Business CEOs: A New Wave Of Space Leadership

Overcoming Past Failures

In part, the push for business executives is a reaction to the “colossal failures” of Iridium, GlobalStar and Orbcomm in the 1990s, Musey says. Many blame the collapse of those start-ups to the fact that they were led by engineers who “were driven by engineering dreams rather than real market demand,” he says. GlobalStar, Orbcomm and Iridium Satellite have all been reorganized under business executives.

Matt Desch, a former president of Nortel Network’s Global Service Providers and Wireless Networks divisions, was hired as Iridium Satellite’s CEO in September. Desch, whose background is in computer programming, was the CEO of Telcordia Technologies Inc., a supplier of software and services to telecoms, before joining Iridium Satellite. “The main reason I’m here is because I spent 15 years in wireless, and I grew up through the transition to wireless,” Desch says. “I understand the value proposition of mobility and why people are increasingly using wireless devices to connect to each other.” Although Desch says, “I fancy myself an engineer,” his charge is to bring the business oversight that was missing from the first Iridium. “The most important thing we can bring is the right product at the right price at the right time in the market.”

Iridium has spent the past five years putting itself on solid financial footing, Desch says. Now the company is entering a new era, having just announced the design phase of its next-generation satellite system, dubbed Iridium Next. While this an exciting time for Iridium engineers, Desch says the big picture still has progressed to product management and customer relations. “As our business becomes a commodity, we’ll probably be looking at purely financial management” from senior executives, he says. “But we’re not at that point yet. There’s still a lot to be done to grow our services and our subscribers.”

Analysts and executives describe the industry as being in a sort of adolescence of maturity where rapid changes are causing some awkwardness. While the climate can be difficult for employees, it is important to the long-term vitality of the industry, they say.

“The rate of change won’t slow down; at least we hope it doesn’t” Slye says. “All [executives] can do is make people comfortable with it. Executives must recognize that customers are their lifeblood and employees their strength. They have to ensure that both groups see the change as positive. We’ll know we’ve turned a major corner when the industry talks about content and applications rather than technical platforms as a primary consideration in discussion. It’s happening, but it’s a process that is not yet complete” she says.

Overcoming Past Failures

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