Here's a piece of PR that wasn't as good as it gets...Lifestyles : Friday, March 23, 2001
Erik Lacitis / Times staff columnist
Boeing exit is yet another lesson on 'loyalty'
By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times columnist
I timed myself on how long it would take me to get over this latest "shock," the "stunning" news from Boeing. It took about 30 minutes. We live in accelerated times, and "staggering," well, the word isn't what it used to be. And neither is loyalty.
Concerning that revised definition of loyalty, I'd like to thank a number of individuals and enterprises that over the years have paved the way. Sports stars and team owners have been helpful, from Ken Griffey Jr. to the Oakland Raiders' Al Davis. And so have countless companies in this New Economy of downsizing.
As a recent story in The New York Times pointed out, in the dot-com world, "layoffs seem to have achieved extreme thoughtlessness." One example given was InfoSpace.com, right here in Bellevue. Last month, about a fifth of its 250 employees got e-mail notices to meet in 15 minutes at a nearby hotel. They arrived and found they had been fired, and locked out of the InfoSpace building.
So, you see, it's a matter of putting shocking news into context.
Like many of you, I turned on the TV when the news came that Boeing was chucking its corporate headquarters in Seattle. Endless loops of Phil Condit, the Boeing chairman and chief executive officer, were being run.
He made the announcement in Washington, D.C., which at first seemed odd, given that Seattle was the town being affected, and still is - for the moment - the company's headquarters. The plus of holding a press conference on the other side of the country is that once it's over, hey, let the p.r. guys in Seattle take over.
I have to say that Phil Condit comes across as a very imposing figure. Tough, burly, steely-eyed. I read in his biography that he's an Eagle Scout and a past president of the Chief Seattle Council of the Scouts. I bet the kids are very good about paying attention to his every word.
I kept waiting for Condit to say something to us folks in Seattle, something about the decades the company and the town have been tied together. "Maximizing shareholder value" and "new corporate architecture" was what we got instead.
Really, if you want a classic press release that exemplifies the New Economy and the meaning of loyalty, go on the Web to www.boeing.com/news/releases and click on the official news release. Try to find one word that's addressed to the people of Seattle.
Luckily, in the last couple of decades, we've learned to redefine loyalty. Remember when Ken Griffey Jr. said he didn't want to be here anymore? All that adulation, all the cheering fans who watched Griffey's evolution as a baseball player? See ya. But after a week of sports radio talk, we got over it. When Alex Rodriguez left Seattle for the money in Texas, that was what, maybe a couple of days of radio chatter?
Nationally, sports pro team owners from Al Davis to Art Modell to Wayne Huizenga to Jerry Reinsdorf have paid back loyal fans by doing everything from bolting town to dismantling a winning team to extract that last penny.
In the New Economy, you know what the announcement of the latest bank merger or corporate acquisition means. It means bunches of people are going to be looking for other jobs. In recent years, it's been national news when a company does show loyalty. Back in 1995, Aaron Feuerstein, owner of a fabric mill in Methuen, Mass., made news when his factory burned down. At age 70, he could have taken the insurance money and closed up shop. Instead, Feuerstein still gave Christmas bonuses, and rebuilt the mill.
I watched the video loops of Phil Condit and went through some quick mental calculations. Five hundred jobs at headquarters would be lost. It didn't appear that some-80,000 manufacturing jobs were in immediate jeopardy. Seattle would take a hit, but nothing like in the early 1970s, when Boeing cut the workforce from 80,400 to 37,200.
For a while, we'll feel like the high-school girl who got stood up for the prom dance. If you were a high-school girl, maybe you'd be emotionally torn for a few weeks.
You get older, you learn what loyalty is these days. You watch Phil Condit talk his talk about corporate architecture and new growth opportunities.
Thirty minutes later, life goes on. Although I do think the Boeing flacks could have come up with better buzzwords.
Erik Lacitis can be reached at 206-464-2237 or e-mailed at elacitis@seattletimes.com. |
