Aerospace Must Revive Its Spirit
On June 4, Falcon 9 achieved orbit, and I won a number of bets. In most cases, the people I bet against were predicting failure for reasons related to SpaceX’s lack of experience and heritage hardware. The young crew at the heart of SpaceX, and their leader, Elon Musk, sure don’t look like their peers at Lockheed Martin, Boeing or Orbital Sciences! They do lack experience and definitely lack heritage hardware. Yet, I won my bets because I strongly believe there are things more important than experience and heritage, such as an entrepreneurial culture and talent. And this is where SpaceX is currently head and shoulders above its competitors.
I helped build and run one of the U.S.’s leading space engineering graduate programs at the University of Michigan, home of the nation’s first collegiate aeronautics program with graduates such as Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, astronaut James McDivitt and many leaders of the U.S. aerospace industry. And each year, we see hundreds of Michigan students enter the aerospace workforce—young people who aspire to make a mark, just like these heroes before them.
I recently performed an analysis of the very best students in my space engineering programs over the past decade, based on their scholarly, leadership and entrepreneurial performance at Michigan. To my amazement, I found that of my top 10 students, five work at SpaceX. No other company or lab has attracted more than two of these top students.
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My colleagues in universities around the U.S. say they have had similar experiences. SpaceX is winning the battle for the best and most entrepreneurial young talent in the aerospace industry. And with this talent, SpaceX has built a work environment that is very different from those at most aerospace companies, one that values people with an entrepreneurial mind-set. Musk says the company is continuing to look for people who think and act like entrepreneurs. In fact, he considers this entrepreneurial mind-set to be even more important than the smarts of his new employees, opposing the more traditional hiring practices of his competitors.
McDivitt recently spoke about the culture during the early days of NASA and the Apollo program. He said, “The key difference between NASA then and now are the parking lots at night!” McDivitt was talking about the personal dedication, commitment and perseverance of the early NASA employees and contractors, which led to one of the U.S.’s biggest successes.
Today, the SpaceX parking lots are full at night, not because people are forced to put in extra hours, but just like at the early NASA, SpaceX is working in young teams, on the toughest challenges, and realizing that risk is an important aspect of any entrepreneurial activity. That’s why SpaceX attracts the best of the best to join its team.
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At Michigan, I see the growing entrepreneurial interest and success of students and their innovations. In my experience, aerospace engineers are more likely to show interest in entrepreneurship, win competitions or even become more entrepreneurial themselves than their peers in other fields. But few can live out these aspirations within aerospace.
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