Last October, less than three months into perhaps the hardest job in corporate America, Boeing’s chief executive Kelly Ortberg sent a memo to the aerospace company’s staff.
He warned them to brace for further cuts in the face of losses, a costly strike, recurrent quality problems and the continuing shockwaves from fatal crashes of two of its 737 Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019.
Ortberg also went to the heart of what many believe is the reason Boeing, once an icon of US manufacturing pride and engineering prowess, had lost its way. “We . . . need to focus our resources on performing and innovating in the areas that are core to who we are,” he wrote.