Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested Boeing has “too many” non-technical managers.Musk’s tweet comes hours before Boeing’s Starliner makes its first launch attempt.Tesla continued its wave of layoffs over the weekend.
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Elon Musk is chiding Boeing on social media for employing “too many” non-technical managers amid a wave of ongoing layoffs at his own company, Tesla.Musk fired off his thoughts on X this week, responding to reporting on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which is set to make a launch attempt on Monday evening after years of delays and setbacks.
In 2014, NASA granted Boeing $4.2 billion and Musk’s SpaceX $2.6 billion to develop a commercial crew system that could transport astronauts to the International Space Station. Despite working with a little more than half of the money that Boeing received, SpaceX beat the company to launch, testing its Crew Dragon capsule in May 2020.Although Boeing got $4.2 billion to develop an astronaut capsule and SpaceX only got $2.6 billion, SpaceX finished 4 years sooner. Note, the crew capsule design of Dragon 2 has almost nothing in common with Dragon 1. Too many non-technical managers at Boeing. https://t.co/bTXWAfxfrh— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2024
Musk seemed to imply in his Monday tweet that part of the reason Boeing racked up more than a billion dollars in cost overruns is because of its approach to management.”Too many non-technical managers at Boeing,” Musk tweeted.Technical managers typically oversee technical projects, offering hands-on experience and subject matter expertise in hard skills like coding and software engineering. Non-technical managers, meanwhile, tend to be focused on broader aspects of a company like strategic planning, communication, and decision-making.Boeing did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s response for comment.Musk has opined about non-technical managers in the past, writing in a May 2020 tweet that he “strongly” believes “all managers in a technical area much be technically excellent.””Managers in software must write great software or it’s like being a cavalry captain who can’t ride a horse!” the billionaire wrote.Musk’s Monday post came just hours after Tesla sent out a fourth round of layoff notices on Sunday evening. The company announced it was cutting more than 10% of its workforce last month. Musk cited a “duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas” as the reason for the cuts.The house-cleaning has impacted multiple different teams, including several executives. Musk told higher-ups last week that Tesla needed to be “absolutely hardcore about headcount,” The Information reported.
