You don't have to agree with someone to learn from them. Ever controversial, Elon Musk, the tech billionaire has broken the rule book on traditional management thinking.
With an estimated net worth of $393 billion, he is the world’s most affluent individual. How did this African born 53- year-old - with a bachelor’s degree in physics and business - who was bullied as a child succeed?
Now reaching beyond the realm of business, into public administration, Musk is thought to be the brains behind US President Donald Trump administration’s aim to cut costs and waste in government expenditure – with the Time magazine’s cover showing him sitting at the Resolute desk in the oval office.
Musk, has cofounded seven companies, including electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and artificial intelligence startup xAI.
Starlink is a project of SpaceX, a private aerospace company that designs and launches rockets and spacecraft. Founded in 2002, Starlink was intended to generate funds to fuel one of the SpaceX aims to colonise Mars. And, along the way, to provide high-speed internet to underserved areas, especially in rural and remote regions.
Rewrote the ‘How to’ rule book
Ever curious, a veracious reader, Musk with an engineer’s and inventor’s mindset, has a tremendous ability to learn, to absorb knowledge, and then apply it.
Helps that his IQ is thought to be in the range of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, but smart people don’t necessarily succeed in life and business.
Conventional thinking in recent years suggests that emotional IQ is important for managers to succeed.
Musk can fire someone talented and capable on the spot, not suffering fools lightly, he demands tangible results plus high standards.
With no jargon and fluff, he expects his managers to solve problems and come up with innovative solutions. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” said Einstein.
Goodbye work-life equilibrium
For Musk notions of ‘work-life balance’ are a myth, any senior staff who can’t put in 100 hours plus per week, are shown the door.
As Walter Isaacson explains in his fascinating 2023 biography of Musk, he often seems to be unaware of others’ feelings and emotions. It is thought that Musk has the symptoms of Asperger's syndrome, a developmental disorder, on the autism spectrum that can make it hard to interact with others.
Lead by example at 2 am on the factory floor
Musk’s success can be attributed in part to his ability to take tremendous risks, most entrepreneurs would avoid, and an unusual ‘lead from the front’ work ethic, based on first principles thinking, simply breaking things down to their fundamental elements. And, questioning fundamental assumptions.
An independent thinker, he avoids working by analogy, doing a ‘cut and paste’ approach, based on what others have done. With a ‘business frugal’ mindset, there are all sorts of examples of the parts of SpaceX’s technology having massive price reductions, from say $ 3,000 to $ 30.
Founded just 23 years ago, Tesla's market value is significantly higher than once dominant General Motors, whose roots go back more than a century.
Tesla is currently trading at a much higher price per share, reflecting a larger market capitalisation of $ 1.144 trillion due to its focus on electric vehicles and future technology, compared to GM's more established, traditional car manufacturing operations.
Astronomically successful, Tesla has not spent a dime on marketing or advertising. Tesla’s focus is on allowing product quality to speak for itself, with a stress on making a better product.
Being mercurial has its down and dark side
When you are impulsive and take risks, not everything goes as planned. Case in point is, Musk following up on a whim to buy Twitter.
He was forced by a judge to purchase Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. Forbes estimates that the social media company, which he renamed X, is worth nearly 70 percent less today.
Musk undoubtedly knows Mr Trump is a transactional showman, with an abundance of dangerous ‘make a deal’ weaknesses. Musk’s foray into US government, whose role is to address what economists’ refer to as the ‘social good’ is both bizarre and disturbing.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s radical drive to slash billions of dollars in annual federal spending with huge job and regulatory cuts is spurring charges that they have made illegal moves while undercutting congressional and judicial powers, say legal experts, Democrats and state attorneys general.
Trump’s fusillade of executive orders expanding his powers in some extreme ways in his cost-cutting fervor, coupled with unprecedented drives by the Musk-led so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to slash many agency workforces and regulations, have created chaos across the US government and raised fears of a threat to US democracy,” writes Peter Stone in The Guardian.
After a number of failed, and then successful, Space X launches, Walter Isaacson explains what we learn about Musk in Shakespearean terms.
“The explosion of Starship was emblematic of Musk, a fitting metaphor for his compulsion to aim high, act impulsively, take wild risks, and accomplish amazing things – but also to blow things up and leave smouldering debris in his wake while cackling maniacally. His life had long been an admixture of historically transforming achievements along with flameouts, broken promises, and arrogant impulses. Both his accomplishments and his failures were epic. That made him revered by fanboys and reviled by critics, each side exhibiting the feverish fervour of the hyper-polarised Age of Twitter.”
