Write an opinionated response to the article. Leadership Matters! Elon Musk is widely regarded as one of
Fantastic news! We've Found the answer you've been seeking!
Question:
Write an opinionated response to the article.
Transcribed Image Text:
Leadership Matters! Elon Musk is widely regarded as one of the most suc- cessful entrepreneurs in history. 130 He became a bil- lionaire by age 31 after founding and selling several successful start-ups-most notably the company that would later be known as Paypal. In 2004 Musk invested $6.3 million into Tesla Motors and soon after became the company's CEO.131 Musk has a keen ability to express ideas and get people excited about them and has garnered praise for his inspiring and visionary leadership.132 Author Dale Buss argues that "... a huge part of Musk's motiva- tional quiver is to come up with and continually express other-worldly goals that appeal to the passions of his employees as well as to his own ambitions."133 Todd Maron, Tesla's former general counsel, said Musk is "someone who empowers you to be better than you think you can be," adding that "he has extraordinarily high standards, and so he pushes you to be your abso- lute best." Another former employee described Musk as "the smartest person I have ever met," adding, "I can't tell you how many times I prepared a report for him and he asked a question that made us realize we were looking at the problem completely wrong."134 MUSK'S LEADERSHIP STYLE AND BEHAVIOR Some have criticized Musk's aspirations to change the world as outlandish and his ideas as unachievable, but Musk doesn't believe in impossibilities. Says author Christopher Davenport, "People are always telling him. he can't do it. But he doesn't like to hear it can't be done. He categorically rejects that. It's all about, 'How can we do it?"135 A recent example of Musk's stub- bornness is the production of the Model 3. After the company revealed the concept to the public and locked in production dates, Musk called a meeting to tell executives he had a dream that the entire produc- tion process had been fully automated. In other words, vehicle production would require no humans from start to finish. He wanted to make the dream a reality, he wanted to do it with the Model 3, and he wanted to begin production four months ahead of Tesla's original schedule. What followed were several months of what former executives and employees describe as a famil- iar pattern: executives told Musk his idea wasn't achievable, he disagreed, and engineers resigned when they realized they couldn't reason with him. 136 Musk eventually conceded that his idea for fully automated production of the Model 3 was a non- starter, and he and his workers scrambled to get pro- duction back on track by working 80-100 hour weeks.137 Customers waited months past delivery dates for their vehicles and took to social media to lambast the company. Further, many of the Model 3s that were delivered needed costly and time-consuming repairs.138 Musk would later refer to the ordeal as "production hell."139 Some blame Musk's inability to delegate for Tesla's problems and for the recent exodus of more than 36 VPs and other high-ranking executives. 140 Musk wants things done his way down to the tiniest detail and often rejects industry best practices along with advice from his senior leadership. For example, Mus once instituted a new workflow management method against the advice of his production workers. The employees secretly reverted to Toyota's Kanban method when Musk's technique ultimately slowed pro- duction. 141 Author Barry Enderwick believes Musk's micromanaging style "...displays a fundamental misun- derstanding of what leadership means. No one person can do everything at a company."142 Others blame Musk's mental health for his down- ward spiral and describe him as emotionally unstable and fragile. Musk developed a reputation on the pro- duction floor for openly ridiculing, insulting, and bully- ing workers who fell short of performance targets. He appeared extremely sensitive to skeptics, often reas- signing workers who questioned his ideas to new departments, uninviting them to important meetings, and even firing them. Musk also displayed frequent emotional reactions to isolated customer complaints on social media. As a former employee recalls, "Some customer would tweet some random complaint, and then we would be ordered to drop everything and spend a week on some problem affecting one loud- mouth in Pasadena, rather than all the work we're sup- posed to do to support the thousands of customers who didn't tweet that day."143 Musk's recent public appearances and social media posts have raised consumer concerns about his ability to deliver on his promises and successfully run his companies. In one instance, he angrily tweeted that a diver sent to rescue a trapped Thai boys' soccer team was a pedophile after Musk's offer to assist with the res- cue was declined. The diver filed a defamation lawsuit Leadership Matters! Elon Musk is widely regarded as one of the most suc- cessful entrepreneurs in history. 130 He became a bil- lionaire by age 31 after founding and selling several successful start-ups-most notably the company that would later be known as Paypal. In 2004 Musk invested $6.3 million into Tesla Motors and soon after became the company's CEO.131 Musk has a keen ability to express ideas and get people excited about them and has garnered praise for his inspiring and visionary leadership.132 Author Dale Buss argues that "... a huge part of Musk's motiva- tional quiver is to come up with and continually express other-worldly goals that appeal to the passions of his employees as well as to his own ambitions."133 Todd Maron, Tesla's former general counsel, said Musk is "someone who empowers you to be better than you think you can be," adding that "he has extraordinarily high standards, and so he pushes you to be your abso- lute best." Another former employee described Musk as "the smartest person I have ever met," adding, "I can't tell you how many times I prepared a report for him and he asked a question that made us realize we were looking at the problem completely wrong."134 MUSK'S LEADERSHIP STYLE AND BEHAVIOR Some have criticized Musk's aspirations to change the world as outlandish and his ideas as unachievable, but Musk doesn't believe in impossibilities. Says author Christopher Davenport, "People are always telling him. he can't do it. But he doesn't like to hear it can't be done. He categorically rejects that. It's all about, 'How can we do it?"135 A recent example of Musk's stub- bornness is the production of the Model 3. After the company revealed the concept to the public and locked in production dates, Musk called a meeting to tell executives he had a dream that the entire produc- tion process had been fully automated. In other words, vehicle production would require no humans from start to finish. He wanted to make the dream a reality, he wanted to do it with the Model 3, and he wanted to begin production four months ahead of Tesla's original schedule. What followed were several months of what former executives and employees describe as a famil- iar pattern: executives told Musk his idea wasn't achievable, he disagreed, and engineers resigned when they realized they couldn't reason with him. 136 Musk eventually conceded that his idea for fully automated production of the Model 3 was a non- starter, and he and his workers scrambled to get pro- duction back on track by working 80-100 hour weeks.137 Customers waited months past delivery dates for their vehicles and took to social media to lambast the company. Further, many of the Model 3s that were delivered needed costly and time-consuming repairs.138 Musk would later refer to the ordeal as "production hell."139 Some blame Musk's inability to delegate for Tesla's problems and for the recent exodus of more than 36 VPs and other high-ranking executives. 