Your profile of Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, described his chequered record as Boeing’s leader but did not dig sufficiently deeply into his longer-term relationship with Boeing to explain his underperformance (“Calhoun’s successor faces legacy test at Boeing”, Report, January 2).
Calhoun is the third ex-GE executive to lead Boeing — following Harry Stonecipher and Jim McNerney — which largely explains the company’s intense focus on financial metrics, especially Rona (return on net assets), which tends to prioritise short-term financial performance over long-term investment.
As a non-executive Boeing director since 2009, Calhoun witnessed the implosion of the 787 programme (partially under way before he joined the board), the failure of the 747-8 programme, the delayed entry into service of the 737 Max and its ongoing regulatory issues, and the incredible delays and cost overruns on the 777-X programme. The 787 programme was relocated to the union-busting South Carolina plant after Calhoun became chief executive, even after significant quality issues had been revealed there. These have continued to delay deliveries, costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars (at a minimum).
Calhoun’s claim that he has “added rigour” to the company’s quality processes has been shattered by the latest 737 Max 9 incident and the grounding of the US fleet. Nothing in Calhoun’s service on the Boeing board suggested that he would be an effective chief executive, capable of turning around the company. So it has proven.
Now, he has promoted a putative successor who has no experience in the commercial aviation business and failed to change the trajectory of the floundering global services business unit (just as all her predecessors did).
Calhoun seems to be positioning himself for a lucrative retirement in spite of leaving the company in no better shape than when he inherited it.
John Griffiths
Former Chief Economist, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Seattle, WA, US
