Boeing may have moved on — but have we?
During World War II, Boeing’s factory at Boeing Field was obscured from aerial view to thwart potential air attacks. Designers and engineers hid the plant by building fake residential neighborhoods atop some of the most critical facilities supporting America’s war efforts.
While Boeing’s presence in Seattle may have been hidden from aerial view during the war, the company’s influence and connection to the Pacific Northwest, then and until recently, has always been on full display. Today, the company’s community presence is a shadow of its former self. As we adjust to Boeing’s diminishing workforce and real estate footprint, we should learn from its exit, be reminded of the importance of stakeholder capitalism and ask ourselves, who will fill the vacuum that Boeing leaves in the Pacific Northwest?
An example of Boeing’s evolution from a deeply connected Puget Sound-based company to a smaller presence was its curious absence from the PSBJ’s list of largest corporate philanthropists in Washington state in the May 21-27 print edition. While they have a multigenerational history of philanthropy throughout the Pacific Northwest, those efforts are no longer managed from Seattle. Can the company feel and understand the region’s needs if those decision-makers are not here?
Editor’s note: Boeing did not respond to our corporate philanthropists survey by the original deadline. However, the company did provide information after the deadline and currently ranks No. 2.
Microsoft Corp. $87.06 million
The Boeing Co.$18.71 million
Albertsons Cos. dba Safeway, Haggen, Albertsons$14.83 million
Boeing’s appearance of reduced participation locally is also manifested by the fact that there are no current board members from the Seattle area, home to its largest employment base. I’m at a loss to understand how a board can have a sense of the company’s role in a region when none of its members live in that region.
The bottom line is that while we may still think of Boeing as the world’s largest independent manufacturer of commercial aircraft and a Seattle-based company, it’s really a Puget Sound-based division of the world’s second-largest military contractor headquartered in Chicago.
The company’s behavior over the last decade provides a timely reminder of the importance of stakeholder capitalism. It’s hard not to wonder what would be different if Boeing had embraced the notion that all stakeholders — customers, employees, suppliers, vendors, shareholders and communities — are critical to the organization’s success, which is what it signed up for when Boeing endorsed the Business Roundtable’s “Statement of Purpose.”
Boeing’s shareholder primacy created a toxic culture that led to catastrophic events. A singular focus on shareholder value is shortsighted and not sustainable, as has been witnessed. Recently, when asked about systemic delays in manufacturing timelines and quality control production issues (with 737, 767, 777, 787, etc.), Boeing CEO David Calhoun replied on a quarterly earnings call, “Well, I’ll remind everybody that the [Airbus] A380, the A350, the A330, the A3 ... had issues too.” Huh? They did it first, so we can too?
“Boeing moves 787 Dreamlifter base out of Everett,” “Amazon surpasses Boeing as Washington’s biggest employer,” and “Boeing puts its Seattle commercial airplanes campus up for sale” are a few recent headlines that codify Boeing’s future in the region. They might have been the first publicly traded company in the Pacific Northwest, and with the addition of other global leaders (Paccar, Costco, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Expedia, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.), Seattle no longer stands as a “one-company town.” We should be grateful that nature abhors a vacuum.
The reduced presence of the aircraft company born on the shores of Lake Union more than 100 years ago will leave a significant void in our community and its heart. With their foot halfway out the door, let us encourage Boeing to continue to show up to be involved in the community.
The company owes its hometown at least that much.