I have recently finished reading the 2023 biography of one of the most controversial people of our time, Elon Musk1. Hated by many and loved by others but a person about whom very few have neutral feelings. His support for President Trump, notwithstanding their recent fallout, and his outspoken dislike of what he perceives as “woke” has heightened the dislike of many for Musk. To an extent, this has overshadowed his significant and wide ranging achievements from Tesla which has pioneered electric vehicles to SpaceX and Starlink which have eclipsed in many respects the National American Space Agency (NASA) and other communication networks.
The biography highlights the complex nature of the man. South African born, having experienced a difficult childhood he left the country just short of his eighteenth birthday. Acquiring Canadian citizenship due to his mother’s birth in that country, he initially went to Canada but later moved South to the United States, the country of which he is now a citizen. Musk is driven and expects others to be the same with no tolerance for those who are not. Impulsive with little respect for convention he has made many enemies but also attracted a loyal following of like-minded people. I have no intention to attempt to paraphrase the contents of Isaacson’s formidable book but a Shakespearean quote on the last pages of his book referring to Musk’s good and bad traits, is worth repeating, “They say best men are moulded out of their faults. And, for the most, become much more better for being little bad.”2 Isaacson ends his book with the following telling lines, “Sometimes great innovators are risk seeking. They can be reckless, cringeworthy and sometimes even toxic. They can also be crazy. Crazy enough to think they can change the world.”
I must admit that I approached the book as a Musk sceptic and certainly there are many things about him that I find difficulty to accept but on the other hand there aspects of his approach to management that I find compelling.
His “laser focus on keeping costs down” is exemplified by his questioning of the cost of the components for the construction of the SpaceX rockets and Tesla electric vehicles. Examples quoted show that by doing so Tesla was able to significantly reduce the costs of components many of which were then manufactured in-house. He questioned the need for every component and applied the principle of “when in doubt delete” as if this proved wrong the component could be added back again. He questioned and challenged the need to meet regulatory requirements which appeared to add no value.
Next was what Musk described as an operational principle of “a maniacal sense of urgency”. When presented with a schedule for construction he would halve it setting an apparently unrealistic deadline against the recommendation of his engineers. And yet despite objections, which he brushed roughly aside, in many instances this approach resulted in targets being achieved far ahead of schedule. It is of interest that another very successful innovator, Steve Jobs, utilised a similar approach in what colleagues call his “reality distortion field“. A colleague of Musk commented that although in the end “we may have failed to achieve or meet most schedules or cost-targets that Elon laid out, we still beat most of our peers.”
Another is the direct involvement of the designers and engineers in the production line upon which Musk insists. He himself slept on the floor of a small office during critical periods of the development of the first Tesla vehicles when it became vital for the company to produce a completed vehicle on time to avert bankruptcy. It was the same principle that he adopted in his approach to other projects such SpaceX and Starlink when there were development and production challenges. Starlink, an internet service based on a network of a large number of low orbit satellites launched by the SpaceX Falcon rockets, became operational in the latter half of 2019 despite a challenging development schedule. As the founder and often times CEO he has maintained a a gruelling work schedule of personal involvement in all his companies over a prolonged period.
Finally, after the vexed acquisition of Twitter on 22nd October 2022, Musk embarked on a brutal restructuring process which is some ways provides insight into the equally vexed Department of Organisational Efficiency (DOGE) that Musk launched with the support of President Trump aiming to increase the efficiency of US Federal Government agencies. After the Twitter takeover, now known as X, Musk employed a talented young team of three, two of whom were family, with the instruction to determine whom of the software engineers at Twitter “did a nontrivial amount of coding and in that group who did the best coding.” As a result after this process of the original 2500 software engineers only about 10% remained, the rest had their contracts terminated with immediate effect. This was only the first of three waves of dismissals that followed based on similar productivity principles.
Importantly, although Musk’s companies have significant contracts with the US government, he has operated, until the advent of DOGE, in the private sector environment using his own capital and private equity. Nevertheless in my opinion many of the lessons that I have outlined above remain just as relevant in the public sector environment. My approach to management has echoed to some measure the focus on keeping costs down, a sense of urgency by setting challenging deadlines, direct involvement of management on the shop floor and ensuring that the staff complement is both essential and productive for the provision of health services. Even a superficial review of the failings of public health services in South Africa, reinforced by my own experience in various public service task teams with which I have been involved since 2106, will identify that the challenges are located in the same areas. Unfortunately from my perspective in a South African context the rigid government regulatory framework based on compliance precludes, in many instances, swift and incisive action to address these challenges.
Possibly we need more people who in the words of Isaacson are like Musk, “Crazy enough to think they can change the world.”