140 Musk wants things done his way down to the tiniest detail and often rejects industry best practices along with advice from his senior leadership. For example, Mus once instituted a new workflow management method against the advice of his production workers. The employees secretly reverted to Toyota's Kanban method when Musk's technique ultimately slowed pro- duction. 141 Author Barry Enderwick believes Musk's micromanaging style "...displays a fundamental misun- derstanding of what leadership means. No one person can do everything at a company."142 Others blame Musk's mental health for his down- ward spiral and describe him as emotionally unstable and fragile. Musk developed a reputation on the pro- duction floor for openly ridiculing, insulting, and bully- ing workers who fell short of performance targets. He appeared extremely sensitive to skeptics, often reas- signing workers who questioned his ideas to new departments, uninviting them to important meetings, and even firing them. Musk also displayed frequent emotional reactions to isolated customer complaints on social media. As a former employee recalls, "Some customer would tweet some random complaint, and then we would be ordered to drop everything and spend a week on some problem affecting one loud- mouth in Pasadena, rather than all the work we're sup- posed to do to support the thousands of customers who didn't tweet that day."143 Musk's recent public appearances and social media posts have raised consumer concerns about his ability to deliver on his promises and successfully run his companies. In one instance, he angrily tweeted that a diver sent to rescue a trapped Thai boys' soccer team was a pedophile after Musk's offer to assist with the res- cue was declined. The diver filed a defamation lawsuit
Expert Answer:
Answer rating: 100% (QA)
The best thanks to describe Elon Musks vogue is transformational He believes theres perpetually a m... View the full answer
Related Book For
Fundamentals of Corporate Finance
ISBN: 978-0077861629
8th edition
Authors: Richard Brealey, Stewart Myers, Alan Marcus
Posted Date:
Students also viewed these accounting questions
-
Write an article summary which must be focused, well articulated with an easy to follow organizational flow, of adequate detail to clearly demonstrate ability to unpack and summarize the key elements...
-
Write an article on Statement policy, Incidence Response and Disaster Recovery Protocols Justify how the disaster response protocols will mitigate the threats to and vulnerabilities of the...
-
Write an article on "Social Security System". Social Security is a debated topic in every Presidential Election and is gaining increasing attention as more and more baby boomers retire. For this...
-
Write short note on context switch
-
Tompkins Associates reports that the mean clear height for a Class A warehouse in the United States is 22 feet. Suppose clear heights are normally distributed and that the standard deviation is 4...
-
1. Should portfolio effects influence the way that investors think about the riskiness of individual stocks? 2. If you chose to hold a one-stock portfolio and consequently were exposed to more risk...
-
For testing H0 : 1 = 2 versus H1: 1 < 2, we observe s1 = 0.9, s2 = 1.5, n1 = 16, and n2 = 11. Test at the significance level = 0.01. a. Find the critical value. b. Do you reject H0?
-
A rotating merry-go-round makes one complete revolution in 4.0 s (Fig. 838). (a) What is the linear speed of a child seated 1.2m from the center? (b) What is her acceleration (give components)?
-
Fischer Fabrication reported the following information concerning its direct materials: Direct materials purchased (actual) Standard cost of materials purchased Standard price times actual amount of...
-
Use the information contained below to compress one time unit per move using the least cost method. Assume the total indirect cost for the project is $2,000 and there is a savings of $100 per time...
-
What is the command pipeline that performs the following functions: 1) Use curl to download the data, piped to X 2sed to replace all instances of commas (",") with white space 3) Use awk to extract...
-
Defendants Elie and Campos both are charged with three counts of violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), one count of conspiracy to violate UIGEA, two counts of...
-
For purposes of defining homicide, when does life begin and end? Why?
-
Should gambling be illegal? What about social gambling? Defend your answer.
-
What is the difference between first-degree and second-degree murder?
-
Should the drinking age be raised, lowered, or kept the same? Why?
-
Assume the following about a new smoothie shop you are going to open: 1. In order to open the shop you need to buy $400,000 of equipment and furniture purchased today 2. You expect annual revenue of...
-
If M = 7, s = 2, and X = 9.5, what is z?
-
You are a beginning investor with only $5,000 in savings. How can you achieve a widely diversified portfolio at reasonable cost?
-
Having heard about IPO under pricing, I put in an order to my broker for 1,000 shares of every IPO he can get for me. After 3 months, my investment record is as follows: a. What is the average under...
-
Computer Corp. reinvests 60% of its earnings in the firm. The stock sells for $50, and the next dividend will be $2.50 per share. The discount rate is 15%. What is the rate of return on the company's...
-
Following are several tests of controls introduced in the chapter: Examine periodic reports by non-Purchasing Department personnel regarding purchase prices and practices. Observe Receiving...
-
Harold Brodkey plans to apply sequential sampling to the receiving controls used by the Ozyck Corporation, a December 31, 1999 year end manufacturer and supplier of home lighting fixtures. Based on a...
-
Few departments within a corporation, not-for-profit institution, or governmental entity can have quite as significant an influence on cost containment as Purchasing, since the purchasing function...
Study smarter with the SolutionInn App