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The former McDonnell Douglas and Boeing CEO couldn't have been any more clear when he stated, "When people say I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the int

by wahern 6y ago

The former McDonnell Douglas and Boeing CEO couldn't have been any more clear when he stated, "When people say I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the intent, so that it's run like a business rather than a great engineering firm." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/how-boeing-lost-its-bearings/602188/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/how-boeing... I don't think there's any serious dispute (now or then) that McDonnell Douglas was a financial engineering company first and foremost, not an engineering company. Likewise, leading into the merger Boeing's reputation as an engineering-first company was widely accepted. But as I mention elsethread, claims that McDonnell Douglas corrupted Boeing are problematic. Top Boeing leadership had already made their choice to transform the culture before the merger; the merger was the execution.

haltingproblem 6y ago
Valid point. Root cause attribution is still problematic. My problem with the narrative is two fold: [1] Assigning the "cause" of the 737Max fiasco to culture instead of plain hubris, complacency, etc. [2] Even if [1] is true, attributing the culture shift to the McDoug merger. There is simply no way to test/falsify it. It becomes purely a narrative. Even if McDoug was a financial engineering company first and foremost where is the counterfactual that Boeing would not have arrived here anyways? Are there other great engineering organizations that have arrived in a dysfunctional place without an infusion of alien culture. Look at NASA, what was the financial engineering culture that enforced a launch at any cost mindset? McDoug culture as the culprit in the 737Max disaster is a fanciful narrative, an adult version of the tooth fairy and santa claus. Fanciful narratives are fine but here they are being used to exonerate Boeing by blame shifting.

by wahern 6y ago

haltingproblem 6y ago

Valid point. Root cause attribution is still problematic. My problem with the narrative is two fold: [1] Assigning the "cause" of the 737Max fiasco to culture instead of plain hubris, complacency, etc. [2] Even if [1] is true, attributing the culture shift to the McDoug merger. There is simply no way to test/falsify it. It becomes purely a narrative. Even if McDoug was a financial engineering company first and foremost where is the counterfactual that Boeing would not have arrived here anyways? Are there other great engineering organizations that have arrived in a dysfunctional place without an infusion of alien culture. Look at NASA, what was the financial engineering culture that enforced a launch at any cost mindset? McDoug culture as the culprit in the 737Max disaster is a fanciful narrative, an adult version of the tooth fairy and santa claus. Fanciful narratives are fine but here they are being used to exonerate Boeing by blame shifting.