Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known to request a lot from his employees. Many ex -employees found their own companies through their philosophy – but this also has their dark sides.
• No classic familiarization – new employees take responsibility immediately
• decisions are implemented without long votes
• Leadership style shaped by pressure to perform and low fault tolerance
Full responsibility – from day one
There is no long training time at Tesla. Those who start there are thrown directly into the cold water – with full responsibility and clear expectation. “You have to solve the problems yourself – there is no one who guides you,” recalls Gene Berdichevsky, one of the first employees and today’s CEO of the battery startup Sila Nanotechnologies, in a contribution by Business Insider.
This “radical personal responsibility” runs like a thread through the Tesla-DNA. Chris Walti, formerly responsible for the humanoid robotics project Optimus, also confirms: “You don’t need five VPS for permission – find the problem, solve it”. Decisions are not eaten, but immediately made – a principle that many find as demanding, but at the same time extremely instructive. This intensive learning process in particular makes Tesla a kind of professional hardest test for many – with a sustainable effect on their further career.
Temp beats perfection
Speed is more than perfection at Tesla. The corporate philosophy demands from employees to deliver solutions that work in the shortest possible time – even if that means that not every step is 100 percent thought out.
“Tesla is not a 9-to-5 job. It’s not Google,” says Chris Walti in the same business insider article. Instead of long coordination processes, pace and implementation power dominate – errors are accepted as long as progress is right.
Tobias Kahnert, who founded the EFT Mobility company after his time at Tesla, also emphasizes the pragmatic innovation culture: “Fast innovation with a view to scaling – I learned that at Tesla”. For many, the work at Tesla was not only demanding, but also intensive training for future management and start-up tasks.
Fascination Musk – with risks
Elon Musk For many, is considered a visionary with enormous radiance – at the same time, former employees describe it as demanding, impatient and uncompromising. The pressure to meet its high demands was omnipresent.
“Elon has a short cord. A mistake can be enough and you are out,” says Chris Walti. Even successful projects offered no guarantee on security – the past is not the past, but the current result.
Kristen Kavanaugh, former head of the diversity department, equality and inclusion at Tesla, becomes even clearer. She speaks of a “fear culture” in the company towards Reuters and in retrospect: “I should have got up earlier”. Between admiration and excessive demands, many former Tesla employees move – characterized by a corporate culture in which performance and loyalty had to be constantly demonstrated.
Tesla mafia: springboard for founders
Many former Tesla employees founded their own startups after their time or took over key positions in the tech industry. Names like Lucid Motors or Sila Nanotechnologies come directly from this network – often also referred to as “Tesla mafia”.
“The success rate of Tesla founders is exceptional,” says Chris Walti. The high burden, constant solution orientation and the immense innovation pressure have shaped many of the personalities that think of entrepreneurs.
Forbes also speaks of Tesla as a kind of squad smithy for founders – whoever exists here, is considered resilient, quickly and efficiently in the industry. For many, the Tesla time was not just a job, but the starting point of a long-term entrepreneurial career.
Editor finance.net
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