With apologies to the group War (as well as to Larry Kuperman whose article 'CEOs: Who Needs Them'  Link  began exactly this way): 

"CEO s, huh!
What are they good for?
Absolutely nothing!"

well...it seems that may not have been totally accurate in the case of the newly former boeing ceo harry c. stonecipher.

normally i'd be the last person to sympathize with a hardass professional corporate exec:

1. whose previous claim to fame had been pinkslipping 78,000 employees following his arrival at boeing via that company's  merger with mcdonnell douglas in 1997

2. who'd been brought back outta retirement in 2003 to smooth over a really nasty little scandal that cost boeing the right to contract with the government and two other former execs their freedom.

3. who, upon being installed as ceo & president, then required boeing's entire 159,000 employee workforce to attend 4-hour ethics seminars and submit signed copies of a pledge not only act in accordance with company policy but to avoid doing anything that might bring boeing shame.

4. who then was discovered having an extramarital affair with another boeing executive.

clearly he's a tyrannical hypocrite, right?

on the other hand, stonecipher's  68 years old and been dippin his pen in company ink since january at least according to the whistleblower who ratted him out. and...he's still alive! (the female executive with whom stonecipher dallied has also been fingered by business week online which identified her as debra peabody, a 48-year-old operations manager currently working for boeing's top washington lobbyist.)

i certainly don't condone his behavior but i gotta marvel atta guy who admonished  ms peabody (and the rest of workers at boeing...but i think he was speaking mostly to her if not about her) : “You have to look it squarely in the eye and deal with every issue they bring up".  

he truly was mr boeing boeing.