Phil Condit, president and chief executive officer of Boeing, could easily be mistaken for a philosopher or, more precisely, a dreamer, because he seems preoccupied with visions of the future.

President and chief executive officer of Boeing Phil Condit is seen in this undated file photo. [newsphoto.com.cn]

"The thing I spend most of my time thinking about is where this company should be 20 years from now," the 62-year-old president said in an interview in Beijing earlier last month.

"Our business has a very long cycle. Commercial airplanes, launch vehicles, military aircraft are 20, 30, 40-year programmes. If we are not planning ahead today, we will not get there."

As for 20 years from now, some of the questions he asks include: "What will China look like?"; "What will happen in the United States?"; "What will the airline industry be like?"; and, "What will the cutting-edge technology be?"

Some of the questions don't even have answers yet, he said.

A Good Listener

Condit was both composed and humble while speaking with reporters in a suite at the St. Regis Hotel. He even joked that, if allowed, he would rather not wear a suit and tie to press conferences as he hated to look too much like a CEO.

The plain-spoken man who worked his way up through the company over 38 years has earned a reputation for his down-to-earth, amiable persona. Condit frequently walks the cavernous hangars where Boeing planes are built to talk with workers, a practice which has made him popular with staff even though he has had to lay off thousands of employees in recent years.

"I learn best by discussing things," said Condit. "So I talk with people both inside and outside Boeing, discussing where the future market is going, where the company is going, what technology will shape the future."

He added that he tried to follow a principle a friend once shared with him: "None of us is as smart as all of us."

Born in Berkeley, California, Condit has been an aviation enthusiast all his life, earning a pilot's licence at the age of 18.

He began his career as an engineer for Boeing in 1963 after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in mechanical engineering.

Condit rose through the ranks at Boeing, serving on nearly 20 different assignments over the years. He made his mark as leader of the team responsible for developing the 777 widebody jet, the first plane to be designed exclusively by computer and one of the most successful jets in the company's history.

In 1997, Condit was elected chairman of Boeing, the seventh since the company's founding in 1916.

Think Globally, Act Locally

Though always ready to listen to others' ideas, Condit maintained that he has enough guts to stick to what he believes in to steer Boeing.

"The end word is mine," he said. To illustrate, Condit said that in the letter to shareholders that appears in the company's annual reports, it was his signature at the bottom, even though many people contributed to the contents of the letter.

The globalization and transformation of Boeing is one of the strategies Condit wants to push through.

"A global market is inevitable. So is global competition," Condit has said.

If Boeing is going to be the best, he added, it has to include the best people, ideas and technologies from around the world in its business, products and services.

For the last five years, Condit has been implementing a globalization strategy. The aim is to diversify the business and reduce heavy reliance on commercial aircraft, which used to make up 80 per cent of Boeing's revenue. The transformation, however, has met with challenges, even inside Boeing. Some said it constituted a "mission impossible" for a huge and conservative technology company like Boeing. They also worried that with Boeing going global, foreign countries would deprive US employees of their slice of the pie.

But Condit was determined. "The most dangerous thing for a company to do is to stand still," he has said. "Our transformation was designed to prepare the company for the 21st century."

Then came the flurry of acquisition deals that have fuelled Boeing's global expansion. The acquisition of Rockwell Aerospace and the historic merger with McDonnell Douglas strengthened Boeing's aviation and military business. Other acquisitions, including the Preston Group, Jeppesen, Continental Graphics, Hughes Space and Communications, and Hawker de Havilland in Australia, have opened new frontiers for Boeing in integrated services.

The result? A better-balanced portfolio that has reduced reliance on the commercial aircraft business, an integrated military defence business and service business that accounts for 50 per cent of the portfolio mix, and nearly 160,000 employees working for Boeing in more than 70 countries.

In an effort to streamline the transformation, Boeing moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago two years ago.

"If we had stayed in Seattle, home to the commercial aircraft unit, there would have been a very strong tendency to focus on operational issues instead of long-term strategies," Condit said.

The "think globally, but act locally" policy is serving Boeing well. In 2001, the company established its International Relations Department to help build up leadership in foreign markets.

"The most important thing is that it brings a much more globalized perspective to a technology company," he said.

Long Partnership with China

Although Boeing is still in the early stages of that process, Condit hopes that, in the end, "people will see Boeing's name and think of Boeing as their neighbour".

Condit encourages people to expand their horizons via travel, because he has faith in the power of communication.

"I am a very strong believer that as people get to know each other, very good and pleasant things happen," said Condit. "When you get to know different people, you realize that they are actually very similar, with the same aspirations and the same hopes."

Even today, Condit feels gratitude to his grandfather who took the family to Europe when he was 12.

"My hope for my children is a world where people can travel, meet each other and enjoy each others' cultures, in a stable, peaceful world."

Condit hopes his company will play some sort of part in uniting the world, and he considers China a market of great importance.

"We are entering a long partnership with China," said Condit. "We see that partnership expanding. There are opportunities for more joint ventures, more production, but we are dedicated to that long-term process."

Boeing has had a co-operative relationship with China for more than 30 years and supplies 70 per cent of the commercial planes now flying China's skies. Boeing also orders parts manufactured in China for use in its aircraft.

According to the company's projections, China's aviation market will increase by 7.6 per cent annually over the next 20 years to become the second largest such market after the United States.

By way of illustrating the great potential of the Chinese market, Condit compared current per capita air travel rates in China with those in the United States.

Americans take 2.5 airplane trips per person each year, while China air passenger travel averages just 2 per cent of the US figure.

"Consider the market of 1.3 billion people. If the number of trips goes up by a factor of 50 over that of a mature market like the US, (it is clear) how vital China's market could be in the future," said Condit.

He even encouraged China to participate in developing Boeing's proposed 7E7 airplane. Boeing is betting its future on the super-efficient jet, production of which is scheduled to start in 2005.

"As we build production capability in China, whether we're talking about modifications, building airplanes, making airplane parts, all of these things contribute to building recognition that Boeing is part of China," said Condit.

"In China, Boeing will be a Chinese brand."

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