Boeing posts staggering $6B loss as CEO calls for fundamental culture change

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg laid out a cautious path to turn the company around on Wednesday, calling for a “fundamental culture change” at the struggling planemaker as its quarterly losses surged to $6 billion due to a crippling strike.The company has now racked up losses of nearly $8 billion for the current year, as a halt in production of its 737 MAX, 777 and 767 planes following the strike and an ailing defense and space division hammer its business.Boeing shares slipped 3% on Wednesday.Ortberg told CNBC on Wednesday that Boeing is now reviewing its businesses and may end up selling some assets, as it downsizes its workforce to focus on the company’s key civil planemaking and core defense units.“We’re overstaffed for the forecast of our business going forward, so we need to right size and be efficient, and I think we need to continue to do that as we go forward,” he said.In a letter to employees, Ortberg stressed the need for improving performance in its defense business and its 737 MAX and 777 programs while broadly stabilizing Boeing, which is “at a crossroads” after lapses in its performance disappointed customers and eroded trust.“This is a big ship that will take some time to turn, but when it does, it has the capacity to be great again,” Ortberg told the planemaker’s employees in a message containing prepared remarks for his first earnings call as CEO.Ortberg’s call to arms follows sweeping plans for significant downsizing announced earlier this month as a strike by about 33,000 workers that has dragged on for more than a month hits production of its best-selling 737 MAX jet as well as 767 and 777 widebody planes.The former Rockwell Collins executive, who took the helm of the planemaker in August, said he was hopeful that a new contract proposal being voted on Wednesday by more of the striking workers would be approved, though analysts say ratification is not certain.It is a crucial day for the planemaker, which was alread...