Boeing — Fiasco
I read AP, Apple News (an aggregation of sources) the WSJ and have always believed in a balanced news diet. I try to avoid CNN/NYT/Fox as they are so far left and right it’s like eating the equivalent of news junk food. But hey, we all want some peanut M&Ms and Cheetos once in a very blue moon. And with all the news about Boeing one would have to have their head in the sand to miss all that’s wrong with the company and its Max.
I feel bad for David Calhoun. He spoke at one of our first Outsell Signature Events, gave the annual View from the Top, when he came in to run Nielsen. Man, that must have been a cake walk compared to turning around a manufacturing behemoth. I hope his GE pedigree is working.
Boeing and the Max? Common sense says run from that plane, especially if you are a consumer. And consumers have power at our fingertips, and we can make our own informed decisions — fake news, or junk food news notwithstanding. There’s plenty of good authentic news that will tell the truth if you aggregate your own point of view. And so last week when planning a birthday trip for my husband we booked flights at convenient times. Then I saw the itinerary and balked at the return flight being on a Max. No thank you.
I immediately pulled the plug (no pun intended) on that flight and chose another less convenient one. I don’t trust that plane. It’s back in the air and yet the FAA reputation on this one is fraught (Why the FAA Still Can’t Fix Boeing) and story after story explains about missing bolts, supply chain partners focused on private equity profits vs. safety, and internal staff complaining about the pressures at Boeing or its suppliers. I told our travel agent (yes, I still use one!) that the software issues might have been solved and now the door plugs may be inspected. But I’m convinced the next tragedy awaits with that plane — we just don’t know what it’s going to be yet.
Sure, software is backchecked and bolts are reviewed. But what HAVEN’T they looked at that’s going to go wrong. They put the Max back in the skies what — 30 days after the Alaska fiasco? Not enough time if you ask me because it seems too much else can go wrong.
So last week I wrote about principled spending. And this time around I chose an itinerary based on the plane running on it. I can’t believe I’m actually doing that but when the consumer loses trust in a brand, it forces us to rethink our spending. When we are armed with a good news diet, with plenty of information we can make our own decisions. This is what makes the web and good clean information such a beautiful thing. If we could just erase the fake news. But like one client said the other day — if we can use AI to make deep fakes — maybe we can use AI to ferret them out. After all it’s just a technology — using it for good or bad is up to the humans in the loop.