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Von Braun's talents were special. Involved in rocketry since the twenties, he migrated from private clubs, to clubs sponsored by the military (the army in Germany was supportive, as at that time, rockets were classified as munitions much like artillery), to helping the military design new rockets, and then, finally, to rocket manufacturing for the German government during WW II. This latter experience was controversial as it included slave labor to produce the rockets Germany used against the West.
Special talents?
Besides pretty good engineering skills (Einstein was helping him check his math while he was still in college [Neufeld, 45]), it ended up that Von Braun had two unique talents, one for managing large manufacturing projects and the other an intense personal interest in selling rocketry to the public.
Von Braun's management focused on three key attributes for success (Neufeld, 302):
- Teamwork, meaning getting diverse in-house laboratories and contractors working on a team,
- Dirty-hands engineering, meaning, basically, that managers didn't just push paper, they stayed close to the hardware and knew what was working, and what wasn't,
- Automatic responsibility, meaning if you or your department made something, you stood behind your work both when it worked and when it didn't.
First in Germany and then later in Texas and Huntsville, Alabama, Von Braun excelled at keeping teams busy and focused on their tasks. From a bureaucratic point of view, over time, he also excelled at the big science game. He kept his large engineering team together through the vagaries of federal funding cycles.
What's the message from all this?
Early on, Von Braun excelled at technology. Later on, he grew the ability to manage large projects and to keep them funded. His team ended up being better at the technology than he was.
Sort of like a tech CEO, wouldn't you say?
Reference
Neufeld, Michael J. Von Braun. Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War. Alfred A. Knopf. 2007.