back to article Boeing's new captain promises U-turn after Q3 nosedive

If Boeing's second quarter was dismal, its Q3 numbers are abysmal, giving recently ensconced CEO Kelly Ortberg the perfect opportunity to fly to the rescue with a revitalization plan. Boeing shared its third quarter results today, ahead of an earnings call later this morning, and things are looking even worse than they were …

  1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    A U-turn after a nose-dive? He needs to be flying a Sopwith Camel.

    1. Little Mouse

      He also wants Boeing to "return to its former legacy"

      Mind blown.

  2. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    Call me

    I know where to buy original Loctite and good quality washers. Boeing call me and I'll turn your company around.

    1. nautica Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Call me

      Duct tape. You forgot the duct tape.

      1. Tim99 Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Call me

        Only if you want bits that shouldn't move to stay fixed. If they need to move, use WD40.

  3. TeeCee Gold badge
    Facepalm

    "...after Q3 nosedive..."

    Well, Boeing had better hope that Ortberg can guess what the real problem is amidst the chaos and figure out which levers to pull and switches to flip to avoid a Q4 smash into the ground then.

    1. Woodnag

      Re: "...after Q3 nosedive..."

      One of the real problems is that Boeing did massive stock buy-backs which pushed up stock price and enriched the stockholders (including top level management), and also burnt the cash stockpile that could othewise be spent now to fix the endemic manufacturing quality issues.

      1. Like a badger

        Re: "...after Q3 nosedive..."

        It isn't just the manufacturing issues, it's the lack of new product. The 777X may be Boeing's latest and greatest, but it's an update on the 777, which first flew 30 years ago. The 737 MCAS problems were in essence founded in Boeing's reluctance to develop a new aircraft to replace the 737 (first flight 1967). Obviously all airframe makers will keep making and updating an airframe as long as the market keeps buying it, but Boeing appear to have a particular reluctance to invest in genuine new product development. Their newest airframe is the 787 that first flew 15 years ago. And just to compound their woes, Boeing do daft things like develop this "new" 777X with no engine choice.

        As you say, stock buy backs took precedence over all else, and that included both Boeing's present and future. US capitalism at its finest.

        Personally I'd like to see Boeing repair itself - but when it's got a self-screwed up culture, industrial relations from the dark ages, has spent its cash pumping its own stock rather than R&D and new product, has buggered up its own space business, has buggered up its own defence business, needs to re-integrate Spirit, has persistent quality problems, and a wider public reputation akin to the brown smelly stuff you sometimes tread in.....seems a big, big ask that will take at least a decade.

        1. Woodnag

          Re: "...after Q3 nosedive..."

          "it's got a self-screwed up culture"... but the management likely thinks that the screwed up culture is the selfish lazy workforce not taking one for the team, when actually the union and whistleblower activity shows that the the workforce is thoroughly pissed off with taking one for the team for years, with no improvement.

        2. TeeCee Gold badge

          Re: "...after Q3 nosedive..."

          The father of a friend of mine used to work for British Aerospace. His particular area of expertise was wings. Amongst the things he worked on were Concorde and he also designed that bit of aircraft origami that Airbus use as a flap system, where the wing effectively splits into two.

          His opinions on the aerodynamic qualities of the 737 wing were unprintable.

          He's now long dead and Boeing are still making that wing.

        3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: "...after Q3 nosedive..."

          Personally I'd like to see Boeing repair itself

          I think their only way out is to declare bankruptcy and sell their operations and IP to a new company, one not made up of any of the current top management. And one with a rule forbidding beancounters from making policy or having day-to-day control of things.

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: "...after Q3 nosedive..."

        I suppose the reverse of a stock buy-back, a rights issue, would be a tad embarrassing.

    2. FILE_ID.DIZ
      Trollface

      Re: "...after Q3 nosedive..."

      Maybe the bean counters were replaced with all the failed 737 MCAS units?

  4. PCScreenOnly

    Seems it's not just aeroplanes that have a problem.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge
      Alien

      Shhh! In space, no-one can hear your (e.g. Intelsat) satellite silently but energetically disassemble itself.

  5. CapeCarl

    Intel and Boeing succinctly

    14++...+ and 737++...+

  6. nautica Silver badge
    Holmes

    Boeing has not missed in a VERY long time...

