Boeing

A big company with big challenges, which, if you're prepared to pat yourself on the back for solving, is very rewarding. There's a sense of pride in working for Boeing which is not available in many other places. It may seem abstract, but knowing that you're part of the 'family' which builds the planes you get onto routinely is a very positive experience.

Most middle managers have been with the company for 20+ years and are completely out of touch with the workforce and the motivation strategies required. Boeing is trying very hard to recruit young graduates but is running the risk of a huge loss of experience by allowing those 20+ year tenure people to retire without capitalizing on the growing experience of its middle tenure employees (who are really very restless and considering other work opportunities). The company needs new blood, but as a large entity, it cannot afford a knowledge drought while it establishes new working practices. I'm one of the new recruits, but I'm horribly aware of the potential gap which could be created when a workforce as disenchanted as the middle tenure employees in this company leaves. They're the link between the strategic planning and ground-floor operations, and their knowledge, although apparently not prized, is the backbone of the company.

Mentor your mid-term employees to groom them for middle management positions.

It's scary. I appreciate being mentored by middle managers as a new recruit, but there's a big gap between what I know (or will know in six months) and what the people who've been here for six years know about operations.

Those people are the ones you need to secure a bright new future. They already have the desire to change things but are hamstrung by the 'that's not the way we do it here' mentality of people who currently occupy middle management positions.

If they were buoyed by promotion to middle management positions and a young workforce capable of following their lead, they (and ONLY THEY) can chart a course to the future without risking the mid-term effectiveness of the company.

Risking it on the promise of recent graduates and their MBAs is a fast track to a hemorrhage of really, really important knowledge.