Game plan for success Making Commercial Airplanes the first choice of customers while establishing market-leading BOEING FRONTIERS / JUNE 2013 15 Ray Conner joined Boeing in 1977 as a mechanic on the 727 program and proceeded to work his way up, holding many of Commercial Airplanes’ key leadership positions. Last June, he took the helm as the commercial division’s president and chief executive officer. A year into the job, Conner reflects on his vision for the organization, the challenges ahead and the first big test of his leadership— resolving battery issues on the 787. What’s your vision for Commercial Airplanes? We work for one of the most iconic com-panies in the world. When I think about our future, I’d like Boeing to continue its legacy for another 100 years and beyond. I strongly believe that in order to do that, we have to be the first choice for our cus-tomers— that’s the only way to guarantee the future of Commercial Airplanes. It’s not an easy task. We have to have the right people, products and services to do it. What’s your game plan for succeeding in this highly competitive marketplace? We’ll succeed by providing the best value proposition to our customers through the products, services and support we provide. That means executing on our rates and deliveries, driving efficiency throughout the value stream, investing in new products, and growing our people. What’s the biggest challenge you see for Commercial Airplanes? Competing from a cost standpoint. We have the strongest product lineup in the industry, but unless we increase productivity in the way we design and build airplanes, we will always face a tough challenge in the market. Our com-petitors have more financial resources and are able to be extremely competitive on price. That’s what makes initiatives like Partnering for Success with our key suppliers, Lean+ in our production system, and functional excellence in airplane development so critical. You meet with customers quite a bit. Where do they think we can improve? What do they consider our biggest strength? Our customers would tell us we have the better-value products and services. In addition, they think we do great in a crisis. During the 787 battery situation we communicated constantly with our customers and they appreciated it. We helped show people we were doing the right thing. Where we have an opportunity to improve is in our day-to-day business, in the speed and products and services for the next 20 to 30 years >>
Frontiers June 2013 Issue
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