every quarter, every year. In fact, for the 90 years of Boeing’s corporate existence, it has been only marginally financially successful and on the edge of bankruptcy many times. Two major questions can be asked: What makes the Boeing Company distinctive? How did Boeing emerge and remain the dominant aircraft innovator and industry leader up to the current time – 90 years after its founding? Boeing’s executives, engineers, and board of Director Members focused on the goal of improving flight technology and becoming and remaining their industry leader. More importantly perhaps, they measured their success by Boeing’s aircraft flight performance rather than Boeing’s Company’s income statements and balance sheet, and demonstrated a firm that is “both conservative and daring” (Serling, 1992). On the one hand, Boeing has risked the entire firm at least four times on the development of an innovative new aircraft design. On the other hand, the firm’s executives and engineers have also acted conservatively, waiting on technology transition moments until Boeing’s technical expertise and experience was mature enough to create a new aircraft market. Executives, engineers and assembly line workers at Boeing were focused on the possibilities and challenges of designing and building Boeing air planes that advanced the flight performance envelope. Throughout its history, Boeing has showed and acted with entrepreneurial leadership in that the company’s management moved forward with innovative aircraft designs and manufacturing without regard for any current absence of technical or financial resources.