JuLy 2015 05 Dennis Muilenburg President and chief executive officer What drives Dennis? Dennis Muilenburg, president and newly named chief executive officer of Boeing, answers Frontiers’ questions about what makes him tick What motivates you? My family, the customers and employees of this company, and the missions we support. I’ve spent my entire career at Boeing, and I want all of its stakeholders to be successful for the long haul. You’re known for very high energy. Do you expect everyone around you to match that? I expect my team to out-perform the competition in all dimensions. Energy is part of the equation, but we also need people who can think very deeply, who can help us slow down or pause when need be. So I prefer my team consist of individuals who are different from me— with a diversity of personalities and styles and backgrounds. With the stresses of running a big business, do you have any work-life balance? It’s all about striving for a wellbalanced life—more a blending than a competition between the personal and the professional. I work a lot. Spending time with my wife and kids, staying fit, and participating in community activities helps me manage stress. I invest my energy in ways that support my values and are mutually reinforcing. I set boundaries, prioritize my time and surround myself with a strong support network. Despite my best efforts, though, like many people, I occasionally struggle to find the right rhythm. That’s when falling back on foundational values becomes even more important. You have held leadership positions with a number of high-profile endeavors, some of which—like the Air Traffic Management business and the Future Combat Systems program—ended prematurely because of changes in the market or in the customer’s strategy. What did you learn from them? I’ve typically sought out tough assignments involving big technological or consensus-building challenges. Those don’t always play out as planned, but you’ve got to go into it with the perspective that if you get it all right the first time, great; if it’s not completely successful, you learn a lot that you can apply to the next one. Taking on hard tasks builds your ability as a leader. Difficult challenges grow less intimidating the more you do them. You boost your capacity for handling and even leveraging complexity, for doing the kinds of big, global things that we do. The company also benefits from what your team learns—often through the application of new technologies, capabilities or business models across other programs—even if your particular project or business doesn’t pan out. Do you plan to make any big changes at Boeing? Thanks to the hard work of talented employees around the world—and as a result of Jim McNerney’s leadership— our company today is financially strong and well-positioned in our markets. So we already have a solid foundation. Rather than make a radical shift, I’d like to see us deepen and broaden the approach we’re already on, and accelerate where necessary—get everybody on board, engage and inspire our people, and focus even more on developing up-and-coming leaders. We must have the best team and talent, deliver world-class results, and position Boeing to lead in its second century. n
Frontiers July 2015 Issue
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