Elon Musk, The One In The Shadows

Bibliography

Quora. "What Is It Like to Work With Elon Musk?" Slate Magazine. Slate, 24 Aug. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/08/14/elon_musk_what_is_it_like_to_work_for_the_spacex_tesla_chief.html>.
Genovario, Kevin. "Elon Musk: Top 10 Facts You Need to Know." Break-ing News and Information, Entertainment & Technology. Heavy, 13 Aug. 2013. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/08/elon-musk-hyperloop-high-speed-train-facts/>.
Anderson, Chris. "The Shared Genius of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/21/leadership/steve-jobs-elon-musk.pr.fortune/>.
"Director of Total Rewards (Compensation and Benefits)." SpaceX. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.spacex.com/careers/position/3253>.
D'Onfro, Jillian. "11 Elon Musk Quotes That Show His Genius." Business Insider. Business Insider, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.businessinsider.com/11-elon-musk-quotes-2013-9?op=1>.

Fun Facts

Elon Musk just released designs for a High-Speed Train (Pic Below)
He’s from South Africa
He left home to avoid serving in the Military
He decided to focus on three area’s he thought would benefit humanity (internet, clean en-ergy and space)
He has also contributed largely to Charity

Overall, I really like Elon Musk and I’m very inspired by him too. He continues to show how innovation has no limits and proves impossible possible. Of course no one can be perfect and Elon Musk too has things he could really improve on. Personally, He could improve by taking out time for himself. He is too engrossed into technology and has forgotten to live like a normal human. He works day and night, works for 100 hours a week, always on his iPhone looking at news, Elon is certainly living like a robot and of course it’s upto him how he wants to do it. But it’d be good if he took some rest too as, he is already 42 and it wouldn't be good for him to take so much stress and work so hard but as Elon says, his quotes show how he is and what kind of person he is.

Elon’s Quotes:

Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

[My biggest mistake is probably] weighing too much on someone's talent and not someone's personality. I think it matters whether someone has a good heart.

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.

“It is remarkable how many things you can explode. I’m lucky I have all my fingers.”

People have even said that Elon Musk is more interesting than Steve Jobs ...

Organisational Structure

Both, Tesla Motors and SpaceX’s organisational structures are undisclosed but it is known that Elon mainly and specifically likes to go by the Flat structure. In this structure, there are less sub dividends and there are more employees under one, which makes it easier to report and work too. Of course it has its cons too everything would have its cons but Elon aims to minimize the disad-vantages as much as he can so he could further improve his pros, this thinking makes him vision-ary and makes his organization structure work in a stable and fluent manner.

Corporate Culture

Elon Musk, like his other marvels and doings this too was one of his marvelous marvels. His corporate culture at SpaceX and Tesla Motors differ in many ways. Lets start off with SpaceX.

SpaceX:

In SpaceX, Elon just wants one thing. Work Hard. He pushes himself harder and harder even though he succeeds. Reviews from the workers show that no matter what, if he fails or passes he’d still work harder and try to achieve even more. Elon is the type of person who knows theres always one extra step to something. For SpaceX this would pretty much it, the corporate culture would be a strict culture and not really fun or ‘play’ culture.

Moving on to Tesla Motors, here it can be greatly related to that of Apple’s culture. Tesla’s corporate culture is a lot similar to that of Apple’s. In Tesla they practice a little bit of play culture to give the employees a boost and to make them feel comfortable by their environment so they can think and come up with ideas which help innovate and this is how Elon likes it. He wants innovation and ideas and this all comes from a lot of brains comfortably thinking.

Communication

Moving on to communication, Elon Musk takes this as one of his main priorities and does his best to create a communicative environment while making it disciplinary too. This makes him a strong communicator. Of course, there can be many types and examples of communications for example, financial communication and even communication among teammates. Whatever the communication might be, if it is efficient and engaging it results with high quality results and per-formance hence proving the leaders communication strength. In Tesla Motors and SpaceX as I had mentioned before too, Elon Musk has shown great examples for himself and set an idol for the employees so they’d be enthusiasts at work and at home with such a great leader who wouldn’t want to go to work.

Recruitment

Elon Musk is very smart when it comes to recruit someone for his company. He gives a chance to anyone and everyone who applies for the job. For some jobs though he specifically requires straight to the point qualifications and terms which is of course very sensible and simple.

Lets take a look at his companies Tesla and SpaceX.

SpaceX:

Director Of Total Rewards (Compensation and Benefits)

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Design and build compensation and performance programs in partnership with executive management team, align rewards with performance.
Implement creative solutions for equity programs and manage dilution.
Supported by a senior analyst, partner with HR Business partners to drive and ensure the success of compensation programs and strive for continuous improvement.
Play a governance role in the creation, negotiation, and review of compensation programs business rules
Develop and manage a leading benefits program and processes.
Work independently, prioritize multiple stakeholders and tasks, and manage work time efficiently.
Manage the design and development of tools to assist employees in benefits selection, understanding our benefits programs, and provide an engaging employee experience.
Keep abreast of employment legislation, arbitration decisions, and collective bargaining issues to assess industry trends and impacts on our business.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

BA or BS degree in economics, business administration or another field that uses quantitative analysis or equivalent experience (advanced degree preferred)
A minimum of 10 years’ experience in the compensation and benefits field in a consultancy or corporate environment, experience with a public company preferred
Deep interest in analyzing data and the ability to see beyond the numbers to drive sound decision-making
Knowledge of Microsoft Excel (familiarity with statistical packages and SQL a plus)
Solutions and client service-oriented, with an emphasis on creativity and relationships
Proven leadership skills and understanding of team dynamics
Proven organizational skills with attention to detail and the ability to prioritize and work well in an environment with competing demands
Ability to work in a team environment with a high sense of urgency
Exceptional written and verbal communications skills as well as strong interpersonal skills

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Whereas for Tesla Motors:
He goes by external recruitment solely. He likes to use social sites as his base for getting employees. Elon is very famous for using Twitter to search for engineer’s for Tesla.