Boeing's current turbulence shines a bright light on a pivotal lesson: the success of a strategy depends on the prowess of its execution.

Diving into this, let's apply the "Line of Sight" execution framework to decode Boeing's challenges. As someone deeply immersed in this topic (it's the focus of my latest book, after all!), I find the interplay between strategy and execution fascinating.

Here's what top-notch execution looks like, broken down into five essential ingredients:

1. Clear Understanding: Everyone on the team knows the game plan and what's expected of them.
2. Trust in Leadership: There's a strong belief in the direction the leaders are steering the ship.
3. Measuring What Matters: Keeping an eye on the metrics that genuinely reflect progress and success.
4. An Effective Organizational Structure: The company is shaped to facilitate smooth sailing towards its goals.
5. The Right Crew: Having a team in place that's equipped and ready to face the challenges ahead.

Now, let's zoom into Boeing's operation floor and speculate:

1. Understanding of Strategy: Perhaps Boeing's team understands their strategy a little too well, especially if it's overly tilted towards profits and production volumes. : Dennis Tajer, a captain at American Airlines and a spokesman for the union that represents the airline’s pilots, said “Lately, Boeing appoints C.E.O.s that seem more focused on stock price and dividends than on flight safety and production quality.”
   If this is the prevailing gospel, employees will take auctions and make decisions that maximize these dimensions too. If quality and safety are not mentioned as much, or are taken for granted, why would employees continue to focus as much on those?
2. Trust in Leadership: “I honestly don’t trust many people at Boeing.” said an employee, according to internal communication memos Boeing shared with Congress in Jan. When trust wanes, individuals might start playing by their own rules, which can lead to divergences from standards and quality issues.
3. Right Metrics: With reports of aircraft issues stemming from inadequate quality controls, it's clear that Boeing needs to tighten its grip on what and how it measures success, and complement volume and profitability metrics with quality assurance and manufacturing indicators. If you don’t measure it, you can’t control it.
4. Organizational Structure: Boeing spun off and outsourced operations to Spirit AeroSystems in 2005 and Spirit manufactured the defective plug door on the Alaska plane. Outsourcing requires seamless accountability, communication, and knowledge sharing. Any breakdown in organization integration will show up as process or parts breakdown. It's possible that suboptimal Boeing-Spirit coordination resulted in quality slips.
5. The Right People: Boeing's history and legacy as a pioneer in aviation are unmatched. Yet, the company's approach to workforce management is marked by waves of layoffs and hiring, A Puget Sound economist said in 2016: “In a capital-goods industry, Boeing has done amazingly well, and a lot of that has to do with its willingness to lay off people in difficult times.” Boom-and-bust cycles in staffing jeopardize the transfer of invaluable knowledge and dilute the quality of its talent pool.

Despite these hurdles, Boeing's recent moves, like the introduction of a Chief Operating Officer in December, show a recognition of its challenges. However, this strategic pivot might have come just a bit too late to prevent recent mishaps.

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