A leader’s job, on an ongoing basis, is to thoroughly understand what is going on in the business, have in place a high impact plan to significantly improve the business, and to continually execute with excellence. Any sign of weakness/opportunity should be tackled with gusto, and necessary initiatives launched to stay on track for continual success.

In 1997, Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, including its CEO Harry Stonecipher who became COO of Boeing. In 2003, Stonecipher became CEO of Boeing and, as reported in Fortune Magazine recently, quickly set an aggressive goal of reaching an after-tax profit margin of 7%, a mark Boeing had not hit since the 1970.