Boeing

For an engineer who enjoys technical challenges, the opportunities are great. The goal is normally to deliver a product that will do a better job for the customer, not just to attempt to figure out how to make a component 3 cents cheaper without concern for whether or not it will do the job as well. In most areas, the input of even the newest and least experienced individual will receive a decent hearing.

Although there are some obnoxious idiots (to use a polite phrase) in management, the majority of the people in lower management are intelligent and competent people with whom it is a pleasure to work. The focus is normally where it should properly be – getting the job done, and done well.

As long as the job gets done, and your function is covered during your absence, there is no problem scheduling a dental appointment or visit to the doctor during working hours, or leaving the office early to get to a function at your child's school. There may be occasions when the job happens to necessitate working well beyond 8 hours in a day, but that comes with the territory in this business, and very few managers attempt to game the system to obtain 50 hours' work for 40 hours' pay.

Since about 1990, there has been an increasing emphasis on short-term profit at the expense of long-term stability and growth. Work has been outsourced to companies that lack the capability to deliver satisfactory components or subsystems but submit extremely low bids. Boeing staff then have to be assigned to clean up the mess so the hardware works and production gets back on schedule. However, upper management fails to learn from experience, and the whole process repeats the next time they look for a supplier or do a Make-or-Buy decision. This can be very frustrating to observe.

Over a period longer than a year or two, a diagram of management assignments above the lower levels would look like a demonstration of Brownian motion in action. Managers spend more time working to obtain their next position than to do their assigned jobs. The general management philosophy seems to be to take some dramatic action that looks impressive and financially spectacular in the short term, and move on to another position elsewhere before it becomes obvious that the Emperor's new clothing is actually very drafty. Promising wonderful things while consciously ignoring reality appears to be the approved road to corporate advancement.

Management guru Peter Drucker created a variety of phrases, such as "Management by Objectives," to describe various approaches that management can use to effectively perform their functions. On many occasions, the best description of upper and middle management behavior at Boeing is probably a phrase that Drucker never used: "Management by Wishful Thinking."

There is a history within

The single most important word in this or any other business is "communication".

Communication – or lack of communication – within the company can make or break the success of the organization.

This seems to be recognized to some extent at upper levels, but there also seems to be an erroneous perception that communication consists of nothing more than grand, sweeping statements of corporate philosophy.

There is also a fondness for and usage of the buzzwords du jour that is almost nauseating.

Communication is much more effective when it is simple, direct, and to the point, rather than vague and seemingly evasive.