I think that motivation plays a great role. "We are going to fly to Mars!" attract different kind of engineers than "We are going to eke out 5 per cent more gr

I think that motivation plays a great role. "We are going to fly to Mars!" attract different kind of engineers than "We are going to eke out 5 per cent more growth for our shareholders!" Most publicly traded corporations fall into the latter trap: find some cash cow and milk it endlessly so that the shareholders are happy, and screw any innovation. Privately owned corporations such as SpaceX can afford "loftier" goals.