President of Boeing-India visits ISB

Dr Ian Thomas, Vice President, Boeing International and President, Boeing-India interacted with the Indian School of Business (ISB) community recently at a talk hosted by the General Management Club. Dr Thomas talked about the aerospace industry and Boeing’s operations in India.Dr Thomas, who has a Master’s degree in international relations and a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge, started off the talk with insights into his transition from academia to government and then to the private sector, when he started working with Boeing.He then went on to talk about Boeing’s relationship with India. “We like to say that India joined the jet age on Boeing wings because Air India was the first all jet carrier in the world and that has been a very proud partnership,” he said. He added that Boeing was moving on from the previous model of being an offshore company that was focussed on resource exchange.As Boeing transitions towards an onshore model, he said they were committed to building a $100 million facility in Nagpur in partnership with the TATA group and an $80 million pilot training facility in Mumbai.He said that as India assumes a major political and economic role in the world, its legitimate needs for defense are going to increase, which bodes well for companies like Boeing.He added that Boeing sees India as the potential aerospace giant of the 21st century, with buying power being a key factor. “I think that some of the figures that I have seen are that less than 1% of the population is flying every year. So the opportunity to grow passenger figures is very compelling,” he said.Dr Thomas added that the biggest challenges that the aerospace industry faced in India were infrastructure, tax regime, policies and regulations, and manufacturing consolidation. He added that the proliferation of world class airports, easy access to support activities and immense potential buying power would support the growth of the sector in India.He ended the speech by saying that they were focussed on the next quarter century. “What we are laying down here in India, I think is going to position us for the next quarter century,” he said.