Airbus Head Has Has Not Resigned

The difficulties in running a multi-nationally controlled company like Airbus came to the forefront late last week as we watched rumors flying about Airbus head Christian Streiff. Things kicked off with reports that Streiff has offered his resignation followed by denials from Airbus and EADS that his resignation had been accepted. It appears that Streiff is making a statement. To me that statement is to let him run the company and take the actions he deems necessary or accept his resignation. Because the job he has to do is going to be unpleasant and is going to stir up a lot of nationalism and politics. Airbus needs to cut costs to blunt the effect of the money being poured into the A380. There are talks of outsourcing and re-organizing Airbus divisions. Airbus partners Germany and Spain are already trying to assure workers at plants in their countries that all things will be considered before making decisions. Officials from the French and German government will be meeting so now things will get very sticky. Mixing business and politics is tough and often slow. Streiff needs to act fast to stem the bleeding at Airbus. Good Reuters article here.