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Did a 1997 merger ruin Boeing?
Finshots ^ | Jan 2024

Posted on 03/16/2024 7:44:34 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

…Yeah, things aren’t looking good for the plane manufacturer. And we must ask — where did it all go so wrong for Boeing?

Well, it probably all began in the summer of 1997.

Boeing wanted to establish dominance and show the world who was boss in the airline industry. So it decided to acquire another plane manufacturer called McDonnell Douglas. It was a massive merger worth $14 billion.

Now after the merger, the new entity retained the Boeing name. It was expected since it was Boeing that splashed the cash. But the problem was that the culture of McDonnell Douglas seeped in. And that changed the face of Boeing completely.

See, the Boeing of the pre-merger era was called an ‘engineers’ company’. The ones who made these flying machines called the shots. Costs didn’t matter and it was only quality and design that did. They wanted to ensure that only their best ideas took to the skies. Safety was paramount. And the Chief Financial Officer who was answerable to Wall Street about costs didn’t care much about trying to impress the bankers either.

But after the merger, everything changed.

The CEO of McDonnell Douglas actually became the CEO of Boeing. A chairman with no aviation background, but who’d worked in General Electric, was also appointed. The company started paying attention to creating shareholder value which was hardly a priority earlier. And as one article put it, “Now, a passion for great planes was replaced with a passion for affordability.” Boeing even turned to outsourcing critical operations. Sure, it made the balance sheet ‘asset light’, but, it came at the cost of quality…

(Excerpt) Read more at finshots.in ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: agitprop; boeing; generalelectric; india; mcdonnelldouglas; mergers; passingthebuck; twa800
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1 posted on 03/16/2024 7:44:34 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Nope , Diversity Destroys


2 posted on 03/16/2024 7:45:34 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Once again the Jack Welch model eats another company.


3 posted on 03/16/2024 7:48:04 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Yes. DEI was just piling on.


4 posted on 03/16/2024 7:48:57 AM PDT by brownsfan (It's going to take real, serious, hard times to wake the American public.)
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To: butlerweave

That’s what I thought also, DEI is the reason why Boeing aircraft are unsafe.


5 posted on 03/16/2024 7:50:18 AM PDT by 2001convSVT (Asking questions is your right.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The same thing happened when Allied Signal bought Honeywell.


6 posted on 03/16/2024 7:53:33 AM PDT by Glennb51
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To: butlerweave

What part did DEI play in the destruction of GE? Boeing is following the Jack Welch playbook.


7 posted on 03/16/2024 7:55:39 AM PDT by Poison Pill
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The CIA and FBI rigging the TWA 800 investigation against Boeing probably had nothing to do with future coincidences...


8 posted on 03/16/2024 7:56:09 AM PDT by BAN-ONE
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I’d pretty much say it was Starbucks, Seattle Sleaze, leftist Democrat government and the push for quotas>Affirmative Action> DEI and now FGI. AND the unions.


9 posted on 03/16/2024 7:56:19 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Nope. Boeing was always a beancounter company. FIL worked there from the 50’s to the 70’s. He said it was always a terrible place to be a manager.


10 posted on 03/16/2024 7:56:46 AM PDT by CodeToad (Rule #1: The elites want you dead.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Many public companies were ruined by the GE methods that Jack Welch we damn near canonized as a saint for. As he famously said, the ultimate goal would be to have all your factories on ships so you could drop anchor wherever in the world it was cheapest to do business.


11 posted on 03/16/2024 7:57:01 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: DariusBane

“Once again the Jack Welch model eats another company.”

Yep. Dave Calhoun is a Jack Welch manager and sucks terribly as CEO of Boeing.


12 posted on 03/16/2024 7:57:41 AM PDT by CodeToad (Rule #1: The elites want you dead.)
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To: CodeToad

Exactly. Jack Welch The Dark Lord. Destroyer of Worlds.


13 posted on 03/16/2024 7:59:03 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: DariusBane

Jack Welch was a true jerk and a traitor. He stated all of the insourcing and outsourcing to India and was one of the leaders of the the industrialization of America.


14 posted on 03/16/2024 8:01:11 AM PDT by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)
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To: CodeToad

My understanding was that Welch was following the advice of Mackenzie. So maybe the real culprit is that sordid consulting firm.


15 posted on 03/16/2024 8:03:29 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (What is left around which to circle the wagons?action )
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To: wildcard_redneck

De-industrialization I presume. He was the boogie man Ross Perot warned us about.


16 posted on 03/16/2024 8:06:06 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

bkmk


17 posted on 03/16/2024 8:06:26 AM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Doesn’t matter who Welch followed. Jack was proud of his work. Wrote books about it. The G.E. model was adopted by every S and P 500 company.


18 posted on 03/16/2024 8:08:36 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: Glennb51

Bingo! Larry Bossidy was another Welch acolyte. Jim Mcinerney went to 3M and ruined its culture of innovation . Harry Stonecipher turned Boeing from a culture of safety to one. of financial bullshit. Meanwhile Jeff Immelt stayed to crap in the nest Welch built by wrecking GE.

All this happened 15-20 years before anyone uttered the acronym “DEI”, but boy, were they ever ready for it…just the flavor of the month of the same kind of management malfeasance they’d been practicing for years.


19 posted on 03/16/2024 8:09:19 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Maybe a factor. But they are also reaching, going back to 1997 to blame 2023/2024’s series of problems. Like despite the 27 years in between, they have been powerless to change their fate...


20 posted on 03/16/2024 8:10:38 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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