McNerney: Ethics matter
Published 9:00 pm Monday, May 1, 2006
Boeing’s purchase of jet-parts-supplier Aviall made all the headlines, which obscured the fact that Monday was Jim McNerney’s first time presiding over Boeing’s annual shareholders meeting as CEO.
In case you missed his speech — like I did — here’s a copy of his prepared text. http://www.boeing.com/news/speeches/2006/mcnerney_060501.html
One thing jumps out at me — this guy seems serious about ethics.
Key Quote: “If, for example, a leader ‘delivers results’ but does not live the Boeing values, that person will not remain a member of our management team. Therefore, in going forward, there will be no tradeoff between performance and values at Boeing; we expect our people to demonstrate both.”
The speech seems quite newsworthy to me, given the string of ethics problems that led to McNerney becoming CEO in the first place. But the reporters who covered the annual meeting didn’t follow up on it.
Aside from the Aviall deal, the Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0605020246may02,1,2951108.story?coll=chi-business-hed barely mentioned the meeting at all.
Key Quote: “At the annual meeting, stockholders approved, over the board’s objection, a non-binding proposal requiring directors be elected by a majority vote, rather than a plurality. McNerney said the vote was “significant” and that the board will take another look at the governance issue. Another shareholder proposal requesting a change in the company’s bylaws to separate the roles of chairman and CEO to promote more management accountability lost but received 35.4 percent of the vote.”
Crain’s Chicago Business http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=20421 reported more about McNerney’s style than the substance of his address.
Key Quote: “Mr. McNerney handled his first shareholder meeting as Boeing’s CEO with aplomb and an occasional flash of wit, but then again there were no complaints in the half-full auditorium at the Field Museum about the stock price, which is up nearly 30% in the ten months he has been at the helm.”
