Tesla and SpaceX people, who is running your companies these days?
Seems like Elon spent the past week at Twitter in SF, onsite, and reportedly working on Twitter 12+ hours each day. There are articles that mention Elon used to spend 4 days of the week running SpaceX, and 3 days running Tesla (maybe I have it flipped). When Musk is off doing side quests, who’s calling the shots at Tesla and SpaceX? #tesla #spacex #twitter #elonmusk
CEO role is to set the vision and direction for the company. Once that is set, other leaders can manage the day to day grunt work. And if there’s some urgent matter, it’s not like he is dead or fell off the 🌏
Elon it really chief marketing officer these days. It worked wonders until the last couple months.
CEOs set multi-year roadmaps and vision, then handoff for actual execution. SpaceX is busy planning for Starship and finishing out the Starlink constellation. Tesla is busy fulfilling orders. Nothing new needed in either camp.
I understand that, on paper, this is the job of a CEO. But if this were strictly true, boards would hire a CEO figure for six months, have that person set the three-year roadmap, have a handoff and say goodbye to the CEO figure for 3 or 5 years. It would certainly save them millions of dollars in exec compensation. The charter of a CEO also includes making sure the roadmap is executed. Not to mention hiring, fundraising, monitoring costs, course correcting, streamlining operations, making near-term investment decisions, etc.
Yes CEO role includes all of those activities you mentioned above. But the most important responsibility is setting the vision. And if he were not a founder CEO, some of those companies will not keep him. But he built those companies from scratch and holds majority in them. He doesn’t even consult the board before releasing the news. It’s pretty much his empire and nobody to stop him from doing what he wants. If sundar tries this at google, he will be shown the door.
I took over at SVP Tesla and running the show… let me know if I should not fire you !!
It's significantly better when Elon isn't around.
Always is and always has been Gwynne
I would imagine the same managers, VPs etc who usually call the shots. Business as usual.