Elon Musk must have been channeling ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week, when he commented to the German Press that Apple wasn’t poaching Tesla’s good employees, it was getting folks who couldn’t cut it at Tesla. Apple apparently has been paying a lot for ex-Tesla talent. That undoubtedly is true of some of the employees who have moved between both firms, but it’s very unlikely that it is true of all of those employees. What’s worse is that bad-mouthing ex-employees can be actionable, and experienced CEOs should know better.
Considering Consumer Reports just nixed Tesla in reliability surveys from owners. I would say Tesla is not such a great source for talent? But then again Apple and a autonomous auto does not sound attractive either given Apple's inability to even put out a stable OS on initial release anymore. Maybe the question is, can anyone really do well in bleeding edge programs? We have seen plenty problems with Musks and his rocket projects too.
What I find amazing is how Musk seems more interested in addressing negative news about his products then admitting to them and addressing them. I think Tesla's are great in terms of technology, but if basic quality of the product fails to impress then the advancements don't outweigh the failures. In the end a product sold is based on costs, reliability, and value. The expectations go up when the costs go up. I would expect a Tesla not to have the basic flaws that a base model auto would have. I would expect everything to work well for a long time. My feeling about Apple products has also diminished last few years as quality, stability, and value have been reduced in my opinion. As one engineer put it. The people today are allowing too many things to fall through the cracks in order to keep costs down. Its why we have recalls,products failing early, and unhappy customers.
The big differences between Musk and Jobs is that Musk is really well educated and Jobs really got how marketing works and Musk clearly doesn't. Perception rules and Musk just doesn't seem to get that (you can hire folks with engineering skills).
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Could Musk Be Tim Cook’s Proxy for Jobs?
Posted by: Rob Enderle October 19, 2015 05:00 AMElon Musk must have been channeling ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week, when he commented to the German Press that Apple wasn’t poaching Tesla’s good employees, it was getting folks who couldn’t cut it at Tesla. Apple apparently has been paying a lot for ex-Tesla talent. That undoubtedly is true of some of the employees who have moved between both firms, but it’s very unlikely that it is true of all of those employees. What’s worse is that bad-mouthing ex-employees can be actionable, and experienced CEOs should know better.
What I find amazing is how Musk seems more interested in addressing negative news about his products then admitting to them and addressing them. I think Tesla's are great in terms of technology, but if basic quality of the product fails to impress then the advancements don't outweigh the failures. In the end a product sold is based on costs, reliability, and value. The expectations go up when the costs go up. I would expect a Tesla not to have the basic flaws that a base model auto would have. I would expect everything to work well for a long time. My feeling about Apple products has also diminished last few years as quality, stability, and value have been reduced in my opinion. As one engineer put it. The people today are allowing too many things to fall through the cracks in order to keep costs down. Its why we have recalls,products failing early, and unhappy customers.