Trying to sort things out. There is a story of Mark Fields bringing a fleet of Lincoln Navigators to a meeting at Google. It was a near final step in an agreement for Google to close a deal to provide self driving technology to Ford. Mr. Fields, and his posse, were excited about how Wall Street would respond to this agreement.
So Mr. Fields goes back to Dearborn and starts working on a slide deck so that he can present this great agreement to the board at Ford, his bosses. The meeting is scheduled and he has practiced several times.
3 Days before the board meeting, he gets a call from Google, "We are not going to do it. Sorry."
Let's go to the theme that contempt destroys relationships... It is actually the perception of contempt that destroys. It might even be a misidentification, but the outcome is the same.
I think Mr. Fields was just blind to the importance of the environment to Google.
But it looked and felt like contempt. Google said, "Not a match."
Elon is kind of acting like Mr. Fields in his ignorance of the value of money to the middle class. He is doing this in two ways, maybe because he is paying too much attention to Wall Street, like Mr. Fields did just before Google walked away.
With Mr. Fields, it was crushing. With Elon it might be death from 100,000 cuts.
Here are the two things Elon is doing that put him in opposition to his customers, the car is great by the way:
Elon please look in the mirror. Your design and manufacturing teams have done a spectacular job. The car is wonderful. Don't morph into just another car dealer. Don't repeat Henry Ford's greatest mistake. People have long memories if they paint you in opposition to their families. You kind of live there for eternity. These two business practices make it hard to paint you any other way but confused and disrespectful.
They are pretty easy to fix. You have a great product. Please spend more time talking to JB about what Tesla's mission is, and less time listening to MBAs from second class schools.
(This is a little extreme, considering all that Elon has done, but it is setting up an oppositional dynamic that will be hard to change. Sell more stock if you have to, but don't get crosswise with your customers. Move to the same side of the table and help them meet their goals.)
So Mr. Fields goes back to Dearborn and starts working on a slide deck so that he can present this great agreement to the board at Ford, his bosses. The meeting is scheduled and he has practiced several times.
3 Days before the board meeting, he gets a call from Google, "We are not going to do it. Sorry."
Let's go to the theme that contempt destroys relationships... It is actually the perception of contempt that destroys. It might even be a misidentification, but the outcome is the same.
I think Mr. Fields was just blind to the importance of the environment to Google.
But it looked and felt like contempt. Google said, "Not a match."
Elon is kind of acting like Mr. Fields in his ignorance of the value of money to the middle class. He is doing this in two ways, maybe because he is paying too much attention to Wall Street, like Mr. Fields did just before Google walked away.
With Mr. Fields, it was crushing. With Elon it might be death from 100,000 cuts.
Here are the two things Elon is doing that put him in opposition to his customers, the car is great by the way:
- Putting a $1000 fee on choice. There need to be two free colors, and one of them needs to be low maintenance. People who spend their work days with little discretion cherish the opportunity to make choices outside of work. Elon should not make it punitive. Today he is. The original contract for the deposit did not say "Black Paint: Standard." Also black paint is worse for global warming. The last Energy Secretary almost said you could make a dent in it by painting every roof white. So it appears that Elon is treating middle class income, middle class children and the environment with contempt by punishing deviation from black with a $1000 fine.
- Running the fully loaded battery longer than he has to. That puts the price at $50K, if you don't want black. It also consumes more batteries, lithium, nickel and cobalt than you have to. Those resources would be better applied to semi trucks. He has lost sight of the idea that businesses are in place to efficiently serve society... All spun around and confused. And he is taking more money than he has to, from people who need it. Treating the customer's money with disrespect, or contempt. Treating the environment with contempt. Acting like a car dealer. Morphing into a car dealer, right before our eyes.
Elon please look in the mirror. Your design and manufacturing teams have done a spectacular job. The car is wonderful. Don't morph into just another car dealer. Don't repeat Henry Ford's greatest mistake. People have long memories if they paint you in opposition to their families. You kind of live there for eternity. These two business practices make it hard to paint you any other way but confused and disrespectful.
They are pretty easy to fix. You have a great product. Please spend more time talking to JB about what Tesla's mission is, and less time listening to MBAs from second class schools.
(This is a little extreme, considering all that Elon has done, but it is setting up an oppositional dynamic that will be hard to change. Sell more stock if you have to, but don't get crosswise with your customers. Move to the same side of the table and help them meet their goals.)
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