Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is known for his strong sayings. Often it’s a show because he knows that his words are a great contrast in the world of dignified boardrooms, dark suits and garbled business speak and that he can use them to attract attention to his low-cost airline. It also helps his image as the Robin Hood of the industry, which is of course not true. But this time it’s easy to believe that O’Leary was genuinely angry and fully stood behind his expletive.
O’Leary described the aircraft manufacturer Boeing as a “shitshow”, a translation is unnecessary. He was primarily referring to the latest delivery delays at the 737, disrupting his airline’s summer flight schedule. But the verdict is also correct in a broader sense, leaving aside the choice of words. On behalf of the American Congress, a group of experts had spent months compiling the company’s rules, processes and lived reality in a 50-page report. If you had to summarize the 24 authors’ conclusions in one word, you would be pretty close to O’Leary.
The report comes to a devastating conclusion: Boeing employees who point out safety or quality deficiencies and demand technical changes still face disciplinary consequences. After various rounds of cuts, expertise is still missing where it is urgently needed. The company’s own pilots still have little say in aircraft development. And so forth.
There is agreement in the industry that the causes of the problems go back a long time. After its merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, a generation of managers took over at Boeing, replacing the technology focus that once made the company great with short-term profit maximization. Basically, Boeing has been cannibalized for 30 years. During this time a single new aircraft model was released, also known as Dreamliner designated long-haul aircraft 787, brought onto the market, the urgently needed successor to the one that is mostly used on short and medium-haul routes 737 should only be finished in ten or 15 years. The negative peak was the two crashes in 2018 and 2019 737 Maxin which 346 people died because Boeing made mistakes in developing a new flight control system.
Afterwards, the top management vowed to improve, especially the new CEO David Calhoun, who replaced the unspeakable Dennis Muilenburg at the beginning of 2020. But the report shows that Boeing did not draw the right conclusions. However, before joining the board, Calhoun was a member of the company’s supervisory board for a long time and was therefore the group that approved all absurd decisions. Boeing represents the completely self-inflicted decline of a global company that has been obvious for many years and yet apparently cannot be stopped.
Or maybe yes? In any case, Michael O’Leary has long been calling for management at Boeing to be replaced. He’s right. But it’s not just about the people in the second line that Calhoun recently made pawns. But about himself, the board of directors and the supervisory board. At the top there must be someone who credibly embodies a radical new start. And not only that: whoever succeeds Calhoun, if he actually leaves, will also have to implement this new beginning.
There will be opportunities to send the right signals in the coming months. Ten years ago, the company management practically blackmailed the mechanics union by withdrawing the… 777-Xprogram from Washington state. The result is a long-standing collective agreement that is absurdly advantageous for Boeing, which has shaken the solidarity of tens of thousands of employees with their employer and undermined their morale, which is also a factor in the decline. The contract is now expiring, here too it is time for a new start far beyond money issues.