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Tesla CEO Musk Says Company Is Flattening Management Structure in Reorganization
- Havoc 8y agoMusk is sounding a tiny bit out of control lately...
- staunch 8y agoThe key to Elon Musk making Tesla work well is figuring out how Apple works so well. I have no real idea how Apple manages to be effective and innovative with 100,000+ employees. I don't think Elon Musk really understands what they're doing either but I really hope he can replicate it. The most obvious answer is that Tesla becomes a division of Apple and Tim Cook helps scale Tesla, as he helped Steve Jobs scale Apple.
- alexkavon 8y agoThat is some Silicon Valley fanfic speculation right there haha.
- airstrike 8y agoStill a better love story than Twilight
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- abritinthebay 8y agoGiven the debt load Tesla has there is no way they get bought by most companies. That said... if we’re hypothesizing then yeah, it’s a good ideological fit at least.
- InTheArena 8y agotesla's liabilities are still less then their assets, and their order book is absolutely insanely robust. Their price makes it so a car manufacturer (save maybe VW) couldn't buy them, but given that both Apple and Google are trying to get into automobiles, Either of them would jump at the chance, assuming a sane valuation stock wise.
- Driverswanted 8y agoThey don't have orders, they have refundable deposits. How many are converting? Elon would not say on the call. Why?
- InTheArena 8y agoTesla's statement was that the order book was holding solid at around 450k, IIRC. Not bad for something with a multi-year backlog. I suspect the reason why is because Tesla is only targeting the highest end model 3s right now, and people who have put down deposits are waiting to see what the federal tax credit situation is like, and if I can manage to hold out for the base model since I don't need the 300mi upgraded on (but can afford it, if I wish). Tesla is going after the high margin cars right now (as they should). within the next month (if current tends hold) they will bass BMW, Mercedes and Audi in the premium sedan market with that strategy, all while trying to maximize incoming revenue. On the other hand it could be a conspiracy to shaft Short Sellers, who are owed a complete collapse of the stock, bankruptcy of Tesla, and Elon being led away in chains.
- dv_dt 8y agoI think we have a little too much faith in how some organization trees of people by itself causes effectiveness, vs having a good personal working dynamic and people themselves. And it could be many re-organizations aren't really undertaken to re-org per se, but to provide a bit of a reset to the personal dynamics of teams.
- dv_dt 8y agoSee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
- deanCommie 8y agoThe vast majority of Apple's 100,000+ is retail employees, just like the majority of Amazon's 500,000+ is warehouse workers.
- staunch 8y agoThat doesn't seem very different from Tesla's situation with manufacturing and retail stores.
- mongol 8y agoIt is an interesting suggestion from a branding perspective. Apple and Tesla feels like similar brands in that they are hip and innovative. But to what extent Apple can help Tesla to scale better, vs any larger automotive company feels uncertain. Has the "Apple buys Tesla idea" been seriously discussed in media?
- InTheArena 8y agoIt's been out there quite a bit: http://bgr.com/2017/05/04/elon-musk-tesla-apple-acquisition/ http://bgr.com/2017/05/04/elon-musk-tesla-apple-acquisition/ and More to the point, there have been discussions in the past. Apple apparently started discussions back in 2012.
- InTheArena 8y agoTim cook is a awesome COO. As a CEO, Apple is squandering all of the advantages that Steve Jobs left them with. They have been without any clear direction or product vision for a while now, and continuing debacles like the Mac Pro situation (5+ years and counting since Apple has a had a competitive pro stand alone machine), the poor quality of the new Macbook Pro (bad keyboard, dongle hell), the absolute joke that is the Mac Mini indicates that Apple is loosing the ability to even evolutionary improve their products. This is because you don't have a guy with product vision at the top. Instead you have someone who is great at optimization. So yes to Tim Cook. No to running Tesla.
- stcredzero 8y agoTim cook is a awesome COO...So yes to Tim Cook. No to running Tesla. Isn't operations what Tesla needs right now?
- InTheArena 8y agoOperations is, but not at the expense of having a vision of what to deliver. You can hire and define operations, you can't do the same for product vision.
- InTheArena 8y agoWhat elon needs is a clone of Shotwell from SpaceX. Someone who shares the vision, but can execute the day to day.
- staunch 8y agoYes, that's why Elon Musk stays on as CEO of Tesla but it becomes a subsidiary of Apple, Inc.
- erikpukinskis 8y agoIsn’t that Ive’s job?
- nradov 8y agoAn alternative explanation could be that Apple is quietly discontinuing MacOS laptop / desktop computers while putting more resources into replacing them with larger iOS devices. At some point it no longer makes sense to maintain separate operating systems and hardware architectures. All the pundits have been predicting convergence for years now.
- sidcool 8y agoPaywall :( Perhaps a better way to earn money than tracking users.
- simon_acca 8y agoI didn't get paywalled, perhaps try incognito? EDIT: for clarification, I fully support paying for journalism, I am a subscriber of two online news outlets myself. My suggestion is provided "as is" without moral blessing of any kind, express or implied... ;)
- gameswithgo 8y agowsj paywall depends on how many wsj articles you have viewed recently
- marrone12 8y agoIt's actually completely independent per user. They have a model that predicts whether or not you're more likely or less likely to subscribe and whether giving you a free preview will increase that chance.
