- Elon Musk fixes the largest issues at his corporations each week, Marc Andreessen says.
- Musk shortly tackles urgent points by working instantly with engineers and coders, the VC stated.
- The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s methodology attracts nice expertise and conjures up deep loyalty, Andreessen stated.
Elon Musk has constructed a few of the world’s Most worthy corporations, from Tesla to SpaceX. A key driver of his success is a relentless deal with fixing issues quick, typically by working instantly with the engineers or coders who’ve gotten caught, Marc Andreessen says.
The legendary enterprise capitalist shared his insights from working intently with Musk on X, xAI, and SpaceX throughout a latest episode of the “Modern Wisdom” podcast.
Unlike many CEOs, Musk is dedicated to understanding each side of his companies, the Andreessen Horowitz cofounder and common associate stated. He’s “within the trenches and speaking on to the individuals who do the work,” and performing because the “lead downside solver within the group.”
Musk’s companies embrace Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI, The Boring Company, and X — previously Twitter. Andreessen stated that each week at every of his corporations, Musk “identifies the largest downside that the corporate is having that week and he fixes it. And then he does that each week for 52 weeks in a row. And then every of his corporations has solved the 52 greatest issues that 12 months, in that 12 months.”
In distinction, the bosses of most giant companies spend months or years holding conferences, watching shows, and conducting authorized and compliance critiques earlier than they tackle their most urgent points, Andreessen instructed host Chris Williamson.
Musk sees his companies virtually like meeting traces, and he focuses on eradicating bottlenecks and dashing up the conveyer belt somewhat extra each week, the billionaire VC and Netscape cofounder stated.
His laser deal with fixing issues attracts exceptionally gifted individuals to his corporations who wish to work extraordinarily onerous and meet exacting requirements, fueling additional success for his companies, Andreessen stated.
Straight to the supply
When Musk spots a bottleneck, he cuts by means of the layers of administration to speak to the individuals truly engaged on the road or writing the code, Andreessen stated.
“So he is not asking the VP of engineering to ask the director of engineering to ask the supervisor to ask the person contributor to jot down a report that is to be reviewed in three weeks,” the early-stage investor stated. “He would throw all of them out of the window.”
Andreessen stated Musk’s method of discovering the individual grappling with a selected difficulty, after which working with them to resolve it, conjures up deep loyalty.
The individual thinks “if I’m up in opposition to an issue I do not know the way to remedy, freaking Elon Musk goes to point out up in his Gulfstream, and he’ll sit with me in a single day in entrance of the keyboard, or in entrance of the manufacturing line, and he’ll assist me determine this out,” the tech guru stated.
Musk’s technique of tackling downside after downside has a “catalytic, multiplicative impact” that helps his companies energy forward of rivals, Andreessen added.
In the previous, Musk has been criticized for spreading himself too skinny and never allocating sufficient time, power, and sources to anyone enterprise like Tesla.
The world’s wealthiest man has additionally stated at factors that he is working too onerous and juggling an excessive amount of, and his “hardcore” administration type has been slammed as brutal and mercurial.
But when it comes to technical progress and worth technology, Musk’s method of getting concerned shortly to make things better seems to be paying off.
