Boeings New C.E.O. Calls for Culture Change as Strike Vote Looms

Boeing’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, shared his vision on Wednesday for how to restore the beleaguered business, delivering his most comprehensive public remarks on strategy since taking the role in August.But, he acknowledged, he must first end a financially damaging strike.In a message to employees, Mr.

Ortberg shared a speech that he planned to deliver to investor analysts on a call later in the day to discuss Boeing’s quarterly financial results.In it, he offered a diagnosis: The company had lost too much trust, gained too much debt and made too many mistakes.

To put Boeing back on the right path would require “fundamental culture change,” stabilizing the business and improving execution.“Our leaders, from me on down, need to be closely integrated with our business and the people who are doing the design and production of our products,” he said.“We need to be on the factory floors, in the back shops and in our engineering labs.

We need to know what’s going on, not only with our products, but with our people.”Boeing on Wednesday also shared more detail about its quarterly financial results, including a $6.2 billion loss in the three months ending in September.The company had previewed that setback earlier in the month.To achieve his ambitions for the company, Mr.

Ortberg will first have to bring about the end of a strike that has brought most of the company’s commercial airplane production to a halt.But there is hope: Both sides negotiated a new offer in recent days, which workers will vote to approve or reject on Wednesday.“I’m very hopeful that the package we put forward will allow our employees to come back to work so we can immediately focus on restoring the company,” Mr.

Ortberg said.“Once we get back, we have the task of restarting the factories and the supply chain.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify ac...