Pete Buttigieg says Boeing needs ‘a pretty profound culture change’
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Boeing (BA+0.82%) is coming in for a bit more last-minute criticism from outgoing members of the Biden administration. Soon-to-be-former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Bloomberg in an interview Monday that the planemaker still has a lot of work to do on itself.
“What we really need to see is a pretty profound culture change that will be ultimately proven out by the results, and that’s results over the long term,” Buttigieg told the outlet. “That is a work in progress for them.”
The words echo those of Mike Whitaker, soon-to-be-former administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, who recently said that there needs to be a “fundamental cultural shift at Boeing that’s oriented around safety and quality above profits.”
Commentary from both men comes about a year after a door panel fell off a Boeing 737 Max 9 mid-flight. The incident prompted the resignation of former CEO Dave Calhoun and an FAA-imposed limit on how many of the cash-cow planes it can produce each month. Buttigieg and Whitaker will both be stepping down when Donald Trump is inaugurated as president, and it is not clear what kind of relationship Trump’s choice to run the FAA will have with the manufacturer.
Some observers are expecting smoother sailing ahead for Boeing. Barclays (BCS+2.37%) upgraded its rating on the company’s stock Monday to “overweight,” its first positive outlook since 2019. The bank’s analysts are putting a lot of faith in new CEO Kelly Ortberg to get things going in the right direction on fiscal and production matters.
“New CEO Ortberg importantly brings an outsider’s perspective that we believe is critical to affect meaningful cultural change and to rebuild credibility with internal and external stakeholders,” they wrote in a research note.
