Tuesday's announcement of a record $1 billion charge for delays in the 747-8 should be a moment of clarity. And when all the debris of excuses and blame is cleared away, we stand at the door of Chairman and Chief Executive James McNerney and the Boeing board of directors.And the summation:
Boeing has a board that should be a model of independence and executive competence. There's John Biggs, the former boss of TIAA-CREF, who should be a maniac for protecting shareholders such as the huge retirement fund he once ran. John Bryson ran the parent of a tiny, simple company called Southern California Edison for 18 years. Linda Cook is executive director of Royal Dutch Shell and Mike Zafirovski (another Welch protégé) is the former CEO of Nortel. No other Boeing employee but McNerney sits on the board.It's a struggle to understand why a board of this stature and intelligence would allow McNerney to continue as chief executive. The clubby and insular world of top business leaders should only get him so far with these directors unless it's yet another sign of even deeper troubles. One would be the kind of CEO cult of personality pioneered by Welch. Another is the kind of Kool-Aid keg party held by seemingly strong boards that nevertheless bought into a flawed and insular worldview of their company. General Motors comes crashing to mind.
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