What we need are laws and regulations that force all companies to make products that don’t harm their customers or the rest of the world. An engineer can make a product that kills people. A financeer can hire engineers that won’t kill people. You need good people doing good things either way.
To be able to appreciate realities of what Boeing is doing and not just focus on financials. The point is it does not matter how much you know about financials or business management if your product sucks. And there are way more people who know finances and business management than people who can appreciate the kind of engineering that happens in aerospace, so you want a person who knows engineering.
I do, every time I see that ring engineers wear.
The company has its bottom line, people can lose jobs, but the engineer's bottom line must come first or people die. Boeing got that wrong and you haven't learned the lesson? That's what the ring's for: lessons paid in blood.
Don't get me wrong, not everybody called an engineer needs this mindset. But specifically when we're talking about Boeing? Yeah. You need engineers in the lead throughout the whole process, all the way to the top. Shit rolls downhill.
Edit: Though I think it would be good for tech company's head to have good understanding of the tech they are doing.