What should Boeing do to solve its long-standing problems?

As for signs of trouble at a company, a hole blowing through the wall of one of the planes at 16,000 feet is not subtle.

So it was no surprise that Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun spent the bulk of the company's fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday on safety. “We caused the problem and we understand that,” he said of the Jan. 5 incident.

Mr Calhoun said the company had instituted extra quality controls and halted production for a day to focus on safety and quality. But Boeing's problems span decades, and some aviation and management experts have long suggested they go deeper than processes, pointing instead to a shift in corporate culture that puts finance over engineering. Solving this may require more drastic measures.

“What Calhoun and his team need to do requires both a leap of faith in the way they have done business and some kind of viable, credible courage,” said Nancy Koehn, a historian at Harvard Business School who focuses on crisis leadership.

DealBook asked experts in corporate culture, aviation and management about actions Boeing could take to solve its long-standing problems.

Design a completely new airplane. The 737 Max, the workhorse of the Boeing fleet, was introduced in 1968. “They've added new components, but I think they need an entirely new aircraft design based on all the lessons we've learned about aviation over the last 60 years,” said Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic and executive fellow at Harvard Business School that has written two case studies on Boeing. “Maybe they should cut their dividend so the money doesn't go out and spend the money on designing new planes,” said Mr. George, who added that Boeing should stop share buybacks. Mr. Calhoun did that said that Boeing wouldn't deliver its next all-new plane until the mid-2030s.

Move headquarters back to Seattle, the heart of the company's technical activities. Boeing moved its base to Chicago in 2001 and then to Washington, DC in 2022. Mr George said that was a mistake. “Management needs to get back in touch with engineers who understand flight safety,” he said. “For the most part, Boeing's top management does not have an aeronautical engineering degree.”

Open the factory. Ms. Koehn said a historical example that could be instructive for Boeing is what food manufacturing companies did to address the exposure of grotesque sanitary and labor conditions in the meatpacking industry: They organized tours and lobbied for regulations to control quality. “Boeing could say, 'Come to the factories, come talk to our people. Do it now. Do it in four weeks. Do it within six weeks,” Ms. Koehn said. During Wednesday's earnings call, Mr. Calhoun said he had invited Boeing customers to visit the factory. Doing the same for regulators, journalists and consumer groups could go a further step in rebuilding trust, Ms. Koehn said.

Host tech-style product launch events. Ashley Fulmer, an assistant professor at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business who researches trust dynamics in organizations, said Boeing needs to communicate more with all its stakeholders, including the general public. She pointed to the types of major product launch events hosted by tech companies like Apple and Meta as one way they can do that. “I don't think it's enough at this point to aim for no incidents,” she said. “What they need is regular demonstration of their skills, such as innovative design to improve safety and reliability.”

Question: Should Boeing be nationalized? Matt Stoller, research director at the progressive think tank American Economic Liberties Project and author of the monopoly-focused newsletter BIG, recently made the case that this should be the case, noting that the US government already provides a large portion of its revenue helps sell its planes abroad.

But Richard Aboulafia, director of space consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said nationalization would be unlikely. He said the government could at least attach conditions for Boeing's management to defense contracts, although there is little precedent for such a move.

“The risk is not bankruptcy; it is management malpractice,” Mr Aboulafia said.