EMAIL sent by ELON MUSK to his EMPLOYEES at the START of the NEW YEAR

in blog •  7 years ago 

Tesla's meteoric rise to stardom has been mainly due to its eccentric and charismatic founder and CEO Elon Musk. Many believe that Elon's rare business skills is due to winning the ovarian lottery which gave him a photographic memory. Following is the email that Elon Musk sent to his employees at the start of the year, a testament to how effective or ineffective he is as a leader:

There are two schools of thought about how information should flow within companies. By far the most common way is chain of command, which means that you always flow communication through your manager. The problem with this approach is that, while it serves to enhance the power of the manager, it fails to serve the company.

Instead of a problem getting solved quickly, where a person in one dept talks to a person in another dept and makes the right thing happen, people are forced to talk to their manager who talks to their manager who talks to the manager in the other dept who talks to someone on his team. Then the info has to flow back the other way again. This is incredibly dumb. Any manager who allows this to happen, let alone encourages it, will soon find themselves working at another company. No kidding.

Anyone at Tesla can and should email/talk to anyone else according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company. You can talk to your manager's manager without his permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else's permission. Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens. The point here is not random chitchat, but rather ensuring that we execute ultra-fast and well. We obviously cannot compete with the big car companies in size, so we must do so with intelligence and agility.

One final point is that managers should work hard to ensure that they are not creating silos within the company that create an us vs. them mentality or impede communication in any way. This is unfortunately a natural tendency and needs to be actively fought. How can it possibly help Tesla for depts to erect barriers between themselves or see their success as relative within the company instead of collective? We are all in the same boat. Always view yourself as working for the good of the company and never your dept.

Thanks,
Elon

What do you think? Was it inspiring or demotivating? Would you work for him?

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This is what leads Tesla from the pack imo.

Very cool. I love this statement. Elon recognizes the fact that information flows faster when we remove the social barriers that impede this transfer of info. I think it's incredibly wise and empowers the company as a whole.

Totally agree! By creating a less hierarchical organization, the company can work together on all level of the organization to reach a common goal. It creates transparency and the employees can be more engaged with their work if they know what the company would like to achieve.

He’s a man of great inspiration and leadership. Would be interesting to see how being an employee for him is... you are helping make history especially at Tesla and spacex

Tesla's meteoric rise to stardom has been mainly due to its eccentric and charismatic founder and CEO Elon Musk and being a darling of the left and recipient of huge government contracts.

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Nice sir

Thank you for sharing this. Appreciated, really.

Again Elon Musk showing how things should be done.

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resteemed it @catalina10 because this is litteraly how our first meeting in the year sounded like. The hardest job in a company for the entrepreneur is to find the appropriate balance betwen the time dedicated to the everyday challendges and the vision he/she has. To be near your team constantly can mean the direction you want is followed, but it also means you limit the responsability and the growth of each individual, his skills for decision making and in building work relationships to grow the company. So yeah, thank for this.

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Having studied Aerospace Engineering I would work for SpaceX. The private space sector is where the innovation will come in the future and SpaceX is leading that pack.

Elon Musk can be a real jerk. I would never work for him. Thank You for the great post!

How come?

I don't think he really cares about the employees. He simply wants them to have a false sense of being needed. Anyone at anytime can be replaced in the work place. The only true answer is to work for yourself (maybe trading or investing in crypto).

Anyone at anytime can be replaced in the work place.

This is true everywhere.

I don't think he really cares about the employees. He simply wants them to have a false sense of being needed.

So this is your reasoning for him being a jerk? Okay... He probably cares a lot more than your average CEO. But I have heard he's a very demanding boss. It's all about efficiency after all and working smart. Business is brutal.

And yes, it's always best to find ways to employ yourself. But it can be hard for many!

I agree with your view as well. Thank You for the interaction. Have a great day.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Have a nice one. Ultimately I have to say, I don't view Elon as a jerk. I have not seen single reason for that though and I've seen him talk plenty.

He's literally changing the world we live in, in multiple ways at the same time. We need 5 Elon Musks more, I'd say.

She asked for a significant raise and Elon didn't agree to that and that somehow makes him a jerk?

Did you read Elon's tweets?

Mary Beth was an amazing assistant for over 10 yrs, but as company complexity grew, the role required several specialists vs one generalist

MB was given 52 weeks of salary & stock in appreciation for her great contribution & left to join a small firm, once again as a generalist

Umm, seems like some people just have something against him.

surprised to hear this

Most business operations view employees as nothing more than a tool with limited value. The world population works most of their lives for what? They retire basically broke. They never enjoy life. I think Steemit is a step in the right direction. Crypto will create the freedom for average people to enjoy life and travel the world. The employers and banks have enslaved the mass population worldwide.

I think he's an expediter. He has to be. He will run out of time before all his dreams come true if time is wasted solving problems.

This post has gratitude of 2.44 % from @appreciator thanks to: @sandalphon.

Nice post! I really like your content!