What do you think non-aviation related company management can learn?
Probably not very much. The 737 MAX disaster was not a technical failure, but rather the result of management forgetting what made their company special. They tried to take a shortcut on the MAX design and the result was a plane that didnt want to fly. They tried to patch this problem with software, but the patch didnt always work right so the plane still didnt want to fly. They sold this plane to customers on the basis of their reputation as a fine maker of commercial airplanes. And when the world found out the MAX was not a great airplane, it ruined Boeings reputation. The moral of the story is not difficult to understand; if you sell a crap product based on your reputation, it just kills your reputation. This is so obviously true its almost a tautology. And yet, many companies fail in exactly this way. They get greedy and try to sell poorly designed or re-skinned cheap junk as their own prestige brand. And it always costs them. Its not a lesson dumbass MBAs want to hear, because they always think they have had this brilliant idea for the very first time. [Sigh]