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Elon's biggest strengths and weaknesses

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biggest weakness (largest problem ??)
Dealing with SEC
press FUD
Wall St. types who's only value is money - (volatility pays)

As production is up about 10x in about 6 years he seems to be doing fine (better than any other auto exec. right?).
Model S/X/3 - three safest tested vehicles by testing of NHTSA.
safest, quickest, cheapest to operate - is it still true after 7 years ??
 
Biggest weakness: excessive optimism. Really, really excessive optimism.
Second-biggest weakness: undervaluing of human factors

(Both apply to the robotaxi fantasies)

Biggest strength: willingness to change direction very quckly (avoids sunk cost fallacy)
Second-biggest strength: indefatigability
Third-biggest strength: cost reduction engineering (a rare skill for an engineer)

(All three apply to the mass production problems)
 
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Strengths: As SBenson stated above, landing rockets. That's it?

Weaknesses: Communications. Over promising, under delivering. Unable to delegate. Issues with pedophilia lawsuit, SEC, smoking weed on camera.

But then, how can any human juggle SpaceX, Boring, Neuralink, Tesla, SolarCity, and do more than 1 well? And have 5 kids in tow?

I used to revere every word he said.
Now I've dumped my Model S with Version 9 and ... sick of service problems.
 
Strength product design.
Weakness- terrible manager, can't plan anything, does not understand the customer and the value of money, lack of ethics, emotional, likes to play the victim, stubborn and gets stuck on irrational decisions, does not try to learn, to improve.

Everything Tesla has been doing for the past year with their focus on current quarter has halved demand. It's on them, not on anyone else.
They should have delivered all Model 3 versions in all markets from day one, they should not play with prices, should add a HUD, redesign the door handles, add more options, offer reasonable leasing terms and FSD prices, fix the quality control and service issues.. Take the lower margins to begin with and go up from there, the stock would be at 500-600$ now. Provide proper outlook every quarter with revenue and non-GAAP EPS being mandatory, don't leave room for speculation, educate the press about EVs and Tesla.
Musk just tanked the stock with a pointless comment, he has to be a drama queen all the time, if we lose money like in Q1 , the cash runs out in 10 months, like the press is not gonna forget about the IF. He also seems to confuse GAAP net income and cash flow but that's another matter. And he keeps making pointless or plain untrue statements that hurt Tesla, just because he likes to whine. He's digging his own hole and blaming others.

Instead of working on demand for M3 and MY, Musk got stuck on getting the most out of current quarter , no matter how damaging in the long term. Reservations run out in Q2, second half of the year could be quite problematic since Tesla cut demand in half with all their recent actions. They are not doing anything right anymore. They can't manage it at all, they can't communicate at all, not with the press, investors or general public. Musk just complains while making bad decisions.
 
Elon's biggest strengths are:
Intelligence.
The transformation of deep childhood pain into an incredible work ethic based on a drive to "think about the future and not be sad".
First principles thinking.

Elon's biggest weakness are:
Several standard deviations above the mean in his strengths, so he has few equal peers.
Takes bigger swings and has bigger misses, while most people can't comprehend deep nuance in either, hence a projected dichotomy of Savior/Fraud.
 
Elon = Tesla, therefore...

Elon's biggest strengths are...

- Frontrunner position (still)
- Cult following; strong client base
- Catering to the upper-end of the EV market

Elon's biggest weakness are...
- Stuck to the upper-end of the market
- Conventional styling
- Way too dependent on EV tax credits
- Other car makers catching up fast
- THE future is in the widespread use of EVs, cq more affordable ones (without EV subsidies)
 
I've worked for people like Musk before in the high tech world (when I was much younger!). It's a great, memorable time and later you'll wonder how you made it. Anyway, here's my list of strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:
1. He's nutty. Don't underestimate this quality because it enables reaching high.
2. He drives his engineers hard.
3. He lets his engineers explore (combined with #1 and #2 above, this is what you want)
4. He'll get his hands dirty in manufacturing

Weaknesses:
1. He's nutty. Leads to goofy "funding secured" stuff

If I was a young engineer fresh out of school I'd want to work for Tesla or SpaceX. Musk wanting the best out of his people while simultaneously stretching them to the max (landing boosters, high acceleration cars, etc.) is great. The only thing Musk needs at Tesla is someone he respects and listens to on the business side (e.g. a Shotwell).
 
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Strength product design.
Weakness- terrible manager, can't plan anything, does not understand the customer and the value of money, lack of ethics, emotional, likes to play the victim, stubborn and gets stuck on irrational decisions, does not try to learn, to improve.

