00:23:29 · Ty Morse, Peter Beck
[00:23:29] S1: Show up. Do you just give the thumbs up and, like, yes? [00:23:31] S0: Yeah. Great. Like, what a total waste of time. No, you know, certainly, I think, you know, focus goes in areas where that aren't going well, or areas where, you know, it needs some decisions made, or and I think quite often, you know, the role of a CEO is just to make the decisions that nobody else wants to make. And, you know, I made sure that I was there for the first hot fire of Archimedes, because, you know, I knew that there was going to need to be some risk decisions that were going to be made because you can analyse and analyse to a certain point, but at some point, you actually just have to press the button. And, you know, I just felt it was super unfair to put all those guys in the position to, you know, make the decision to [00:24:19] S1: If press the this blows up, like, I'm the guy that pressed the button? [00:24:22] S0: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, so, I mean, I didn't need to say anything, just sat there, but everybody knew that if there was a risk call that needed to be made, are we okay to go? You know, I'd give them the thumbs up. So it's things like that where I think, you know, just that's where you have to be there, right? Even if you're not even useful, you still have to be there. So, yeah, I would say that that is true. Things that are going wrong and things that require big decisions with no information. And then, of course, you know, just pushing the company in the right direction.
00:24:22 · Peter Beck, Ty Morse
[00:24:22] S0: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, so, I mean, I didn't need to say anything, just sat there, but everybody knew that if there was a risk call that needed to be made, are we okay to go? You know, I'd give them the thumbs up. So it's things like that where I think, you know, just that's where you have to be there, right? Even if you're not even useful, you still have to be there. So, yeah, I would say that that is true. Things that are going wrong and things that require big decisions with no information. And then, of course, you know, just pushing the company in the right direction. [00:25:05] S1: In the past, people have kind of joked about Elon time being maybe even years late on some projects. And over time, he's kind of like course corrected to trying to get down to roughly 50% of the time, whatever the timeline is that that he gives is going to be right. And that means by definition, half the time it's gonna be off. But that because he's basically pulling in timelines like that, more things are able to happen. If you're doing, you know, this this mission where you're sending something to Mars or sending something to the moon [00:25:33] S0: Yep. [00:25:34] S1: How do you decide how to structure that that timeline so that you know that you're actually going to be able to ship? [00:25:40] S0: So I guess, you know, you have to be 50% entrepreneurial and 50% engineer, and as a public company, you can't just stand up there and wave your arms around [00:25:51] S1: Some people do do that. [00:25:51] S0: Yeah, but you get in trouble with it.
00:25:51 · Peter Beck, Ty Morse
[00:25:51] S0: Yeah, but you get in trouble with it. [00:25:53] S1: It doesn't work. [00:25:54] S0: Yeah, no, that's, I mean, you have to be respectful to your shareholders and your investors that they're making decisions off of your timelines, you know, and sometimes you get it wrong and that's unfortunate, But generally, you know, the dates and things that we try and put out there, we try and be right. Now, we always we do run green light schedules, meaning that, you know, when we put a schedule together, there's not some big fat in there that says that, you know, if this doesn't work, it might, you know, we build a bit of extra time in here and build a bit of extra time in here because engineers will take as long as you have allocated them to do a job. If you allocate all the fat in there, then you just that is your default best schedule, whereas we've always run green light schedules from day one, where you put the schedule down in place that you think is if everything goes right, and, you know, if everything goes right, then that is the best time that you're going to achieve. And, course, not everything always goes right, but you can guarantee where you build fat in, it'll be the wrong place anyway. So, you know, has been, you know, very effective for Rocket Lab, and yep, okay, sometimes we're late on some stuff, but it's not horrifically late, and, you know, it's still faster than if you'd have, you know, done a more traditional approach.
00:25:54 · Peter Beck, Ty Morse
[00:25:54] S0: Yeah, no, that's, I mean, you have to be respectful to your shareholders and your investors that they're making decisions off of your timelines, you know, and sometimes you get it wrong and that's unfortunate, But generally, you know, the dates and things that we try and put out there, we try and be right. Now, we always we do run green light schedules, meaning that, you know, when we put a schedule together, there's not some big fat in there that says that, you know, if this doesn't work, it might, you know, we build a bit of extra time in here and build a bit of extra time in here because engineers will take as long as you have allocated them to do a job. If you allocate all the fat in there, then you just that is your default best schedule, whereas we've always run green light schedules from day one, where you put the schedule down in place that you think is if everything goes right, and, you know, if everything goes right, then that is the best time that you're going to achieve. And, course, not everything always goes right, but you can guarantee where you build fat in, it'll be the wrong place anyway. So, you know, has been, you know, very effective for Rocket Lab, and yep, okay, sometimes we're late on some stuff, but it's not horrifically late, and, you know, it's still faster than if you'd have, you know, done a more traditional approach. [00:27:13] S1: If you do have a situation where things do go late, what do you do to basically make sure that whatever the new timeline is happens or it happens as quickly as possible?
00:27:13 · Ty Morse, Peter Beck
[00:27:13] S1: If you do have a situation where things do go late, what do you do to basically make sure that whatever the new timeline is happens or it happens as quickly as possible? [00:27:23] S0: Well, I mean, there's there's nobody at Rocket Lab that doesn't feel the anxiety if something is not going well. Like, everybody here is super high performers, and they want, you know, it's very important for their own ego to deliver beautiful stuff on time. So, you know, it's self policing in that respect. And, look, the stuff we do is freakin' hard, so, and some of it's never been done before, so, inevitably, you know, you have issues. And then I'd say one of the great things about the company is, like, it's not a culture where if somebody has a bad day, everybody runs away and points at them and going, oh, no, glad that's not me. It's the opposite, right? Everybody runs towards the problem and offers their help and assistance. So, you know, as far as a culture goes, it's, you know, some cultures, it's, you know, everybody's standing on each other's throat to try and get ahead. Not here. You know, everybody runs the thing that's on fire to try and put it out. [00:28:22] S1: How do you actually foster that type of culture? [00:28:25] S0: Well, I mean, I wish I could say that there's like a statement or anything, I mean, it's just the way the company is, it's just the way the company has always been. You know, right back to that example I gave you of that engine blowing up, you know, nobody's, you know, nobody's jumping around and screaming, everybody just gets to work.
00:28:25 · Peter Beck, Ty Morse
[00:28:25] S0: Well, I mean, I wish I could say that there's like a statement or anything, I mean, it's just the way the company is, it's just the way the company has always been. You know, right back to that example I gave you of that engine blowing up, you know, nobody's, you know, nobody's jumping around and screaming, everybody just gets to work. [00:28:45] S1: I remember you said we make the Ferrari of rockets, and you really care about design, and you really care about beauty, you really care about, like, function Yeah. All this stuff. What's your philosophy around building beautiful, amazing products that work? And then why does it matter to create things that are great?