Boeing gets smacked by Airbus
Starting yesterday Airbus can now sell the A350, a competitor to the Boeing 7E7. I was really, really excited about the 7E7 when it came out. Mostly because I just don't feel Boeing is being aggressive enough in their commercial airplane business. The management is short-term profit focused and relies too much on their military sales that the commercial side has gone to pot.
Boeing used to be the dominant name in commercial aerospace, having over 2/3 of the market share. Boeing had great airplanes too - airplanes like the 707, 747, and 777 that defined their segment. But with Phil Condit, the company rapidly went downhill. They became too conservative in creating new products, prefering to make only derivities instead of creating anything new at all for 10 years. How many companies can do this and thrive?
So finally they got off their bums and came up with the 7E7. This will be a beautiful plane and I think could have also defined it's segment; one of those great planes that people could look back on and say, wow, that was a era-defining plane. But sorry to say, it's too little too late. I believe enough airlines will order the A350 instead of the 7E7 to ensure that the 7E7 will never be the home run that Boeing hopes it will be. And in truth the A350 doesn't have to make Airbus any money at all, it's sole purpose for being is to deny profits for Boeing.
Airbus is now the dominat player. Airbus is far more aggressive and let me just say, flat out smarter in creating new designs that customers want and getting them sold. I'd really love to see Boeing rise to glory once again, but the truth is that their management is just plain stupid. They were not able to adapt as rapidly as they needed to changing market conditions, they were not able to create new and innovative products in a timely manner, nor where they were willing to take the big risks that you need to be sucessful in this business, and most important they were just not aggressive in selling the things. The recent firing of their sales boss is tardy - don't you think they'd have replaced him after the initial losing streak? How did he keep his job as long as he did? This is not his fault, it's his managers fault.
Boeing makes great planes. I know many people who work there and they are great employees who are skilled and love what they do. When Boeing loses the commercial airplane business, it's the management that really needs to take the blame.
And it didn't have to be this way. It's sad that America is once again losing a very valuable set of job skills to companies overseas, it's sad that America is losing the capability to build commerical aircraft. And mostly it's sad because the guys who are making the most money out of the company are the ones who will lose the least when the business goes bad.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Boeing used to be the dominant name in commercial aerospace, having over 2/3 of the market share. Boeing had great airplanes too - airplanes like the 707, 747, and 777 that defined their segment. But with Phil Condit, the company rapidly went downhill. They became too conservative in creating new products, prefering to make only derivities instead of creating anything new at all for 10 years. How many companies can do this and thrive?
So finally they got off their bums and came up with the 7E7. This will be a beautiful plane and I think could have also defined it's segment; one of those great planes that people could look back on and say, wow, that was a era-defining plane. But sorry to say, it's too little too late. I believe enough airlines will order the A350 instead of the 7E7 to ensure that the 7E7 will never be the home run that Boeing hopes it will be. And in truth the A350 doesn't have to make Airbus any money at all, it's sole purpose for being is to deny profits for Boeing.
Airbus is now the dominat player. Airbus is far more aggressive and let me just say, flat out smarter in creating new designs that customers want and getting them sold. I'd really love to see Boeing rise to glory once again, but the truth is that their management is just plain stupid. They were not able to adapt as rapidly as they needed to changing market conditions, they were not able to create new and innovative products in a timely manner, nor where they were willing to take the big risks that you need to be sucessful in this business, and most important they were just not aggressive in selling the things. The recent firing of their sales boss is tardy - don't you think they'd have replaced him after the initial losing streak? How did he keep his job as long as he did? This is not his fault, it's his managers fault.
Boeing makes great planes. I know many people who work there and they are great employees who are skilled and love what they do. When Boeing loses the commercial airplane business, it's the management that really needs to take the blame.
And it didn't have to be this way. It's sad that America is once again losing a very valuable set of job skills to companies overseas, it's sad that America is losing the capability to build commerical aircraft. And mostly it's sad because the guys who are making the most money out of the company are the ones who will lose the least when the business goes bad.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
posted by Daetrin at 9:37 AM
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