Elon Musk 的新傳記-值得一讀

Walter Isaacson 所著的關於 Elon Musk 的新傳記，可以從這本書略知一二這位改變世界的狂人與經營高手。無論讀者對 Elon Musk 的感覺如何，不能否認他是一位超級優秀的企業家。

Here are some takeaways that could help aspiring entrepreneurs or managers:

1️⃣ Vertically integrate whenever possible – In both SpaceX and Tesla, he wanted to manufacture as many components in-house as possible. He believed that controlling the supply chain would help with both quality and cost. In a few years, SpaceX was making in-house 70% of the components and producing rockets at 1/10th the cost.

2️⃣ Team placement matters a lot – He used colocation to promote faster feedback loop. When setting up the SpaceX factory, he made sure that design, engineering, and manufacturing teams would all be clustered together. Similarly, at Tesla he put the designers and engineers in the same room to “create designers who thought like engineers and engineers who thought like designers”.

3️⃣ Always challenge requirements – He believed all requirements should be treated as recommendations. For example, he constantly challenged requirements related to safety regulations. “Step one should be to question the requirement…make them less wrong and dumb. And then delete, delete, delete”.

4️⃣ Delete Delete Delete – He was obsessed about deleting any unnecessary part or process. His daily meetings often revolved around ideas for simplification or deletion. He believed that if one didn’t end up adding back at least 10%, then one hadn’t deleted enough.

5️⃣ Be pedantic about costs – He coined the term “Idiot Index” which calculated how much more costly a finished product was then the cost of its raw materials. He believed if a product had a high idiot index, its cost could be reduced significantly. Using this strategy, he often reduced costs by 80-90%.

6️⃣ Seek accountability on an individual basis – He demanded that each component have a specific name assigned to it. This allowed him to personalize blame when something went wrong. While this often led to unpleasant experiences for individuals, it promoted extreme accountability from his team.

7️⃣ Fire quickly - He was known to fire people quickly. He believed that by being too nice to poor performers, one may be hurting the greater mission of the company.

8️⃣ Practice “skip-leveling” often – He believed that one needed to go as close to the source as possible for information. To do this, he would often organize “skip-level” meetings to talk to engineers a few layers below.

9️⃣ Prioritize attitude over skills – He prioritized attitude over resume skills when hiring or promoting. He believed that skills can be taught but attitudes "required a brain transplant". One simple quality he looked for was the ability to work hard.

🔟 Have a maniacal sense of urgency – Much like Jobs, Elon often set insane deadlines and drove colleagues to meet it. Although they didn’t always pan out, it forced the teams to rally together and fostered a close-knit working environment.