Die "Game of Drones"-Kultur von DJI droht den Drohnenhersteller zu zerschlagen

Against a background of growing distrust of China in the United States, DJI steht unter erheblichem Druck seitens der Bundesregierung, die questions the company’s intentions und behauptet, dass seine Drohnen spionieren für die chinesische Regierung. The intensifying focus on DJI has yet to show any signs of fading and is, according to the drone maker, politically motivated. The 2019 trade tariffs that resulted in sharp price increases for several DJI products did not help to improve the company’s prospects in the U.S. However, the pressure is not only inflicted from the outside. No, DJI’s own ‘Game of Thrones’, or should I say ‘Game of Drones,’ culture is breaking up the company from the inside out as well.

Introduction to DJI’s ‘Game of Drones’

DJI’s ‘Game of Drones’ culture and recent organizational changes have had drastic consequences, that created a ‘sense of mutiny’ among some of the North American employees and have even started to impact the company’s end-users. To illustrate this point, some key individuals looking after online forums, helping customers with technical questions and issues, supporting GEO unlocks for end-users, and taking care of dealers, are no longer with DJI.

This article focuses on DJI’s internal struggles specifically. If you want to learn more about the pressure on the company that is coming from the outside, I recommend listening to DJI’s Vice President of Policy and Rechtliches Affairs, Brendan Schulman’s aktuelles Interview.

Over the last few weeks, I have been approached by several former DJI employees, current end-users and industry insiders, who shared with me quite shocking information about how the company is managed and the culture clashes that are taking place internally. Most readers would know this, but it is essential to point out that DJI is the world’s largest drone manufacturer with an estimated market share of well over 70%, and is a Chinese company, headquartered out of Shenzhen. The focus in this article will be on DJI’s North American organization, but some parts apply to the global company as well.

Das erste Mal, dass ich detaillierte Informationen erhielt, die darauf hindeuteten, dass DJI interne kulturelle Probleme hatte, war Anfang dieses Jahres. Seitdem habe ich mehr Kontext gesammelt und daran gearbeitet, so viel von der Geschichte zu verifizieren, wie ich als Außenstehender nur konnte. DJI ist ein Unternehmen in Privatbesitz und im Gegensatz zu Amazon oder ApfelDas Unternehmen ist nicht verpflichtet, seinen Aktionären Quartals- oder Jahresberichte vorzulegen, die öffentlich zugänglich wären. Das Fehlen solcher Berichte macht es für Außenstehende nahezu unmöglich, sich ein Bild von der Leistung des Unternehmens zu machen.

Nach den jüngsten Berichten über Entlassungen und drastische Umstrukturierungsmaßnahmen haben sich jedoch viele Menschen in der Drohnenbranche, darunter auch ich, gefragt, was mit DJI los ist.

The following ‘Game of Drones’ article is as accurate a picture as I was able to put together. The goal of this piece is to shine a light on the DJI organization and to provide some more transparency. The message might be critical at times, but my aim is for it to be constructive and maybe empower other people to speak up as well. And, while I hope for a more balanced and more competitive drone market, I am also a fan of most of DJI’s products and use many of them daily.

Coronavirus outbreak hurts DJI’s sales and results in layoffs.

Die Ausbruch des Coronavirus kickstarted DJI’s recent changes. It caused the drone maker to close its offices for at least two weeks, and many of its employees had to work from home. Information I received from DJI insiders, and people closely related to the company, indicate that sales for March and April are down significantly. Profits are reportedly down even more. The dramatic decrease in sales is directly linked to the rapidly spreading coronavirus. However, the implemented trade tariffs, the aging drone product line, and the increasing geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China had already set the downward trend in motion before the virus outbreak.

Es scheint, dass DJI sah in dem Coronavirus eine attraktive Gelegenheit zur Umstrukturierung seines Geschäfts, was zu zahlreichen Entlassungen im gesamten Unternehmen führte.

