Boeing's new CEO faces 'the most daunting management task ever' in turning scandal-plagued aircraft maker around, top business prof warns

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun's departure is well overdue and will take too long to effectively avert a spiraling crisis, a top business school professor has said.

After a series of commercial aircraft accidents brought Boeing's manufacturing and safety standards into the limelight, its chief executive said on Monday he would finally stand down - but not until the end of the year.

'I think it's too little, too late,' Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, told CNBC on Tuesday morning.

Argenti suggested Calhoun's slow departure may be indicative of his reluctance to abandon the top position. 'It still seems like he's leaving screaming and kicking out of the office,' he said.

'He's going to be there for nine more months, that is not what I would call a shakeup, it's a very slow shakedown and I am curious as to why they are taking so long to get this done,' he added.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun (pictured on January 24) finally said on Monday that he would stand down but not for another nine months

Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, said he did not understand why Calhoun would take until next year to leave his position

Argenti suggested that the company's leadership would need to be 'completely rethought' and righting the ship would be one of the largest management tasks in modern business history.

'This is the most daunting management task we have seen,' he said.

'I cannot think of anything on the same level. Perhaps coming back from the financial crisis... but this is a much more complicated situation given you have problems with the current products and [that the new CEO will have to] develop future products.'

'It is not a job a lot of people are gong to be able to do.' 

A door plug blew off the side of a new Alaska Airlines 737 Max in mid-air during a flight in January. Investigators said bolts that help keep the panel in place were missing after repair work at a Boeing factory.

Federal regulators then put a limit on the production of 737s and found a series of problems after an inspection at Boeing facilities.

The Department of Justice also opened its criminal investigation into the incident. 

Calhoun had been appointed four years ago after Dennis Muilenburg was fired following two crashes that killed nearly 350 people.

Last week, US airline bosses asked to meet Boeing's directors – without the chief executive present – to express their frustration at a shortage of new aircraft.

'It really doesn't bode well when your customers don't want to talk with the current CEO,' Argenti told CNBC.

'One of the problems that I see with it is that he's not stepping down till the end of the year and the succession plan is not firmly in place,' he said.

The shakeup will also see Boeing's chairman Larry Kellner and head of commercial airplanes Stan Deal stand down.

Calhoun said yesterday that it had been his decision to quit, telling CNBC: 'We have another mountain to climb.'

The 737 Max (pictured) is the aircraft at the center of Boeing's spiraling crisis around safety

Steve Mollenkopf, former boss of chip maker Qualcomm, will take over from Kellner and lead the search for Calhoun's successor.

Chief operating officer Stephanie Pope was said to replace Deal but is also considered a top contender to head the company next year. 

But aviation executives have questioned why she would have been placed in a temporary role if she was going to be the new boss.

'Is she that person who can take 170,000 employees and a company that is in freefall, and one of our country's most important assets, forward?' asked Argenti.

'It's going to be a very tall order for anyone who steps into that job.'

Pope was previously a chief financial officer of Boeing Global Services - a sign according to Argenti that the company was too focused on profits and not quality.

'Even the idea that a CFO, former CFO, would become chief operating officer shows that they are much more financially-oriented than quality-oriented,' he said.

Last week, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration blasted Boeing for focusing on 'production' instead of 'safety and quality.'

Administrator Michael Whitaker was left unimpressed with the aerospace giant following a visit to its facilities. 

'My impressions were similar to the culture survey that just got completed at Boeing and our audit, which is that there are issues around the safety culture at Boeing,' he told Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News in a segment that will air Tuesday evening.