Boeing to Pieces, Fortune Writer, Jerry Useem,

¶ … Boeing to Pieces, Fortune writer, Jerry Useem, focuses on the crisis at once the world largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and the biggest U.S. defense contractor, which had led the company into a nightmarish situation. Boeing that was undoubtedly the leader in its field is now suffering from declining profits while its leadership ethics are being questioned by the public and other stakeholders.

How did a company that never had any serious rivals for a ling time suddenly became a vague entity and is positioned very low in the professional ethics index. These are some of the questions that Useem tries to answer by focusing on Boeing's recent history and Philip Condit's seven-year tumultuous reign. After reading the article, it becomes absolutely clear that Boeing did not suffer because of European Airbus or because of diversification, but the real problem existed at the top.

Boeing suffered from poor leadership, which led to bad ethical practices, poor management strategies and even worse customer and employee relations. The company lost its standing at Wall Street with analysts rudely writing off the firm as European Airbus continued to gain strength year after year. Leadership is the heart and soul of any company and it is the leader who helps establish and maintain positive company culture.

However the same was missing from the 7-year reign of Phil Condit, which certainly had a damaging impact on the company and its profits. The man who was responsible not for building the company but at least maintaining its enviable position in the market failed to achieve organization goals and ignored the growth and culture of the organization in pursuit of his own personal interests.

Useem tries not to hold Condit responsible for Boeing's problems yet he fails to hide his disappointment at the ways things turned out at Boeing after Condit took over. Condit was no doubt a great engineer but that is not the same thing as being a great leader. Everyone who is good at what he does is not meant to be a leader, running and controlling multi-billion corporations.

Philip Kotler in his Marketing management explains that good leadership is the backbone of any corporation because a good leader focuses on the essentials of positive marketing and management. Kotler believes that a leader understands the company's clients and their needs and then tries to meet those needs. Talking about marketing, Kotler says that marketing is not the same thing as selling because when you focus on meeting the needs of your customers, you rarely ever have to do any selling at all.

However it takes a good leader to drive these messages home. Employees need to be reminded of their essential responsibility of meeting the needs of the customers. However in order to know what the needs of your customers are, it is important to stay alert and sensitive to demand changes. When everyone is demanding what your rival is producing, it is a sheer folly to stay with old products and hope for the demand to grow.

Phil Condit failed to see the changes that were occurring in the market especially in the shape of its giant rival Airbus. Boeing largely ignored competition even when it was staring right in its face. While Boeing went on acquisition spree with little real success, Airbus focused on key market changes and responded to it in a timely fashion. Even though Boeing became a large defense contractor, its failure to adopt ethical means to win contracts led to serious.