"Hunderttausende von Arbeitsstunden sind in den letzten fünf Monaten verloren gegangen, und das wird sich auf zukünftige Produkte auswirken", sagte ein DJI-Mitarbeiter gegenüber DroneXL.

The layoffs appear not to be limited to only DJI’s U.S. offices. We have received reports of similar organizational changes in Europe and Shenzhen, China.

In the U.S., most of the layoffs seem to have impacted the Burbank, Kalifornien office, where reportedly mostly more experienced, Caucasian employees were let go. Other DJI offices in Cerritos, CA, Palo Alto, CA, and New Yorkin New York, haben Entlassungen vorgenommen.

About 10% of the total U.S. staff had lost their jobs during the first wave of layoffs. We have heard that this took place ‘unceremoniously’ around the end of March. A second round, allegedly happened toward the end of April, which resulted in ultimately a significant number of U.S. staff having lost their jobs.

"Bis zum 1. Mai wird DJI einen beträchtlichen Prozentsatz des US-Personals entlassen haben. Dabei handelt es sich um Support-, Reparatur-, Marketing- und Software-Engineering-Personal - in allen Abteilungen und an allen US-Standorten von Burbank über Cerritos und Palo Alto bis nach New York", sagte ein externer Rechtsberater von DJI, der die Situation direkt aus erster Hand kennt. "International wurden bereits zahlreiche Entlassungen vorgenommen, und weitere werden folgen."

The Cerritos offices are DJI’s primary repair and maintenance facility for the North American market. Even though select repair centers in Kanada also perform basic repairs, any issues related to flight log decryption or analysis are dealt with in California or back in Shenzhen, China.

In Burbank, where DJI’s marketing and sales operations are based, more than a handful of people lost their job. These positions have not been filled, except for an ex-Huawei employee, who is now in charge of DJI’s North American Enterprise Division.

The Palo Alto office is home to around 40 employees, most of whom are part of the software team. That office has also seen a large turn-over over the past 18 months, including some recent layoffs. DJI’s New York offices are smaller and house about less than ten people.

DJI’s layoffs surprise partners, dealers, and end-users

Many of DJI’s long term partners and dealers did not receive any upfront warning about the changes that were about to happen in the organization, leaving many of them wondering what had happened to their account managers.

Ein ehemaliger Mitarbeiter sagte, dass "DJI einen großen Prozentsatz seiner Mitarbeiter ohne Vorankündigung entlassen hat, mit nur noch wenigen Tagen bis zum Monatsende und dem Ende des Krankenversicherungsschutzes, während der schlimmsten Pandemie, die die Welt in den letzten Jahren getroffen hat".

DJI’s “heavy-handed and unprofessional approach” to the layoffs saw people being escorted out of the buildings by security and without any severance packages. The same outside senior legal adviser, I quoted earlier, said:

“DJI showed a remarkable lack of empathy and professionalism in discarding some very loyal employees. Even though economically, DJI is seeing a massive reduction in revenue and had to reduce employment positions, the way they handled this was unconscionable and reflected in such a bad way on the culture of this company. It isn’t cultural as relating to China – because we deal with many other massive Asian companies. It is cultural to DJI.”

Es ist nicht klar, ob dieser Ansatz nur auf einige Standorte beschränkt war oder ob er in der gesamten DJI-Organisation angewandt wurde.

Einige der ehemaligen Mitarbeiter wurden aufgefordert, die Drohnenausrüstung und andere Hardware zurückzugeben, die den DJI within a week of receiving their termination notice. This request was nearly impossible to comply with, given the coronavirus lockdown situation in New York and California. Allegedly, some former employees were threatened with law enforcement seizure and legal action for ‘theft’ of company property, simply because they were unable to transport significant amounts of drone hardware back to the offices within the limited timeframe provided by DJI.

The situation at DJI’s head offices in Shenzhen, China, is not much better. Many of the drone makers employees, half of whom were still working from home, had to come into the offices for a meeting to hear about the layoffs. After the announcement, the employees had to handover any equipment. They were then cut off from work email and escorted out of the building. The layoffs occurred across DJI’s consumer, enterprise, and agriculture departments.

