Boeing (BA) shares continue to trend lower this week into Tuesday following a mid-air incident aboard the aerospace manufacturer's signature 737 Max 9 jet during an Alaska Airlines (ALK) flight. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines (UAL) have reportedly found loose bolts on 737 Max 9 plug doors upon close inspections. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has since grounded Boeing's 737 Max 9 models.
Foundation for Aviation Society Executive Director Ed Pierson joins Yahoo Finance Live to comment on Boeing's corporate culture and factory mismanagement that may be creating allowances for these incidences.
Boeing executives "need to get out of their corporate headquarters and they need to spend time with their troops on the factory floor and they need to understand what they're dealing with," Pierson, a former Boeing Senior Manager and a whistleblower on similar issues in 2019, adding: "If it was up to me, I would absolutely advocate the change of leadership."
Click here to watch the full interview on the Yahoo Finance YouTube page or you can watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live here.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: How do you fix it, Ed, I think is now the question, right? And I'm not talking about this particular issue. I'm talking about how you fix-- if indeed the culture of the company has changed, how you fix that.
Now, does it mean you need a change at the top? There was a change at the top, right, in 2020 following the Lion Air disaster. So if that didn't work, you changed at the top, you still looks like you have issues, so then what?
ED PIERSON: It's a great question. And I think that first of all, the company needs to acknowledge the mistakes that they have because you can't fix these problems like any company. You can't fix it, unless you actually admit.
And what tends to happen is there's, you know-- it's kind of a semi admittance. And then it goes out of the new cycle and then promises are broken. And let's face it, any organization, the culture is critical. And it is said at the top. And I'm talking, you know, the board of directors.
The board of directors and the CEO and the C-suite, as I've told other reporters, they need to get out of their corporate headquarters. And they need to spend time with their troops on the factory floor. And they need to understand what they're dealing with. And it's just-- you know, I think there's like two different worlds out there.
And if it was up to me, I would absolutely advocate the change of leadership. You know, CEO Dave Calhoun, who I don't know personally, I know has been on the board for years. I've listened to him talk. And unfortunately, I've seen him say he's out in the factories and all that. And the people I talk to say, you know, we don't see them.
So there's some sort of disconnect there. So I really don't have a great answer for you. I just think it does come down to leadership at all levels. You know, if you're a frontline employee-- we teach this in the military. if you're a young first line employee and you see something that's wrong, you need to stop and get it fixed properly.
And your supervisors should be supporting you and doing that. And I think what happens is, you know, employees are push, push, push. Sometimes they speak up. And they are-- you know, things can happen. They don't-- there's things that can happen. They're fearful to speak up, I guess, is what I'm saying.
So this is a great, great opportunity, you know, for-- looking at it in a positive way, this is an opportunity to really reflect and think about what's going on with the company. Just changing out a safety officer at the top, adding a new CEO, that doesn't change the culture. It requires an entire organizational effort. So I don't know what else I can add to that. But that's my thoughts.