    "There is an art, the Guide says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. … Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.”

    ― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything

  7. Gene Cash Silver badge

    The Boeing-made Intelsat 33e satellite has disintegrated

    https://spacenews.com/intelsat-33e-loses-power-in-geostationary-orbit/

    "The Intelsat 33e satellite has broken up in geostationary orbit (GEO) and lost power, ceasing communications services for customers across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia Pacific."

    "Intelsat 33e launched in August 2016 and entered service in January 2017 at 60 degrees East, about three months later than planned following an issue with its primary thruster."

    "A second propulsion issue that emerged during in-orbit tests helped knock off around 3.5 years from the satellite’s initially estimated 15-year lifespan."

    They're tracking at least 20 chunks of the satellite. Oh yeah, and the satellite wasn't insured, either.

    The hits just keep comin'...

    1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: The Boeing-made Intelsat 33e satellite has disintegrated

      "The hits just keep comin'.."

      (Icon).....hopefully not on my head!

    2. Dafyd Colquhoun

      Re: The Boeing-made Intelsat 33e satellite has disintegrated

      Don't forget the failure of the Intelsat 29e satellite in 2019 due to propulsion problems (https://www.intelsat.com/newsroom/intelsat-29e-satellite-failure/). Same family from Boeing. 29e and 33e are both in the EpicNG family of high throughput satellites (#1 and #2).

  8. TReko Silver badge
    Coat

    More executions?

    >"Those four areas – culture, business stabilization, execution discipline, and future planning"

    The "execution discipline" bit will worry other potential whistleblowers.

    No more sloppy executions of Boeing whistleblowers now?

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: More executions?

      So, literally everything.

      Good luck with that.

      It's only possible if you replace the entire upper management, and that doesn't seem to be happening.

      Boeing are almost certainly dead, they just haven't stopped moving yet. The end game is likely a breakup, not even sure whether anyone will want the brand name.

  9. Mitoo Bobsworth

    Another CEO?

    The more things change, the more they remain the same.

  10. Michael Hoffmann Silver badge
    Facepalm

    There's your problem

    "Boeing blamed much of its poor performance in the past quarter on the strike, fingering the IAM's work stoppage for its general losses, lack of cash flow, and poor commercial aerospace operating margin."

    With that attitude you will never fix anything, and you're doomed.

    Years of MBAs setting the course, engineers driven out, milking the same outdated designs, stock-buybacks to enrich your execs and shareholders and depleting your cash, a safety culture that would make any "she'll be right" Aussie blanch.

    Radical suggestion? Fire anybody still tainted by MDD, beg old engineers to come back, hire any engineering student you can get your hands on and let the former train and mentor the latter. It might be too late, but any desperate measure to return to the engineer-driven culture of Boeing.

    1. Denarius Silver badge

      Re: There's your problem

      Michael, exactly. If there is not a mass firing of the clerks in suits any change is a waste of time. Abolishing bonuses and share options will help too. One is paid to do a job. If suits need bribes to do job then it is self identified fraud.

      IMHO Boeing is doomed anyway

    2. druck Silver badge

      Re: There's your problem

      It might be too late, but any desperate measure to return to the engineer-driven culture of Boeing.

      I suspect it is too late, and those who would have been capable of bringing back the old Boeing, are flat spinning in the graves now.

  11. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "It will take time to return Boeing to its former legacy"

    Ooh boy, ain't that the truth.

    Don't worry, the heat death of the Universe is still a while away - you've got the time.

  12. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Just like Sears

    It's so sad to see Sears, Boeing, IBM, all the enormous iconic dependable companies of my childhood die like this, destroyed by upper management.

    All these livelihoods lost. All these jobs gone. All the things they used to provide like powerful computers, safe aircraft, and in the case of Sears, quality anything-you-could-want in a store in every city with happy salespeople that knew what they were doing. Now Sears is dead and the rest are doddering old fools. I guess it happens to everybody eventually.

    1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: Just like Sears

      Now Sears is dead and the rest are doddering old fools. I guess it happens to everybody eventually.

      Q: Who knew that destroying the company in order to give big stock bonuses and dividends to execs and shareholders was a bad idea..

      A: Pretty much everyone apart from the MBAs involved

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