Zwar liegen uns keine konkreten Informationen über Entlassungen in Europa vor, aber es scheint, dass sie nicht ungeschoren davongekommen sind.

DJI diversifiziert sein Produktangebot, um rückläufige Drohnenverkäufe auszugleichen

As DJI has seen a dramatic slowdown in drone sales over the last two years, it comes as no surprise that DJI has been looking to diversify its product offering. The company has had the Ronin-S, the Osmo, and the Osmo Mobile products for some time. More recently, they added the Osmo Pocket, Robomaster S1, Osmo Action, and made a big push into the LiDAR market with its subsidiary LiVOX.

DJI’s ‘Game of Drones’ culture

One of the recurring themes in my conversations with various people directly linked to DJI is the clash of cultures and internal competition between teams. A situation that some have likened to the famous TV-series, a ‘Game of Thrones’, or as I will call it a “Game of Drones’ culture. The corona-related layoffs were allegedly a convenient way to oust many experienced, Caucasian employees while at the same time promoting several less experienced Chinese people into key management positions. For example, a former-Huawei employee, is now reportedly in charge of DJI’s North American Enterprise Division, without having any relevant drone or drone industry experience.

"Während der Umstrukturierung Anfang des Jahres wurden einige sehr erfahrene und hervorragende Mitarbeiter entlassen, während neue Mitarbeiter, die keine Ahnung von der Drohnenbranche oder von DJI hatten und erst seit ein oder zwei Monaten hier waren, übernommen wurden", sagte ein DJI-Mitarbeiter.

Frank WangDer DJI-Gründer hat angeblich einen Huawei-Berater angeheuert, der ihn bei der Umstrukturierung beraten soll. DJI in these turbulent times. In combination with China now having become DJI’s largest market, this has led to more Chinese employees being pushed into strategic positions within the company. Many international employees fear that with these changes, concerns in the U.S. about DJI’s treatment of Datensicherheit might no longer receive the attention it deserves. DJI’s strategic focus now seems to be on producing suitable hardware and less so on offering the services and software that customers in Europe and North America are asking for.

"Frank hat immer nur vertrauenswürdige Leute aus seinem Umfeld eingestellt, mit denen er entweder zur Schule gegangen ist oder die zu einer Großfamilie gehören. Das war schon immer der Fall. Er hat in den frühen Tagen, als Colin Guin CEO von Nordamerika war, eine sehr schlechte Erfahrung gemacht, und das hat ihn nur noch mehr darin bestärkt, dass nur seine eigenen Leute für das Tagesgeschäft zuständig sein sollten."

Mario Rebello’s (DJI’s former Vice President of Government Relations) recent departure from DJI is an example of how things have changed within the company. During his short time with the drone maker in North America, Rebello was very focused on convincing the various departments of the U.S. government that DJI drones could be safely used. For 15 months, the company worked closely together with the Department of the Interior to develop a unique ‘Government Edition’ that would make it impossible for certain drones to transmit any information over the internet and possibly back to China.

Besides having hired a Huawei consultant, DJI’s founder Frank Wang has allegedly brought several ex-employees from shuttered Huawei U.S. offices into DJI’s Burbank location. Many of DJI’s international staff oppose this move as Huawei’s influence and an inadequate approach to U.S.-China relations have caused their company to be shut out of the U.S. market. And most believe that it would be best for DJI to distance itself from any Huawei association in light of the current geopolitical tension.

Mario Rebello wird wahrscheinlich nicht die letzte hochrangige Führungskraft in den USA sein, die DJI verlässt. Wie berichtet wird, wollen auch einige andere hochrangige Mitarbeiter das Unternehmen in naher Zukunft verlassen. DJI hat einige der ranghöchsten und aktivsten Mitarbeiter auf dem nordamerikanischen Markt. Personen, die zum Erfolg von DJI und der Drohnenindustrie beigetragen haben. Sie zu verlieren, hätte erhebliche negative Auswirkungen auf DJI und höchstwahrscheinlich auch auf die gesamte Drohnenbranche.

