Cessna profits plunge......OT (or is it?)

"Nomen Nescio" ] wrote in message
...
|
| "We expect a temporary decline in revenues in our aircraft
| segments this year and only a modest recovery in our other
| manufacturing markets," Textron Chairman Lewis Campbell said in
| a statement. "However, we expect the benefits of our
| transformation initiatives will result in earnings growth and
| solid cash flow."

You gotta love this excuse. Quick, somebody tell Textron that the recession
is over. Gee, Cirrus managed to innovate and even expand during the actual
recession. Cessna, with its far greater resources and experience, guessed
wrong. It wasn't for lack of trying, though. Cessna's dealers have been
screaming for more airplanes since 1999. The vast majority of manufacturers
saw the recession was coming to an end more than two years ago, and planned
accordingly. How smart do you have to be to know that all recessions have to
end within a few years? Apparently Textron's secret to "earnings growth and
solid cash flow" is to shut down their production lines and fire the
employees. Yeah, that will improve earnings and cash flow -- for awhile. It
is not a bad strategy if your goal is to liquidate the company.

"Temporary decline in revenues," indeed! I may be just an old bean counter
(guilty as charged), but even I know there are only two ways to increase
revenues -- you either sell more units or you charge more for each unit.
Charging more for each unit won't work if you have competitors producing
better products for about the same price, so I don't think Textron has a lot
of room there. But they are not going to sell more units, either -- after
all, they have made almost permanent reductions in production capacity. That
"temporary decline" smells awful permanent to me. The only thing temporary
about it is that it will last until either Textron goes out of business or
they get better management.

More of the same at Textron's other units. Zero innovation. The best any of
the units can manage is copying the innovations of others, a year or two
late, and with half the performance. Contraction in the face of soaring
demand. Canceling parts orders and laying off the labor force, then making
excuses instead of achieving even average performance. Well, excuses don't
buy lunch -- a little lesson that much of the rest of the aviation industry
could stand to learn. In every sector of aviation there appears to be bunch
of losers that are barely able to tie their own shoes, and a couple of
performers that seem to make money despite all the excuses the losers have.
It is as if an NFL team was trying to excuse its failure to make the
playoffs because their uniforms are the wrong color.

Textron's shareholders should have a little message for management. Try this
for a "transformation initiative:" You're Fired! Then get somebody who knows
how to actually communicate and run things like a business instead of a
social welfare agency for executive loons.