Boeing and Entrepreneurship
Report by Barrington Black ? s9303206
Introduction
William Boeing was an engineering student whose love of aviation led him to form what is now the largest airplane manufacturer in the world. After making his fortune in real estate he decided that he wanted to design and build better aircraft having not been impressed by the then current models of airplane. The Boeing Airplane Company was established in 1917.
Whilst industry consensus had far from confident views of aircraft and it's place in society, Boeing used his own money to guarantee the wages of his 28 staff and by the end of 1917, with world war materializing, Boeing made his first order of 50 planes to the US Navy. A year later Boeing had 337 employees. By the 1950's, and after two world wars, Boeing had been present through the most rapidly changing era of all time and armed with scientists, engineers and state of the art facilities, was poised to look into the future and well beyond common ideas.
To fully understand the entrepreneurial culture present in the Boeing company today it is important to know that the founder himself was well and truly an entrepreneur. William Boeing and the Boeing Company journey is one of self belief, team building and risk ? Classic entrepreneurial venture traits.
Boeings portfolio of technology, design, research, communication and management systems is of the most advanced in the world and continues to be at the forefront of industry standards. To not only maintain this standard but improve on the company's position, special programs have been introduced to train and retrain employees on how to think and work in an entrepreneurial manner. This manner of thinking ensures that the employees no ...