How Boeing lost its bearings

[ATCclears]

The Long-Forgotten Flight That Sent Boeing Off Course

A company once driven by engineers became driven by finance.

www.theatlantic.com

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[Aero Denezol]

I could say A LOT about this as we worked for both Boeing and McDonnell Douglas pre-1996 and still do work for the new Boeing. They are and have always been a great customer. But the cultural shift is 100% undeniable.

 

[AMT]

Unfortunately, it's not just Boeing. Most major companies are driven by the constant nagging from "investors" to make more money for them. Which means cutting corners and quality.

Look at most anything built in the 40's through [about] the late 60's. A lot of companies were privately owned, or majority owned by private individuals who had built the companies from the ground, up (Ford, Chevrolet, GE, start naming a bunch more...). Then, companies starting going public to get "investors", and that started the shift to start appeasing the "investors" and everything went downhill from there.

The company i work for has been buying products from a particular manufacturer for 25+ years. About 8 years ago they used to be privately owned. Then they sold to a conglomerate. Quality, customer service, etc. has gone downhill (FAST), while the price of their stuff has been increasing (double-digit) every year.

It's sad.....

 

[Cameron72]

The Chicago base aerospace corporation.

 

[CoastRange57]

Virtually all manufacturing and business is driven by accountants. I have seen this time and time again. When I worked for a major turf equipment manufacturer the accountants and design engineers were constantly at war. The engineers would design something marketing's focus groups said the consumer wanted and they accountants would constantly send it back for cost reduction revisions.

While they fought about this, the competitors would bring a model to market with very much reduced engineering and performance and steal some major market share on that particular product.

The accountants and finance would demand concessions to reduce costs and increase profits, marketing and sales would resist for performance and image reasons. The poor bastards in the field like me were left to explain this to our clients who really did not care after a while.

Airlines sh*t when the pilots have to deviate 20 miles for weather because they will burn up more fuel. And on and on it goes.

 

[clearconscience]

This is any business. I'm seeing the company I work for fall apart because they are only driven by profit and for the last decade stopped maintaining the business.

it's not just traded companies. Investment firms are buying up large private companies and using them to bilk money out of for an easy payout.
then they sell the company which is in shambles to an unsuspecting buyer or let it fail and declare bankruptcy.
thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives ruined, but at least they skate out with a couple hundred million.

I feel like it's the new 2008 fraud, but maybe I'm just catching on

 

[zenbreath]

"Beware of the man who discovers he can make more money selling cherry wood than he can selling cherries."

 

[CoastRange57]

"Beware of the man who discovers he can make more money selling cherry wood than he can selling cherries."

Pretty clear and exact description as to what happened to the wood products industry. Thanks to companies like Werhauser (sp?) who logged off millions of acres of prime timber and loaded the raw logs onto ships at Longview and Coos Bay and shipped it off to Asia. The hell with value adding and making them buy processed timber. They just strip mined the woods for short term profit on the best timber, then pulped the rest and now are selling off the remaining deforested land cheap. The American corporate way.

 

[tac]

Pretty clear and exact description as to what happened to the wood products industry. Thanks to companies like Werhauser (sp?) who logged off millions of acres of prime timber and loaded the raw logs onto ships at Longview and Coos Bay and shipped it off to Asia. The hell with value adding and making them buy processed timber. They just strip mined the woods for short term profit on the best timber, then pulped the rest and now are selling off the remaining deforested land cheap. The American corporate way.

Every time we drive down 101 through Coos Bay on our way to PO I'm betabed at the VAST piles of wood chips awaiting shipping - they NEVER seem to get any less no matter what time of year we pass by.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Bill Boeing is rolling over in his grave!

What happend isnt new, or even all that sad. The Aero world can only survive building 2 products, civil airliners, or military aircraft, and guess which pays more, yup, Mil!
The writing was on the wall in the early 80s, merge, or fail, companies like Rockwell, Northrop, Grumman, General Dynamics, McDonald Douglas, ect.....
All had to join forces or suffer major client shift, so, while some went the way of the dodo, the rest were forced to join one of two remaining companies, Boeing, or Lockheed! General Dynamics does Submarines and other naval work, so they have survived the shift! Others were sadly driven out and shuttered, once the best in the business, McDonald Douglas, now plays 3rd string under Boeing, while Lockheed suckes up every contract in sight, and then stakes a monopoly on the Military and screams if any one tries to compete!

 

[DB is Here]