Former diplomats, politicians and business leaders are among the select group of Boeing country presidents tasked with enabling the company to operate globally by enhancing its local presence and influence locally. The group is headed by Tom Pickering, senior vice-president international relations, a former US ambassador hired in 2001 "to help Boeing go global".
Surprisingly for a company that sells its products around the world, Boeing did not know how to go global, and Pickering says his first task was "to define where to go and how to get there". His approach involves the "three Ps" - people, presence and process. Appointing country presidents is the first step.
"Essentially, to be global means to enjoy benefit from people, resources, intellect, financing, access and sales around the world," says Pickering. "We as a manufacturer want to draw benefit from a global footprint in research and development, engineering, suppliers and, some day, potentially assembly."
General Electric's worldwide presence is Boeing's model, but with differences. "Boeing makes a few very expensive end products," says Pickering. "That determines how and where we can sell and what and where we can make things. They are not portable like GE kitchen appliances."
In countries judged to have both markets and aerospace capabilities of value to Boeing - including R&D, engineering, suppliers and finance - high-profile leaders are being appointed to co-ordinate all business activity and put together a strategy to build the company's footprint in those countries.
The strategies go "way beyond just selling goods", says Pickering, and include building stronger supplier relationships, identifying merger and acquisition targets, and shaping the local defence market. The business units remain responsible for sales and marketing, and the country executives are working with the leadership of each unit to create plans to support them.
When hiring Pickering, chief executive officer Phil Condit acknowledged that his biggest challenge would be internal, convincing business units accustomed to selling globally that there is value in operating globally. "The obstacle to globalisation is convincing people that it adds value,"says Pickering. Country presidents provide input into the hiring and assigning of people. "Fast movers" with little foreign experience will be able to spend one or two years working under a country leader, resulting in a "better-rounded" executive.
"How do we take a company that is plain vanilla American and get people acquainted with the global market and workplace?" says Pickering. The Boeing Leadership Center plays a key role, twice a year running a course that enables senior executives to work real business problems in another country.
Boeing already has a significant presence in some countries, owning Boeing Australia and Hawker de Havilland in Australia. A Moscow design centre has 400 engineers working two shifts a day, and with others in Seattle and Wichita provide a 24h-a-day design capability. "We are seeing significant savings, which we want to replicate elsewhere," says Pickering. Madrid, Spain, is the site of Boeing's first research and technology centre outside the USA. A second is planned for Asia in 2004.
In Europe, Boeing wants to "build a position and use it to influence sales and markets", says Pickering. It will also help Boeing deal with regulatory, trade and competition issues. "We believe it will help to stay in touch with legislators and build a base for lobbying." As well as having country presidents in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the UK, Boeing has appointed a representative to the European Union and NATO.
"There are 165,000 people in Boeing, 5,000 of them outside the USA, and just 50 in international relations," says Pickering. "It's like trying to turn an ocean liner with an oar." But it is working, he says. The plan for the first three years was to have a presence in 20 countries and five or six regions. "We have all the strategies in place," he adds. "Now we are beginning to see some results. I did not expect to be where we are in two years."
Source: Flight International
