Boeing
Boeing Corporation
The Challenge of Being Ethical and Competitive
“Because we dared to dream, dared to work hard, we have turned dreams into realities, to leave some huge footprints on every aerospace frontier. Now it is time to create some new footprints!” ~ Phil Condit, CEO, 1996
Boeing Chief Executive Phil Condit stared blankly at the road early Saturday evening as he drove to Boeing Headquarters. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, contemplating the crucial decision at hand. The Boeing Board of Directors was to gather that night to decide whether or not to fire Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice
President Mike Sears and Darleen Druyun, the Vice President of Missile-Defense Systems.
Recent events had caused executives to question the appropriateness of the hiring of
Druyun by Sears. Sears offered Druyun a job last year while she was employed as an acquisition official for the U.S. Air Force. At the time, she was reviewing a $21 billion proposal for the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767 air-borne-refueling tankers. Boeing assigned external and in-house lawyers to review Sears and Druyun’s conduct more than a month ago. In the initial stages of the investigation the lawyers did not find any impropriety; two weeks ago however, the fate of Boeing changed when the lawyers uncovered improper contact between Sears and Druyun. The lawyers discovered evidence from e-mails and interviews that Sears’ contacted Druyun about employment with Boeing in October 2002, while she was reviewing the tanker contract. This directly violated
Boeing’s hiring policies. Condit grew weary recalling that these events have surfaced only months after Boeing lost $1 billion in government contracts and was suspended from new space contracts, following the scandal involving stolen Lockheed Martin documents.
As Condit sat at the head of the table with other Board Members, they discussed the most recent developments of the case, including statements by
The Challenge of Being Ethical and Competitive
“Because we dared to dream, dared to work hard, we have turned dreams into realities, to leave some huge footprints on every aerospace frontier. Now it is time to create some new footprints!” ~ Phil Condit, CEO, 1996
Boeing Chief Executive Phil Condit stared blankly at the road early Saturday evening as he drove to Boeing Headquarters. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, contemplating the crucial decision at hand. The Boeing Board of Directors was to gather that night to decide whether or not to fire Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice
President Mike Sears and Darleen Druyun, the Vice President of Missile-Defense Systems.
Recent events had caused executives to question the appropriateness of the hiring of
Druyun by Sears. Sears offered Druyun a job last year while she was employed as an acquisition official for the U.S. Air Force. At the time, she was reviewing a $21 billion proposal for the Air Force to lease 100 Boeing 767 air-borne-refueling tankers. Boeing assigned external and in-house lawyers to review Sears and Druyun’s conduct more than a month ago. In the initial stages of the investigation the lawyers did not find any impropriety; two weeks ago however, the fate of Boeing changed when the lawyers uncovered improper contact between Sears and Druyun. The lawyers discovered evidence from e-mails and interviews that Sears’ contacted Druyun about employment with Boeing in October 2002, while she was reviewing the tanker contract. This directly violated
Boeing’s hiring policies. Condit grew weary recalling that these events have surfaced only months after Boeing lost $1 billion in government contracts and was suspended from new space contracts, following the scandal involving stolen Lockheed Martin documents.
As Condit sat at the head of the table with other Board Members, they discussed the most recent developments of the case, including statements by