Elon Musk Shakes Up SpaceX's Starlink Satellite Division By Firing a Bunch of Managers (reuters.com)

schwit1 shares a report from Reuters: SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk flew to the Seattle area in June for meetings with engineers leading a satellite launch project crucial to his space company's growth. Within hours of landing, Musk had fired at least seven members of the program's senior management team at the Redmond, Washington, office, the culmination of disagreements over the pace at which the team was developing and testing its Starlink satellites. Known for pushing aggressive deadlines, Musk quickly brought in new managers from SpaceX headquarters in California to replace a number of the managers he fired. Their mandate: Launch SpaceX's first batch of U.S.-made satellites by the middle of next year, the sources said.

The management shakeup followed in-fighting over pressure from Musk to speed up satellite testing schedules, one of the sources said. SpaceX's spokeswoman Eva Behrend offered no comment on the matter. Culture was also a challenge for recent hires, a second source said. A number of the managers had been hired from nearby technology giant Microsoft, where workers were more accustomed to longer development schedules than Musk's famously short deadlines. "Rajeev wanted three more iterations of test satellites," one of the sources said. "Elon thinks we can do the job with cheaper and simpler satellites, sooner."

Comments

Mixed feelings

[wierd_w]

On the one hand, I am quite glad to see such an actively involved CEO that is not afraid to smack down on senior staff. (as this mitigates feelings of complacency, and resists the formation of entrenched bureaucracies.)

On the other, I am concerned about rushed deadlines and schedules, since you should not fuck around with things that can cause tremendous amounts of damage to other investments should they go awry. (Like a satellite, or a space vehicle of any kind.) To say nothing of the risks of the finished product not being suitable for purpose...

So yeah. Mixed feelings.

Re:Mixed feelings

[monkeyxpress]

I've seen managers like this before. The problem is, if YOU are the one who decides to cut tests and take shortcuts, and then you send up 50 satellites and they don't work because of those cuts, you career is over. But if the boss is the one who makes that decision and the decision turns out to be a bad one, the issue gets filled under 'well, we had to try' and everyone moves on.

It's really just a product of having a boss with a ginormous ego - you're sorta screwed if you don't and screwed if you do. Eventually if you are the type who can be controlled by bullying and remain a faithful servant (i.e. much like Tim Cook - compliant and not a threat to the alpha), you will become protected by the boss as a useful asset and then life is much easier.

Now Musk has made the risky decision, everyone will be able to move forward knowing their necks are not so exposed if the gamble doesn't work out.

Re:Mixed feelings

[Gavagai80]

When you're launching ~10,000 cheap satellites over the coming years you need a different mindset than the people who work on traditional satellite deployments. If there's a problem with the first hundred satellites it's really no big deal.

Re:Mixed feelings

[Hodr]

From the sounds of this article they already had a fairly toxic work environment with management split about the appropriate way forward. Elon simply picked a side and fired the rest so they wouldn't remain a festering wound.

I have lived through similar (though smaller in scale) shake-ups and by and large they have been beneficial in focusing the team and removing the stress of politics and having to please bosses with opposed goals.

Speed is everything

[nospam007]

If one woman needs 9 months to create a baby, just put 9 women on the job and it will be done in 1 month.