In case you haven't guessed, the title of this blog is from the song lyrics "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who--Indeed, was anyone fooled that this management change at BCA would result in any reform of the corruption and incompetence at BCA? I certainly hope there is no one that stupid, but alas, some people are much more gullible than any human should be.

Here is one other applicable section of the song to this debacle:

"Change it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fall that's all
But the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed"

Nothing has changed, indeed. I don't know why this song popped into my head when reading about this non-change at Boeing. I never was a Who fan. Not sure the last time I even heard the song. Just seemed uber-appropriate for this latest mismangement debacle at Boeing (by the Board, in this case, as they approved/made the non-change).

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/ ... 77002E72F9

The following is my reaction to the non-firing of Scott Carson as leader of BCA (he was allowed to retire, instead) and his replacement with James Albaugh, former leader of the defense side of Boeing. It was a comment posted to the Seattle Times article announcing the change here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... arson.html

dkh had one of the better comments here:

"I am SOOOO happy Jim is taking over! We need someone who screwed up wedgetail so bad that the main radars still don't work - and was so over budget on FCS that it got cancelled - and don't forget the cancellation of Sea Launch for bad performance and - P8 is next!1 Mcnerney is the one who needs to go - ever since the chemical boy was deemed to have the ability to lead an aerospace company - Boeing has gone in the toilet and it won't get any better till the bufoons on the board realize it!"

Don't forget ABL being late and over budget. I'm sure main other examples could be found of Albaugh's "performance" in IDS. Did McNerney quote Albaugh's record of acheivement in IDS in announcing him as new CEO of BCA? Likely not, or he quoted the one program at IDS that isn't troubled or going to be cancelled.

Being late and over budget with so many IDS programs should serve Albaugh well in continuing the budget busting and extremely late 787 program stays that way.

Not the appointment by far that should have been made, but what can you expect from a failed CEO (McNerney) that has made so many bad decisions in the past?

Probably another key reason Albaugh was chosen is because he will fit right in with the fraudsters and whistleblower retaliators in BCA management, as his IDS division used fraud repeatedly to bilk the US government and engaged in retaliation against whistleblowers reporting fraud in his division to the government:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/p ... ement.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... lower.html

What no one here has pointed out as well is that Albaugh was intimately involved in the first tanker competition Druyun scandal and the Lockheed competeion data theft scandal that gave Boeing the data to win the EELV contract from the government:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource. ... =albaugh28

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource. ... lockheed09

Carson was squeaky clean compared to Albaugh it seems.

But apparently this is the kind of management the BOD wants--managers willing to break every rule and law to meet bottom line targets. Carson may have been a bad manager, but he may not have been as willing to break the rules and laws as Albaugh is.

Don't get me wrong--BCA under Carson was an organization worthy of many RICO charges. Corruption between BCA and the FAA was/is endemic.

www.thelastinspector.com

But don't expect any improvements under Albaugh in ethical or legal compliance by BCA. It will still be an organization (as one key customer said) "run by (corrupt) lawyers and bean counters".

Only the $615 million dollar settlement with the government may have kept Albaugh out of prison for the Druyun affair, for if the governemnt had not let Boeing thusly buy its way out of a real investigation and real accountability for its crimes on that contract, Albaugh would have been one of the key people receiving investigatory attention. Condit as well. Boeing only had to offer up Sears as the sacrificial lamb for all of its management, and $615 million dollars, and they were free of real accountability for the fraud (all the people involved tried and going to prison, as well as the company itself being charged and debarred).

Bright new day at BCA?---not. As some have noted below, if Carson was replaced with someone competent and uncorrupted, that would be far from what is needed. I would guestimate that at least 75% of Boeing management should go to have any real chance of restoring competence and respect for the law at the company, and therefore save the company. That would be probably at least 1500 managers--not one. And yes, McNerney and the whole board should go as well, without saying. They are more responsible than anyone for the failures at the company today. Only when ethical and competent managers that won't break rules and laws at will to meet bottom line targets are brought in, will the company have a chance to survive.

And no, Mulally is not the answer. He is more responsible than even Carson and McNerney for the debacle the 787 is, as he was there when the key decisions that hobbled the program were made. He also retaliated against whistleblowers, and presided over BCA rife with fraud in QA--which I witnessed, and tried unsuccessfully to stop. The 777 program went far over budget under him as well. He also was heavily involved in the kind of "quid pro quo" hiring policies ala Druyun, having flown with execs to WDC to confer with Tom McSweeney of the FAA to get the Special technical Audit of 1999/2000 from resulting in the pulling of BCA's Production Certificate. Boeing's PC was never pulled, the STA only worsened Boeing's compliance, and surprise of surprises, shortly after that meeting, McSweeney jumped ship from the FAA to Boeing for several times his FAA salary.

Some have also noted Albaugh is a civil engineer. What, perchance, did he engineer at Rocketdyne? Their buildings?

There may be a fix to incompetent and corrupt Boeing management, but this change isn't it.