- lbenes 8y agoIt's a soft paywall. It's only triggered when an IP exceeds the monthly quota of free content. OP or someone on his subnet has been enjoying their journalism, but doesn't want to support it. It the post-truth world, I have no problem supporting these news organizations whose content I regularly consume.
- war1025 8y agoThere are several ways to get around it. The one I usually go with is by pasting the link into the search box on archive.is
- paulcole 8y agoOne of the cleverest hacks I've found to get around the WSJ paywall is to just give them a few dollars a week. Sneaky but it works! Edit: Downvoted for this lol. Can't believe paying for the content you want to read is such a controversial opinion.
- vermontdevil 8y agoIn other words, Tesla losing executives and not able to replace them quickly enough.
- mkirklions 8y agoDepending on the article, it either is Pro-Tesla, or saying what you post.
- Proven 8y agoLike I said here countless times, that Ponzi is crumbling and won’t last for another year. Tesla’s bankruptcy can’t come too early - the sooner they go out of business the better for taxpayers everywhere (but mostly in the US)!
- InTheArena 8y agoThere are rumors floating around that Tesla was very close to their late June target of 5k/wk after their latest line closure. If that so, I think they have turned the corner here. The steps they are taking sure seem to look more like optimize cash-flow after the R&D is done, rather then a continue full-build to get to max capacity. Edit since some are downvoting: Report from Freemont on Model 3 Production line 5/13/2018 (midday): * 4290- Last 7 days production of M3 * 638- Last 24hrs production of M3 The last line shutdown/retooling had a significant improvement on the speed of the M3 line. Everything is working in conjunction like intended and no bottlenecks anywhere. The upcoming May line shutdown for retooling is going to be much shorter than past, and currently scheduled for May 26-27th weekend. Shutdown could get moved up if production continues to increase at its current rate. The sentiment from the line is 5k sustained is pretty much guaranteed and 6k before end of June is very likely. Bottom line is I was told this is as good as Tesla employees have felt about the M3 production since production began.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mkirklions 8y ago>Tesla was very close to their late June target of 5k/wk after their latest line closure According to Tesla... Their numbers this entire year have been highly highly questionable.
- InTheArena 8y agonot according to Tesla. This was a leaked report. Bloomberg is also projecting near 4k/week.
- this_user 8y agoBloomberg article on the same topic: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-14/tesla-s-churn-making-it-tougher-for-musk-to-burn-short-sellers https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-14/tesla-s-c... They also point out that those executives left behind their option packages which is somewhat of a red flag and begs the question what is going on behind the scenes.
- InTheArena 8y agoSupposedly Doug is taking time off before getting started on the Model Y in a few months. We'll see.
- twblalock 8y agoI'd have no problem believing it really is a leave of absence. Almost everyone would be burned out after dealing with the intense pressure and really long hours for months on end. I wouldn't necessarily take this as a sign he is planning to jump ship.
- almost_usual 8y agoI’m a fan of hackathons but this feels like a “grasping at straws” solution, at least for the near term. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/995822814291673090?s=20 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/995822814291673090?s=20
- twblalock 8y agoI don't think the option packages are a red flag. Most tech executives leave behind options or RSUs when they leave, because their employers keep giving more. The execs take that into account when they negotiate their compensation with their new employers.
- mkirklions 8y ago>what is going on behind the scenes. I cant even imagine. From the outside it looks like a house filled with Christmas lights! But... there looks to be a massive fire inside consuming all that was beautiful....
- crb002 8y agoI'm curious to see Elon publish rough stochastic simulations of his Tesla Model 3 assembly lines. Both current and proposed. Full automation without buffering at several stages requires massive uptime for all segments.
- froindt 8y agoI don't avidly follow Tesla, but love reading about production processes. Did he mention the simulations would be released somewhere?
- aerovistae 8y agoevery single little thing that involves this company has to be front page finance news, it's so irritating. yesterday there was literally an article that said "Tesla model S rear ends truck" and if you click into the article, it didn't even involve autopilot....it was just a normal accident. imagine a headline that read "Toyota Camry rear ends truck!" it's so fucking annoying.
- confiscate 8y agoI agree. You can't blame the news though. If the news headline was "Toyota Camry rear ends truck" you would not have clicked on it :)
- aerovistae 8y agoi can't blame the news for me wasting my own time, but i can blame the news for doing a shitty job fulfilling their function in society.
- vuln 8y agoTheir function is like any business in a Capitalist Society. Profit over everything. Integrity doesn't pay the bills or buy you a new Ferrari. It's sad to see the things these days being excused as 'journalism'.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- komali2 8y agoPeople downvoting above - have you not had a boss tell you "that would be great if we could implement like that, but do it this way instead because it's more profitable" ? I've got journalist friends with stories to tell but are stuck because they've got a quota of 10 more trump stories and 5 more musk stories to write first.
- pooya13 8y ago
- mkirklions 8y agoWhile I dont believe in Tesla, I still decided to buy Bitcoin instead of short selling Tesla.