L E ADERSHIP M ESSAGE World of growth Leading in aerospace begins by growing globally I n this Q&A with Frontiers, Marc Allen, president of Boeing International, discusses the role of priorities, alignment and agility in driving Boeing’s success around the world. What does it mean to be global? You could ask 100 people in the organization and get 100 different answers on what it means to be global. It’s hard to define, but there are some obvious signposts, including a focus on talent and resources. In a world where our local competition is expanding globally and our global competition is more active locally, we have to ask ourselves: Is our talent global? Do our teams have career pathways to more senior roles? There’s no reason to chase after being “global” for the sake of being global. The reason to build a global platform is because it will make us more competitive so we can be the winners of the aerospace battle for the next century. 10 | BOEING FRONTIERS the one Bill Boeing founded in the Red Barn in 1916. The increasing pace of technological change and innovation in our industry is real and requires us to adjust. But rather than be disrupted by others, we want to adapt to the changing environment on our own terms. From a global perspective, managing change takes adaptability and patience. Adaptability speaks for itself. Patience means not running away from partnerships because dark clouds appear. It means maintaining productive company-to-country relationships, even in difficult geopolitical moments. We can give countries a reason to work together rather than to compete, to keep dialogue and commerce open in a wide range of environments. What is Global 2025? It’s a companywide strategy to improve the competitiveness of Boeing around the world. It’s about having cost advantages, capability advantages and market access advantages that come Why does becoming a global top performer matter? It matters because, like any big enterprise, we compete for capital. If Boeing is not able to be an attractive investment, our cost of doing business goes up and our ability to compete goes down. The imperative to drive down cost or find capability advantages is all about continuing to keep us in a leadership position, with top performance. What’s behind the urgency? It is the nature of business to chase continuous improvement. We live in a different world than we did when we all started working. It is clear that change—in business models, product or technology—is coming faster than ever. Our ability to look back in 20 years and see ourselves as still the best in aerospace depends on our ability to accelerate Boeing initiatives underway. How do we stay on top of our game? The Boeing that we are 100 years from now will be different from today’s Boeing, just as we are different from
Frontiers December 2016 Issue
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