Based on blunder after blunder since taking over, it has become so obvious that Elon isn’t qualified to run a company. So how has Tesla and SpaceX succeeded?
Apparently those businesses have positions that could be charitably called “Elon handlers,” to keep him from doing to them what he has done to Twitter.
Luck? I think you're under the mistaken assumption success is directly tied to competency. It's not. The only advantage being skilled gives you is a slightly better ability to know where to look for luck. And possibly the ability to make fewer mistakes once you find said luck.
JB recently joined Tesla’s board. I’d like to see him assume the CEO role, and roll Redwood Materials up into Tesla. Let Tom Zhu run Tesla vehicles while JB maximizes the energy business (which is currently supply constrained and has a two year backlog) as described in Tesla’s recent Master Plan Part 3.
Elon can go do Elon things as a minority shareholder (13% ownership remaining).
IMO a company whose goals can be defined as “make object of X weight achieve Y speed at below Z dollars” is very, very different from a software product company. The goals are quite hard to define and you have an infinite number of levers theoretically available to you, and those levers interact with each other in unpredictable ways. Especially true of a social network which can both nullify big changes like an immune response, and can reach tipping points and experience big behavior shifts due to apparently small product changes.
He’s just way, way out of his wheelhouse with Twitter and doesn’t have the humility or trusted advisors required to see it.
He's a great promoter. His companies have raised piles of money, far more than similar companies could based on fundmentals. He's also able to get skilled employees to work harder for less money than they would at most shops, which is extremely valuable in a young company.
None of this means he's a genius or a technical wizard, but he's good at selling himself as those as well and many folks bought it. It seems like the success has gone to his head to some degree and his exposure has shot up in recent years, which has not been doing his reputation any favors, to say the least.
