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Elon Musk Research Paper
Coleman Rowland
BCOM 4300.004
Professor Smallwood
March 2nd, 2022
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Elon Musk has continued to show how he can grow the company and make up for losses
time and time again. When needed, he has continued to demonstrate his effectiveness to grind
out the hours and turn the company around. However, he is not without his flaws. Elon Musk
has many leadership qualities, including his influence, being goal-oriented, boldness, and his
determination to follow his own path.
Musk has showed what he can do both to influence the rest of the world and inspire
other companies to change. He has transformed transportation here on earth and in outer
space. His influence is great and is demonstrated through his companies. He founded Tesla in
2003 and Space X in 2002, but not without some respectable leadership traits that got him to
this point. His influence was so great that experts have estimated over half of the car industry
to be electric by 2030. He has tried to create a future where space will be accessible to
everyone and not just the wealthy. It is this goal and passion that has gotten him this far in the
first place. Blus shares this thought (2018) "Elon sees SpaceX as being in the service of
humanity, to help create another place for humanity eventually to evolve if something happens
on earth"(p 1). Musk’s thought process indicates his outlook on humanity and determination
for the future. Elon’s friends even staged an intervention as they cautioned him of failure as it is
not every day a space company is started from nothing. An indication of his determination can
also be shown by his eighty to one hundred work weeks stated by Shrivastava Musk typically
works tirelessly over one hundred hours a week, which leads to expression at SpaceX, “No
matter how hard you work, someone else is working harder,”(p 1). I am unsure if there is
another man or woman billionaire out there that is willing to exhaust themselves to that extent.
Elon continues to try and find the competitor advantage against his rivals by leading with
a goal-oriented approach. He reaches his goals by being extremely career focused. This is a big
positive when combined with his determination. His approach has led to very optimistic goals
set by him. While this influences the rest of company to be focused and goal oriented
themselves, the counterpart is the goals can be out of reach. It is not conceivable to expect the
rest of the company to work the number of hours he works himself. The expectation to ask the
staff to give their life to Tesla or Space X as he has is why he leads with a very poor relationship
style. He lacks balance to keep everyone motivated. Shrivastava states that “He is known to set
short deadlines with tight budgets and doesn't accept failure. He demands the best from every
member of his teams and himself.”(p 1). This leadership will only dry the self-confidence of
each employee until they lose the passion, he so contagiously gave them. The stress and
anxiety are too much for most to handle given by the turnover rate of 27%. This turnover rate is
not good for our company and puts stress on looking for replacements too often.
The lack of relationship has lost us important people in the top of the company in some
unnecessary separations.
Although Elon Musk has some revolutionary moves with his company Tesla, he has had
some battles with it as well. His bold leadership has been his demise. Musk had mentioned to
take Tesla private but did not follow through. This bold move of his costed him a 27 percent
drop in stock prices. Tesla is also $9 billion in debt which demonstrates the negative impact a
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leader with too much boldness can have on a company. Bold writes that “When bold leadership
isn’t backed up with performance, or threats are made without action, confidence falls. This is
exactly where Tesla finds itself at the moment.”(p 1). Musk’s bold moves may be appealing at
first, but the outcomes appear detrimental to the company. If Musk wants his company Tesla to
succeed, he will need to lessen his bold leadership skills. He may think he is coming off as
unique, but he is losing important connections to make his company successful. It may be
necessary for Musk to ground himself and revisit Tesla’s core values as a company. The Bold
article states that “Right now, those changes involve Musk. And with Musk in the driver’s seat,
he will be the one deciding whether or not to shift gears.”(p 1). This is in reference to the
options Musk has as a leader to take control of this company and make the according moves to
succeed, which involves lessening his boldness. I believe his boldness and ego has affected his
ability to keep strong and important other leaders in the company. It is not in the best interest
of the structure of Tesla or Space X demonstrated by his inability to keep the chief operations
manager for more than merely a month. It is physically impossible for Mr. Musk to be in two
places at the same time and it a negative to both companies he presides over. This lack of
ability to get along and decide for other high-ranking members of the staff has had an
undesirable impact. This is lack of keeping high graded members shows his lack of
administrative abilities and is something he needs to delegate. While he can manage resources
does not mean he has the same capability to manage Individuals. This leadership style also
directly corelates with an authoritarian style which has and can be productive for us. The
negatives lie within the effect on the employees on the flip side. This has fostered a un joyful
compliance for employees and has increased our turn over which I discussed earlier.
Elon Musk has a determination to follow his own path, whatever that may be. This can
be seen as both good and bad, depending on how that path turns out. Buss thinks that Elon’s
method “ will either be his downfall or what leads him to success. People are always telling him
he can’t do it. But he doesn’t like to hear it can’t be done. He categorically rejects that. It’s all
about ‘How can we do it?’”(p 1). This demonstrates Musk’s unbeatable determination in
following his truth. He believes in himself and is willing to risk it all to win it all. His work in Tesla
has shown the success that has come from following his own path. He is so sure of himself that
he created something innovative out of nothing. Musk’s path so far has seemed out of this
world. In a Forbes article Buss“ Musk has even quipped that he’d like to die on Mars.” This
demonstrates Elon’s forward-looking path that he is determined to follow. Although this
perspective is aspirational, it is what has driven his companies to be so ambitious.
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Citations
Shrivastavai, A. (2019, March 7). Elon Musk: Intellect, passion, leadership and failures. People
Matters. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from
https://www.peoplematters.in/blog/entrepreneurship-start-ups/elon-musk-intellect-passionleadership-and-failures-15856
Bold by Staff Writer 18 September 201825 August, Writer, S., Kopko, E., & Afable, M. V.
(2021, August 25). When bold leadership turns into bad leadership. Bold Business.
Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.boldbusiness.com/bold-opinions/whenbold-leadership-turns-into-badleadership/#:~:text=In%20addition%20to%20his%20struggle,in%20the%20company%20p
art%2Dtime.&text=This%20inability%20to%20effectively%20delegate,key%20aspects%2
0of%20bad%20leadership.
Buss, D. (2018, August 31). For insights into Elon Musk's leadership of Tesla, look at how he
leads spacex, author says. Forbes. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dalebuss/2018/08/31/for-insights-into-elon-musksleadership-of-tesla-look-at-how-he-leads-spacex-author-says/?sh=12d5734c63a4