Observations by a Citizen: From Pioneers to Bean-Counters

By: Hal Rounds

Imagine you are flying out of Portland, Oregon on a Boeing 737 in early January. The plane climbs smoothly into the clear, rarefied air, and you watch through your window as the landscape recedes below. Suddenly the emergency door at the seat row ahead of you screeches and disappears with inexpressible fury, the pressurized atmosphere puffs violently out through the opening, sucking out anything loose, including parts of the waggling seats just inches before your face.  Your seat belt keeps you from going with it, then the violent decompression subsides to a roar of rushing outside air as the plane turns back to the airport.

What the devil just happened? The incident investigation found that a group of bolts that hold the bottom of that door in were never installed. How could that be? The official reports cite many technical details. –  but I think it basically boils down to motivation.

Boeing is one of the few surviving aircraft manufacturers that began America’s – and the world’s – mastery of the skies. Boeing executives, designers, and assembly line workers joined, forming a culture unified by their passion to build ever better airplanes. And they did – from the early Boeing 80 biplane passenger plane, to the B-17 and B-29 bombers that crushed the Axis powers in WWII, to the Cold War B-52 bombers still on duty after over 60 years. Then the first successful jet passenger plane, the Boeing 707, followed by the jumbo 747. The pioneering Boeing culture kept America on top of the skies. They loved what they were doing, and they were in control of their business.  

But, over the decades, the growth of Boeing had to stress production efficiency, finances, and investors who looked at the books instead of up at the skies. Staffing increasingly sought bureaucrats who would find tiny – or large – ways to pinch pennies, satisfy labor rules, and simply grow, hiring workers who didn’t reflexively look up at the sound of a plane soaring high overhead. The motivating pioneer spirit dwindled as the first generation retired.  Now, the culture is dominated by people who just see Boeing as a job. Major assemblies are farmed out to subcontractors – even that fuselage with the overlooked door bolts. Passion no longer drives Boeing, and just following the rules is no substitute. As just another job, more bureaucracy is needed to track the rules.

As in the early days of Boeing, the pioneer spirit drove Federal Express’ beginnings. We all invented ways to do the job better. I remember our small fleet of purple vans charging out from the airport each morning, like the cavalry in a movie, that just shivered with the drama of another day’s urgent deliveries. 

One courier was often delayed entering the Sunnyvale Navy and NASA base security gate. Like the rest of us, our mission of on-time delivery drove him to act. He stopped one day and told the gate officers he would, stop delivering to them on his early route.  He would go to other customers first, leaving the base for last.  They realized that base operations required these packages. They agreed to pass him through, without the rigamarole of their searches, while other delivery services had to wait. 

Before Federal Express, overnight nationwide delivery had never been practical, but our pioneer culture beat that. Our service became so good, that we decided to guarantee delivery by 10:30 in the morning “absolutely, positively!” We advertised money back if we were late. Customers wanting delay refunds contacted my department. But usually delivery records proved that delays were in their own offices after delivery. It felt pretty cool to enjoy our successes, and to aggressively fix our few failures.  

Now, what Federal Express pioneered is taken for granted, and copied by many. The pioneering culture is dwindling; the grown company needs bean-counters, and my last few deliveries have been troublesome. And the copycats will never have the driving spirit that moved the pioneers.

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