He inherited an already rotten corpse. It was McDonell Douglas MBAs that caused this in their ever lasting search for shareholder value above everything else. These processes take decades. Blaming the last CEO is a bit narrow minded.
The trigger was pulled by Boeing lifer who started out as Engineer, and the McDonnel Douglas CEO who followed him was also someone who started out as Engineer.
Both of them were instrumental in the divestment, outsourcing, and other strategies that created for example Spirit Aerosystems out of Boeing Wichita.
