Boeing’s latest crisis occurred in January when one of its planes exploded in mid-air.
The space business also took a reputational hit after the Starliner ship had to return to Earth without astronauts on board.
The strike made matters worse, causing a sharp slowdown in production.
Mr Ortberg said the company had “too much debt” and had disappointed customers with poor performance across the business.
Boeing’s commercial aircraft division posted an operating loss of $4 billion over the past three months, while its defense division lost nearly $2.4 billion.
“They clearly have a lot to recover from, both operationally and financially,” said Ben Toscanos of S&P Ratings.
“The first step is to resolve the strike,” he said, adding, “We will see how this progresses.”
Mr Ortberg insisted the company was in a strong position, with a backlog of orders for about 5,400 aircraft.
But he warned investors that restarting the company’s factories whenever the strike ends will be tricky.
“It’s much harder to turn this feature on than it is to turn it off, so it’s very important that we get this right,” he said.
“We have a detailed return to work plan and we’re really looking forward to everyone returning and working on that plan.”
The company announced plans to cut about 10% of its workforce earlier this month. Thousands of other workers have already been furloughed due to the strike, which has also hit suppliers.
Mr. Ortberg told investors his top priority was “fundamental cultural change.”
“We need to work better together to prevent problems from getting worse and to identify, fix and understand their root causes,” he said.
