Boeing apologizes for curt rejection letter sent to young boy
SEATTLE -- Boeing is apologizing to a young boy who dreamed of designing a jet for them. The father of the 8-year-old from Colorado was outraged when his son received only a form letter in response to his design.
Like most parents, John Winsor likes to take an active role in his son's life. And Harry loves planes.
"You never really see these in the airport 'cause it's really weird," Harry said. "I wanna design planes."
Harry likes planes, so much so that he draws and designs them on a daily basis.
With the help of his dad, Harry decided to send his ideas and designs into Boeing. But the response from the aerospace giant at first was the less than enthusiastic.
They sent Harry a typical form letter explaining that corporate policy prohibits them from accepting outside ideas.
So John decided to blog about it online, and the response was overwhelming.
"And the reality is today we're in a world of abundance where everybody can have their own publishing tools, instead of ideas being generated in one place, they're being generated from everywhere," John Winsor said. " And I think there's a real philosophical change that has to happen for companies to go from managing ideas internally to accepting ideas from the outside."
Boeing says they did nothing wrong by following company policy. However realizing that they may be crushing a young boys dream, Boeing was smart enough to re-think their response.
"We should be taking the opportunity with a child to encourage their interest in airplanes and so we're gonna try and come up with a better letter for children that meets our legal needs but also has more positive words for them," said Boeing spokesperson Todd Blecher.
And that's make Harry's father feel a whole lot better.
"I been really impressed with Boeing by the way they've reached out," he said.
Like most parents, John Winsor likes to take an active role in his son's life. And Harry loves planes.
"You never really see these in the airport 'cause it's really weird," Harry said. "I wanna design planes."
Harry likes planes, so much so that he draws and designs them on a daily basis.
With the help of his dad, Harry decided to send his ideas and designs into Boeing. But the response from the aerospace giant at first was the less than enthusiastic.
They sent Harry a typical form letter explaining that corporate policy prohibits them from accepting outside ideas.
So John decided to blog about it online, and the response was overwhelming.
"And the reality is today we're in a world of abundance where everybody can have their own publishing tools, instead of ideas being generated in one place, they're being generated from everywhere," John Winsor said. " And I think there's a real philosophical change that has to happen for companies to go from managing ideas internally to accepting ideas from the outside."
Boeing says they did nothing wrong by following company policy. However realizing that they may be crushing a young boys dream, Boeing was smart enough to re-think their response.
"We should be taking the opportunity with a child to encourage their interest in airplanes and so we're gonna try and come up with a better letter for children that meets our legal needs but also has more positive words for them," said Boeing spokesperson Todd Blecher.
And that's make Harry's father feel a whole lot better.
"I been really impressed with Boeing by the way they've reached out," he said.