Everything Tesla has been doing for the past year with their focus on current quarter has halved demand. It's on them, not on anyone else.
They should have delivered all Model 3 versions in all markets from day one, they should not play with prices, should add a HUD, redesign the door handles, add more options, offer reasonable leasing terms and FSD prices, fix the quality control and service issues.. Take the lower margins to begin with and go up from there, the stock would be at 500-600$ now. Provide proper outlook every quarter with revenue and non-GAAP EPS being mandatory, don't leave room for speculation, educate the press about EVs and Tesla.
Musk just tanked the stock with a pointless comment, he has to be a drama queen all the time, if we lose money like in Q1 , the cash runs out in 10 months, like the press is not gonna forget about the IF. He also seems to confuse GAAP net income and cash flow but that's another matter. And he keeps making pointless or plain untrue statements that hurt Tesla, just because he likes to whine. He's digging his own hole and blaming others.

Instead of working on demand for M3 and MY, Musk got stuck on getting the most out of current quarter , no matter how damaging in the long term. Reservations run out in Q2, second half of the year could be quite problematic since Tesla cut demand in half with all their recent actions. They are not doing anything right anymore. They can't manage it at all, they can't communicate at all, not with the press, investors or general public. Musk just complains while making bad decisions.
Excellent post on Elon's weakness and a few critical thoughts - focusing on current quarter has halved demand, should have delivered M3s to all markets from the get-go, ....

Strength: vision, hard-working, incredible drive to achieve goals, ability to dive in and fix problems
Weakness: inability to execute orderly; urge to take an action without reasoning through implications; stubborn - not taking advice; hubris and irrational decisions; management skills.

The core of problems is that Tesla doesn't execute orderly, which is the result of inability to plan with details and managing the risks on what could go wrong. Without a good planning, the project is mostly off as something "unexpected" always occur.
It's crazy and damaging that Tesla keep changing prices to stimulate immediate demands at the expense of future demands as buyers are deterred on possible future price drop. There seems no one there to argue with Elon on common sense. Elon is probably making decisions on his own, and that has contributed to one bad decision after another. Take the robotaxi as an example - 1. Switching the future of Tesla to robotaxi at the time the company is dealing with productions and demands. 2. Making a presentation from engineering perspective to financial people. 3. Announcing robotaxi and autonomous driving available next year with an autonomous driving demo showing skills so far below an average driver.
The irrational decisions are costly. Those decisions were not run through logical seasonings, let alone "first principle".The falcon wing door that set back model X at least 2 years; The decision to go self-finance that has delayed productions of semi, model Y, truck, GF 4 and 5, just when the competitions are investing heavily. The worst one is the model 3 production - insisting on excess automation and taking out integration and testing time in rolling out the production lines. The two decisions sealed the fate of model 3 production hell, and forced Doug Field to leave the company.
 
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Strength product design.
Weakness- terrible manager, can't plan anything, does not understand the customer and the value of money, lack of ethics, emotional, likes to play the victim, stubborn and gets stuck on irrational decisions, does not try to learn, to improve.

Everything Tesla has been doing for the past year with their focus on current quarter has halved demand. It's on them, not on anyone else.
They should have delivered all Model 3 versions in all markets from day one, they should not play with prices, should add a HUD, redesign the door handles, add more options, offer reasonable leasing terms and FSD prices, fix the quality control and service issues.. Take the lower margins to begin with and go up from there, the stock would be at 500-600$ now. Provide proper outlook every quarter with revenue and non-GAAP EPS being mandatory, don't leave room for speculation, educate the press about EVs and Tesla.
Musk just tanked the stock with a pointless comment, he has to be a drama queen all the time, if we lose money like in Q1 , the cash runs out in 10 months, like the press is not gonna forget about the IF. He also seems to confuse GAAP net income and cash flow but that's another matter. And he keeps making pointless or plain untrue statements that hurt Tesla, just because he likes to whine. He's digging his own hole and blaming others.

Instead of working on demand for M3 and MY, Musk got stuck on getting the most out of current quarter , no matter how damaging in the long term. Reservations run out in Q2, second half of the year could be quite problematic since Tesla cut demand in half with all their recent actions. They are not doing anything right anymore. They can't manage it at all, they can't communicate at all, not with the press, investors or general public. Musk just complains while making bad decisions.
Seriously? What an incredible one-sided, negative post. He has made as many good decisions as bad ones. Tesla would be in better shape if he would let someone else run day-to-day operations. Having said that, Tesla wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for some of the decisions Elon Musk made.
 
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