[Mike W]

Ah, here's reference to my earlier piece about McD's negative influence on Boeing. (I guess you can say the same about Douglas Aircraft... and where are they now?)

McBoeing, 787′s insidious impact overwhelm product strategy

http://leehamnews.wordpress.com/2011...duct-strategy/

McBoeing is alive and well in Seattle.

“McBoeing” is the derisive moniker given the combined Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger of 1997 in which legacy Boeing personnel say MDC bought Boeing with Boeing’s money. Key positions in Boeing’s C-level suite were assumed by McDonnell Douglas officers despite the weak market position MDC had reached–just 7% of the commercial airplane business and a declining defense side.

In what turned out to be the most notorious placements, MDC’s CEO Harry Stonecipher became Boeing’s COO and widely was perceived to overwhelm a weak Phil Condit, Boeing’s CEO. Mike Sears, later of KC-767-Darleen Drunyan tanker infamy, moved from MDC to become Boeing’s CFO.

John McDonnell and Stonecipher, the largest shareholders in Boeing after the merger, went on the Board of Directors and formed a powerhouse team. They and directors allied with them dominated the Board.


It was this MDC-dominated leadership and Board that sent Boeing into a downward spiral. MDC starved Douglas Aircraft for R&D money and relied on derivatives. During the period 1998-2003, Boeing’s R&D fell precipitously, drawing scathing criticism from the normally pro-Boeing consultant, Richard Aboulafia of The Teal Group. Boeing offered derivatives of in the form of the 737-900 (not today’s more successful ER), 757-300 and 767-400, all sales duds. Boeing talked and talked and talked about new airplanes but had no action. It talked about three different derivatives of the 747 and the fanciful Sonic Cruiser.

... continues