It's a familiar scene. An industry under fire.
A congressional committee demanding answers. A corporate CEO called to testify.
Yet the familiarities, in this case, end there. When Boeing CEO, Bill Allen
appeared before a House subcommittee - addressing charges that military aircraft makers
had improperly inflated profits at the government's expense - there was no
lawyer whispering in his ear. There were no notes before him. There was no hint that he
wasn't personally responsible for Boeing's
actions. And when he had finished his quiet
forthright explanation, there was no question that Boeing - far from gouging the
government to pad executives' bonuses - had in
fact been laying the foundations for future greatness, plowing profits into research
and development. The committee's response now seems unimaginable: It erupted
into a standing ovation.
That image, from 1956, kept popping to my mind whenever someone asked
me about the business meltdowns of 2001 and 2002. What, went the questions,
should be done about governance? What should the Congress do? What should boards
do? What, what, what? |
