**St. Louis**: During a company meeting, Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg highlighted the need for a cultural shift within the firm, addressing poor management communication and internal challenges. He pledged to use employee feedback to foster improvements amid ongoing financial difficulties and external pressures such as tariffs.
During a company-wide meeting last week, Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg spoke candidly about the pressing need for a significant shift in the management culture within the aerospace giant. The meeting, attended by employees in St. Louis and streamed to various Boeing locations, addressed serious internal challenges, including ineffective communication and a culture perceived as disrespectful.
As reported by The Seattle Times, Ortberg shared insights from a recent employee survey that recorded an 82% response rate, which he anticipated would reveal “brutal” feedback for leadership. He committed to leveraging this feedback to create a definitive action plan aimed at resolving Boeing’s internal issues, emphasising the importance of allowing all employees—engineers to manufacturing staff—to express their concerns without fear of retaliation. “We’re going to put an action plan on those things, and I think they’re going to be brutal to leadership, quite frankly,” Ortberg stated.
Ortberg’s remarks come at a time when Boeing is grappling with significant financial difficulties. The company reported a nearly $12 billion loss in 2024, which has been exacerbated by production challenges with crucial aircraft models such as the Boeing 737 Max and Boeing 787, alongside delays affecting defence contracts including the replacement of Air Force One. Since taking the helm in August 2022, Ortberg identified cultural transformation as critical to revitalising the company.
In the pursuit of improved communication, Ortberg encouraged employees to voice their opinions and concerns across divisions during the meeting. Responding to a question from a worker in Boeing’s Global Services division about ignored complaints concerning a manager, he highlighted the company’s “Speak Up” system but expressed a desire to cultivate an environment where direct conversations with managers are more commonplace. “We’re very insular,” Ortberg remarked. “We don’t communicate across boundaries as well. We don’t work with each other as well as we could.”
Amidst his focus on cultural change, Ortberg underscored the necessity for enhanced leadership across the organisation, announcing initiatives to bolster leadership training and urging managers to engage more actively with their teams. He reiterated the importance of leaders being attentive to their employees’ concerns, although some workers remain sceptical about the prospects of meaningful change within the management ranks. A corporate source reported that during the meeting, Ortberg acknowledged a somewhat dismissive management style and highlighted gaps in internal communication. Concerns voiced on Reddit echoed sentiments that the issues were “broken all the way up the chain.”
In addition to addressing the internal cultural framework, Ortberg touched upon external challenges the company is facing, specifically referencing tariffs imposed by the Trump administration that could substantially raise costs for critical components sourced from Canada, such as landing gear. He indicated that these tariffs could lead to broader disruptions in Boeing’s supply chain, potentially affecting production schedules and driving up overall costs. “That’s really, really expensive for us — if we’re building our products and we don’t have the supply chain components,” he said.
Furthermore, Ortberg reiterated Boeing’s commitment to collaborating with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to expedite the delivery of the new Air Force One aircraft, reflecting the urgency of prioritising this high-stakes project amid the company’s ongoing challenges.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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