https://www.yahoo.com/news/starliner-disaster-boeing-may-cancel-181527765.html

Boeing continues its downward spiral. For those of us who teach business course like business ethics, this is a historical example that will stand the test of time. It is an incredible story of hubris and greed. One of the most respected companies on the planet earth has deservedly plummeted in reputation. We’ll be talking about this the same way we talk about the Titanic and WorldCom.

But it wasn’t always like this. Boeing created over its lifetime billions of dollars in value. Aircraft like the 707 and the 747 changed the world of aviation forever. And it would take whole books to talk about the engineering genius and innovation that made Boeing a world leader. So, what went wrong?

Shareholder value happened. In 1997, McDonnel Douglas merged with Boeing and they had a new and “exciting” management style. Boeing was a company of creators, really serious and capable engineers. They loved flying and they loved building planes. They were the stuff of legend. People like Joe Sutter who created the 747 started as an intern at the company and spent his entire career there. The new people had a new focus, money.

So, in the pursuit of money, the first thing they did was move management away from the factory in Washington State to Chicago because if those pesky engineers had access to decision making they could cost tons of money. By reducing the role of the engineer, the corporate ‘suits’ would have primary say over decisions made about building and selling aircraft.

And over time, the company applied pressure in every direction especially clobbering its suppliers in pursuit of greater and greater profits and much of this resulted in cutting corners.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “James, these are very serious allegations you are making. Can you back them up?”

How about this:

Boeing built the 727 MAX and they decided to maintain the same control panel layout to save the airlines from having to do re-training. You might find the idea of using a cockpit layout established while the Beatles were still together an appalling and nonsensical idea forty years later but remember those pesky foolish money-costing engineers are back in Washington State and you don’t have to pay any attention to them. The free corporate air in Chicago is better for decision making based purely on corporate number crunching. However, there was a problem with the “new” plane. First, it is only kind of new. What we have is a re-engined 737. But the engines are much bigger and sit further forward changing the center of gravity. So, they, corporate geniuses that they are, added a software update that would dive the airplane if had too high an angle of climb. They slipped this past the regulators, this is, the FAA, because they were largely doing their own regulation. Remember that Boeing reputation!! You can run a long time on what kind of company you used to be. The company they used to be pursued safety and competence with great vigor and focus but the new management has a more measured approach to safety and competence. And then, just to make sure that no one gets upset, you make sure that you don’t tell the pilots about this change.

So, two Boeing 737 MAX’s fly themselves into the ground. These were passenger flights with many, many people on board. When the genius software flew these planes into the ground, the passengers were reduced into tiny fragments scattered across the land.

That makes me unhappy. I look at the enormous profits, the stock value and all the executive perks — and I can’t help but feel that something is just a bit off at the old Boeing corral. What did Hamlet say, “Something is rotten in Demark?” Rotten, you say? That could just be all those corpses. One hundred, fifty seven dead on one of the planes and one hundred, eighty-nine people on the other. (I’m tempted to list them by name. After all, the costs of focusing on profit as the great Milton Friedman demands that all corporations do – has a cost that might best be summarized by listing the names of the dead.)

Since then, Boing planes have suffered regular safety incidents involving engines, plug doors and the occasional exploding tire.

And now the Boeing Starliner has failed.

Sort of the icing on the cake. A great big multi-layered cake of American corporate foolishness and hubris.

James Alan Pilant