Boeing’s CEO wound up being unceremoniously fired this week after an almost year-long crisis surrounding the grounding of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Adding insult to injury, one of the company’s satellite rockets launched this week flew into the wrong orbit. So goes the top dog.
I mentioned in a previous video blog that I thought Boeing would get out of this 737 MAX 8 crisis okay because they received endorsements from American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Both companies stated they intended to continue flying the aircraft. All Boeing had to do from there was come forth very cleanly and very transparently about what had happened, how it happened, and demonstrate steps to ensuring the safety of the 737 MAX 8 line.
That didn’t happen and ultimately cost the CEO his $30-million-dollar-a-year job.
Now no one knows when Boeing will get back into good graces the public and federal regulators. I predict that it will take at least a year. Meanwhile, the 737 MAX 8’s continue to be grounded, and the company’s temporarily halted production.
For other CEOs and business executives, even small business ones, you really should take this example to heart of why you must act in a fully transparent, fully empathetic, fully accountable way in a crisis PR situation. Boeing didn’t do that initially, and now finds their credibility almost completely shot.