Taking Off With Leadership - Ted Colbert, CEO Boeing Global Services

When you hear the name “Boeing” you may think of airplanes and defense, but there is a huge division devoted to keeping that hardware running smoothly through technology. I recently interviewed Ted Colbert, the CEO of their Global Services division, which operates in 400 locations and over 70 countries servicing not just Boeing hardware, but also their competitors.  Ted was just awarded the 2022 Black Engineer of the Year Award, was the first recipient of the Fisher Center Prize at Berkeley for Business Analytics; and named one of the Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America by Black Enterprise magazine. He rose through the ranks of IT at companies like Ford before joining Boeing where their mission is is to keep the world's fleets flying safely and efficiently through data-driven innovation.

I was interested in how what we often perceive as a hardware company has embraced digital. As he recounts, data and solutions help engineers and technicians make decisions with more clarity, faster and support predictive needs of the customer in the services world. Predictive capabilities improve the operational performance of Boeing customers’ fleets, improve crew scheduling, and help with fuel optimization. As he says, “You take a business metric that drives your business, and then you describe what success looks like. You go all the way back to how you do the work. We can think of and we can innovate around digital to make things that much better.”

Boeing Global Services is a customer-centric organization. As Ted relates it, “we deliberately designed our services around key segments that serve our customers. That includes supply chain, training and professional services, engineering, global technical operations and digital data analytics…we believe that our domain platform, and knowledge around the world, is unrivalled and allows us to provide this customer-centric solution.”

With billionaires throwing money at commercial space travel, how does a long-time aerospace company continue to innovate in the sector? NASA is a customer of theirs and they continue to contribute to the International Space Station. Ted cautions about the race for space and believes that their legacy of development trumps the current push to get more people into orbit. “Nobody needs to be in a rush to do this. We just need to do it right.” He sees Boeing’s recent $450 million investment in Whisk, an autonomous air taxi as a good and responsible example of partnership in future tech. “They have a lot of experience in building these types of vehicles, and know the regulatory aspects and safety aspects of them.