African Musk: Not a Fragrance

[filghy2]

To be clear, I'm not suggesting anyone should pass a law to stop this project or that nobody should be spending money on space travel. I just don't think we should be celebrating him as some great contributor to humanity.

It may be possible to separate a person's achievements from their politics when the two are unrelated, but I don't see how it is possible then they are clearly at odds; ie someone claiming to be a man of science supporting a political party that is anti-science.

[Stavros]

I don't know the answer to the question, there might not be one, but what makes the best CEO of a large corporation?

Some time ago there was some report or analysis that suggested Psychopathic tendencies make for the best bosses, but I am not sure. If it is about making ruthless decisions for the good of the firm, then maybe.

On the other hand, I would suggest the CEO who is prepared to delegate decision making to more junior staff, who is Collegiate in the way he or she operates, who doesn't spend more time in the Media than the office, is a more effective leader.

In this context, I am not sure how Collegiate Musk is. Watching the tv programmes on him on the BBC, I get the impression he sacks people who disagree with him, or don't meet his targets, even if they are not realistic. One former executive involved in bringing forth one of the EV's was moved to tears when recounting how the workers exhausted themselves to get the latest model into the showroom, but I wondered why if the vehicle would have made it a week later and that mattered, though it mattered to Musk. Again, compare Sir Philip Green with some other CEO's in the UK, and it is not hard to see how and why he profited handsomely while the firm he ran collapsed.

Looked at historically, not many firms survive 100 years. Can Twitter survive? I don't know. But I recall around 20 years ago people were talking of the 'MySpace Generation' when it was all the rage -until it disappeared. Facebook -or Meta- dominates, but will it still be around in its present form in 10 or 100 years time? And who is the best or the worst -Zuckerberg or Musk?

[Fitzcarraldo]

It still seems disingenuous to me. Elon Musk made his fortune selling EVs to people who cared enough about the planet to spend $$ on reducing carbon emissions. Without that, none of his other projects woud have been possible.

Now he supports a political movement that denies there is any problem and claims that we can't move away from fossil fuels because it will be too costly and disruptive. But never mind, he says, if the earth becomes uninhabitable I can sell you a ticket to another planet for even bigger $$.

Even if the technological challenges can be overcome, it's sure to be a very expensive option that will be feasible for only wealthy people. Moreover, it makes no sense from a societal viewpoint because shifting away from fossil fuels would be far less costly and disruptive than moving to another planet.

He made his fortune before that, via PayPal.

[Stavros]

He made his fortune before that, via PayPal.

Zip2 before Paypal, and note the comments people made on Musk as a businessman -

"In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Zip2.^[41][42] Errol Musk provided them with $28,000 in funding.^[43] The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, and marketed it to newspapers.^[44] They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto,^[45] Musk coding the website every night.^[45] Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.^{[46][unreliable source?]} The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch;^[47] however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted.^[48] Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999,^[49][50] and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.^[51]
X.com and PayPal

Main articles: X.com, PayPal, and PayPal Mafia
Later in 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company.^[52] X.com was one of the first federally insured online banks and over 200,000 customers joined after its initial months of operation.^[53] Even though Musk founded the company, investors regarded him as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year.^[54]
In 2000, X.com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition,^[45][54][55] as Confinity's money-transfer service PayPal was more popular than X.com's service.^[56] Musk then returned as CEO of the merged company. His preference for Microsoft over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees, and led Peter Thiel, Confinity's founder, to resign.^[57] With the company suffering from compounding technological issues and the lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000.^[58][b] Under Thiel, the company focused on the money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001.^[60][61]
In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—the largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $175.8 million.^[62][63] In 2017, more than one and a half decades later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its sentimental value.^[64][65] In 2022, Musk discussed a goal of creating "X, the everything app".^{[66]".
Elon Musk - Wikipedia}

[filghy2]

He sold his interest in Zip2 for $22 million, and then Paypal for $176 million, which gave him the start to buy into other things. However, most of his net worth - recently estimated at $210 billion - comes from his interest in Tesla. That interest is currently worth around $120 billion, but it was much higher a year ago.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Os-riches.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachels...h=615aea303ea4

I see he has described himself as Chief Twit, so he does get some things right.

[filghy2]

I don't know the answer to the question, there might not be one, but what makes the best CEO of a large corporation?

Some time ago there was some report or analysis that suggested Psychopathic tendencies make for the best bosses, but I am not sure. If it is about making ruthless decisions for the good of the firm, then maybe.

A major study a few years ago found four key behaviours associated with successful CEOs.
1. Making decisions quickly and decisively.
2. Engaging with stakeholders to get buy-in.
3. Adapting proactively to a changing environment.
4. Being reliable and predictable.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/...eding-as-a-ceo

Elon Musk appears to have shortcomings on at least two of these.

[Fitzcarraldo]

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/31/11329...osi-conspiracy

[Fitzcarraldo]

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-...tter-rcna54542

[Fitzcarraldo]

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...-men-rcna55136

[Stavros]

How secure is Twitter's business strategy? It seems to me that it cannot raise enough revenue from subscriptions to be profitable, which makes it dependent on advertising, a business model that has worked for Facebook/Meta with the additional 'services' that Meta/Facebook has been able to monetize. A recession is never good for advertising, which I think makes Twitter vulnerable, on top of which Musk must pay compensation which will run into the millions on top of the interest payments incurred with the price he paid. It might survive in the long term, but if users desert Twitter and the advertising doesn't come through, I guess Twitter will fold. And if a less moderated platform becomes the vehicle of choice for the extremists, who will want to be part of it other than the fringes?