Boeing: Management Planning

Boeing: Management Planning

Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. A top U.S. exporter, the company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in more than 90 countries" ("About us Boeing", 2010). Boeing's reputation and international capacity has derived from having effective management planning, analyzing the various influences that have had an effect on management planning as well as the factors that influence Boeing's strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning. This organization has become the leader in aerospace technology due to their strong ethics and planning abilities.

"Planning is the conscious, systematic process of making decisions about goals and activities that an individual, group, work unit or organization will pursue in the future." (Bateman, & Snell, 2009). Boeing has taken this concept and built off of it to create a sound business plan. The organizations business plan is a detailed planning document that includes the following functions and steps: analysis of the market and competition, brand positioning, description of the business and opportunity, details about the operation, management team biographies, discussion of risks and obstacles, proforma financial statements/projections, capitalization plan, brand development and the implementation strategy. Boeing has also created a consulting team called StartupBoeing, which provides free consultation services of the business plans and corresponding financials to up and coming entrepreneurs. The organizations management plan is notable for many reasons due to successfulness. While the steps are clearly outlined for the planning process there are numerous influences that have an effect on the management planning.

First and foremost, the planning process can become more complex with the introduction of legal issues. These issues can affect different stages of the planning process depending on how the legality affects the organization. For example, "The previously sealed documents obtained by BusinessWeek seem to tell the story of a company that underpaid women, knew it, and yet bitterly contested both the sex-discrimination case and a 1998 Labor Dept. audit into the same issues. If the 28,000 potential class-action plaintiffs prevail in their lawsuit, set to begin in Seattle on May 17, Boeing could be forced to pay punitive damages and back pay exceeding $1 billion, according to both plaintiffs' attorneys and outside experts who have reviewed the case. Above and beyond the financial cost, this type of publicity is the last thing the company needs as it tries to clean up its recent allegations of ethical misconduct." (Holmes, 2004). The legal issues this quarry presented required Boeing to address the financial projections originally set in the management planning process.

Additionally, these forms of legal issues also bring up ethical accountability for the company as well. Boeing has an extensive ethics and business conduct policy in place for all employees. According to the first segment of Boeing's company policy POL -2 "Ethical Business Conduct", Boeing will conduct its business fairly, impartially, in an ethical and proper manner, in accordance with the company's values and Code of Conduct, and in full compliance with laws and regulations." (Boeing: ethics and, 2011). To insure that ethics is a significant and valued by all within the company, Boeing has administered ethics and compliance programs for its employees. Should a situation arise Boeing has implemented an ethics hotline that can be utilized for reporting such unethical behavior as well as assigning an Ethics Executive and Advisor to each