Boeing’s CEO lays out his 4-part turnaround plan to fix ‘festering of issues’ in a memo to employees

Kelly Ortberg took over as Boeing’s CEO in August.

Boeing’s new CEO shared a memo with employees on Wednesday laying out his plan to turn around the struggling planemaker.

Kelly Ortberg, who took over in August, said that “trust in the company has eroded,” that it’s “saddled with too much debt,” and that it has had “serious lapses in performance.”

But he said customers wanted the company to succeed, adding: “With the right focus and culture, we can be an iconic company and aerospace leader once again.”

He shared a four-pronged plan to do that:

1. Change the company’s culture

Ortberg, who spent two decades working for one of Boeing’s key suppliers, RTX, said Boeing leaders needed to be more connected with their people and products to “prevent the festering of issues and work better together to identify, fix, and understand root cause.”

“We need to be on the factory floors, in the back shops and in our engineering labs,” he said. “We need to know what’s going on, not only with our products, but with our people.”

Ortberg added that he’s working to change the operating process at Boeing to keep leaders accountable.

2. Stabilize the business

“We have some really big rocks that we need to get behind us to move the company forward,” Ortberg said.

His primary focus is ending a machinists strike. Results of the union’s vote on the latest contract proposal are expected to come Wednesday evening.

“We have been working feverishly to find a solution that works for the company and meets our employees’ needs,” he said.

Once the strike is over, Boeing’s next focus will be restarting its factories and supply chain with an emphasis on its safety and quality-control systems, he said.

3. Improve execution discipline

Ortberg said Boeing needed to better understand and manage the risks of its aircraft programs. This includes managing expectations and improving supply-chain management.

4. Build a new future for Boeing

“Boeing is an airplane company and at the right time in the future we need to develop a new airplane,” he said. “But we have a lot of work to do before then.”

He said that while the company was “consumed with the challenges of today,” it could lay the foundation for its future by resetting priorities and creating a leaner, more focused organization.

“This is a big ship that will take some time to turn, but when it does, it has the capacity to be great again,” he said.

Boeing on Wednesday reported a net loss of $6.1 billion in the third quarter of 2024. Revenue increased 5.8% to $17.84 billion, which was slightly lower than analyst expectations.