Boeing CEO asks workers for ‘brutal’ feedback in an attempt to overhaul the company’s culture

“I want to hear what the employees have to say,” a Bloomberg report quoted Ortberg as saying during his second companywide address to Boeing workers on Wednesday. “And what we’ll do is we’re going to put an action plan on those things, and I think they’re going to be brutal to leadership, quite frankly.”

Also Read: Donald Trump exempts US automakers from Canada, Mexico tariffs for one month

Ortberg who had taken over as CEO in August, had expressed dismay over Boeing’s culture in November, referring to the lack of civility people there treated each other with.

He even highlighted the harsh backlash that lower-level workers and managers can face for flagging operations breakdowns, like whistleblowers have documented.

While speaking to workers on location in St. Louis with tens of thousands more tuning in via a webcast, Ortberg also singled out Boeing’s top-down culture and lack of leadership training as areas of focus, according to the report.

Also Read: Kolkata’s South City Mall on sale? One of India’s biggest landlords nearing ₹3,500 crore deal

His target is to take the company to a point where it won’t need hotlines for employees to flag issues anonymously since they have to feel empowered to speak openly.

For this, Ortberg said that he has set up a “culture working group” of workers to advise him on the values and “behaviors” of the company, the report read.

This group represents a cross-section of Boeing sites, unions and other employee groups.

Also Read: Apple MacBook Air and Mac Studio refresh sets M4 and M3 Ultra groundwork for AI

All of this is to turn around a storied aircraft manufacturer whose reputation and finances have been badly dented by two fatal 737 Max crashes late last decade as well as an alarming near-catastrophe in early 2024.