on our financial commitments—and it reduces our risks as we “Our role is to be out there, whether it’s working with move ahead to help us stay healthy,” Edgerton said. the financiers, the rating agencies that rate customers’ Cave added that one of Boeing Capital’s highest-yielding deals or the institutional investors,” Myers said. “Our investments is its people—and a workplace culture that is job is to influence how they feel, and inspire them based on teamwork and values. to want to invest in our products.” n “We don’t have a handful of people in a smoke-filled room who john.kvasnosky@boeing.com define what good business is,” Cave said. “Ours is an inclusive process. We deliberate as a team and, as a result, we get better solutions and implementation is also smoother. If we focus on PHOTO: Tail fins and winglets of values, we do a better job. They’re a competitive advantage.” Southwest Airlines and AirTran That approach successfully guided Boeing Capital through 737s. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES a challenging 2012, he said, and will continue to do so in 2013. “Our job is to look out a couple years and work with financiers to develop funding sources for Boeing commercial airplane deliv- eries,” Cave said. “We’re charting the course through our annual aircraft financing forecast. We do it in our customer support role and in our leadership role for industry. We set the tone.” Airlines picking up new Boeing jets have been less challenged than others in borrowing funds, and Cave credited this to the attractiveness of those airplane assets. Also, jetliner production continues to increase in response to demand. To keep sufficient financing available for Boeing aircraft deliveries, Boeing Capital works to energize financiers about aircraft investment through an aggressive schedule of global events for bankers, investors—even the appraisers who set airplane values. These sessions experienced record attendance in 2012, said Tim Myers, who leads Boeing Capital’s financial stakeholder efforts as vice president and general manager of Aircraft Financial Services. BOEING FRONTIERS / DECEMBER 2012–JANUARY 2013 43
Frontiers December 2012/January 2013 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above