Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Wednesday that "trust in our company has eroded" and laid out a plan for the aerospace giant to regain a leadership position in the industry while addressing its financial challenges. Ortberg, who was appointed as Boeing's CEO in late July, faces an ongoing strike by Boeing machinists that has impacted production along with a loss of confidence stemming from a series of incidents like the midair blowout of a 737 Max 9 door panel in January.
Our leaders, from me on down, need to be closely integrated with our business and the people who are doing the design and production of our products. We need to be on the factory floors, in the back shops, and in our engineering labs," Ortberg said. "We need to know what's going on, not only with our products, but with our people. And most importantly, we need to prevent the festering of issues and work better together to identify, fix, and understand root cause.