DJI’s ‘Game of Drones’ culture and recent organizational changes have had a negative impact not only on the DJI organization but also on its dealer network. It has even started to impact its end-users. The consequences may not be felt as much on the consumer side, but certainly on the enterprise side, where the current geopolitical environment and the on-going data security concerns are impacting the TRUST in DJI. Even if there is no data being sent to China, as DJI has stated numerous times, the constant media hits about it, are weakening the once so strong ‘wall’ that DJI had built.

DJI’s response to my ‘Game of Drones’ article

I reached out to DJI and asked the drone maker to respond to a draft version of the DJI’s ‘Game of Drones’ article last Friday. This morning I received the following response.

DJI hat weltweit Veränderungen in seinem Geschäft vorgenommen, um das Unternehmen in dieser beispiellosen Zeit besser für den Erfolg zu positionieren. Wie viele unserer Mitbewerber in der globalen Technologiebranche haben wir mit den unvorhergesehenen Auswirkungen der Coronavirus-Pandemie zu kämpfen. Seit Anfang Januar haben die Auswirkungen des Virus unsere Lieferkette und unsere Geschäftsabläufe gestört, was sich auf alle Märkte ausgewirkt hat, in denen wir tätig sind. Aus diesem Grund haben wir die sehr schwierige Entscheidung getroffen, organisatorische Änderungen vorzunehmen und unsere Mitarbeiter neu auszurichten, damit wir unsere Geschäftsziele in dieser schwierigen Zeit weiterhin erreichen können.

In the United States these changes included appointing new operational leadership and realigning our resources to better support our largest retail partners where the vast majority of consumers are choosing to shop for DJI’s industry-leading products. With the well-received introduction of two of the industry’s best drone products in the past few weeks, the Mavic Air 2 und Matrice 300 RTKund mit weiteren spannenden Plänen für den Rest des Jahres 2020 blicken wir optimistisch in die Zukunft und engagieren uns mehr denn je für unsere Mitarbeiter, Kunden und Partner auf dem nordamerikanischen Markt und weltweit.

DroneXL’s take

DJI’s ‘Game of Drones’ culture, layoffs, and other organizational changes make you wonder what will be in store for DJI in the next few years. Specifically, in the U.S. market, where political pressure is still mounting, and trade relations with China remain very tense. Some of these factors are outside of DJI’s control. However, that applies less so to its internal ‘Game of Drones’ style culture in which teams reportedly clash and compete with each other in an unorganized fashion, without any clear hierarchy, and where weak performance is often penalized. It seems that for DJI to be successful in the U.S. market, it should carefully listen to its customers and consider the cultural and political environment in which the company operates.

The drone maker needs management and employees in its U.S. organization who understand the Western culture and speak their customers’ language (literally and figuratively). DJI is in a formidable position with its large market share and strong hardware offering. However, if the internal culture clashes erode morale and ultimately, the organization, then DJI will only help to create the best opportunity for another, possibly American, drone maker to step in. I’m sure that U.S.-based Drohnen-Unternehmen such as Skydio, Unmögliche Luft- und Raumfahrt, or Freefly would love to take a shot at it.

Wie ich bereits zu Beginn dieses Artikels erwähnt habe, wurden mir einige dieser Informationen von anonymen Quellen vorgelegt. Dazu gehören ehemalige und aktuelle DJI-Mitarbeiter und Personen, die eng mit dem Drohnenhersteller zusammenarbeiten. Ich habe mein Bestes getan, um alle Informationen, die ich erhalten habe, mit Querverweisen zu versehen, und bin zuversichtlich, dass dieser Artikel ein so genaues Bild von DJI vermittelt, wie man es zu diesem Zeitpunkt von außen machen kann.

If you happen to be one of the people who have lost their job as a result of DJI’s reorganization and would like to share your story, please feel free to reach out to me at haye at dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo.

What do you think about DJI’s ‘Game of Drones’ culture and the organizational changes within the company? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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