NEW YORK, 21 NOV – Boeing’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) told employees that the company faces serious cultural problems and cannot afford to make any more mistakes, according to a report yesterday.
At the hour-long meeting, Kelly Ortberg, who joined Boeing as CEO in August, urged employees to take responsibility when they see problems, Wall Street Journal report after checking the recording of the meeting.
“Boeing has had many ups and downs,” Ortberg said. “We (now) are in a very low place, man.”
“Don’t just talk a lot about other people while drinking water cooler,” he said. “Let’s focus on the task at hand.”
Ortberg also recounted a conversation he had with Donald Trump in which the two discussed potential tariffs.
Ortberg told employees that a trade war with China would cost Boeing, according to the newspaper.
The meeting comes about two and a half weeks after Seattle-area Boeing workers hammered out a new contract, ending a more than seven-week strike that shut down two assembly plants and furloughed about 33,000 workers.
The strike has further worsened the outlook for Boeing, which was already shaky after an incident last January in which a fuselage panel exploded mid-flight on a 737 MAX plane operated by Alaska Airlines.
Ortberg has previously called for a ‘fundamental cultural change’ at Boeing, stressing that it will take time to turn around a company struggling with a host of problems including a loss-making defense contract.
On October 12, Boeing unveiled plans to cut its global workforce by 10 percent over the next few months.
Boeing said earlier this week it intends to cut nearly 2,200 jobs in the US state of Washington, which is home to many of the company’s old factories. – AFP
