Conceptual, Technical and Human skills of Elon Musk is discussed throughout this presentation.

1. MANAGERIAL
SKILLS
OF ELON MUSK
PRESENTED BY
TEAM ELITE

2. WHAT ARE MANAGERIAL SKILLS?
Theorist and Psychologist ROBERT KATZ identified
three skills common to managers at all levels.
Conceptual Skills
Human Skills
Technical Skills

3. ELON MUSK

4. Elon Reeve Musk is a South African-born Canadian American business
magnate, Investor, Engineer, and an Inventor
WORK/BUSINESSES
▪ Founder, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX
▪ Co-founder, Series A investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla Inc.
▪ Co-chairman of OpenAI, ETC
ACHIEVEMENTS
▪ Ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People
▪ Net worth of $21.3 billion - 12th youngest billionaires on the
Forbes400

6. CONCEPTUAL SKILLS

7. Decisiveness
“Without decisive action to lay the groundwork today, the massive volume of
affordable, high efficiency panels needed for unsubsidized solar power to out
compete fossil fuel grid power simply will not be there when it is needed.”
- ELON MUSK
▪ Invested his savings in ventures that he believes in, at the risk of going
broke
▪ Not afraid to make hard decisions
▪ He finds out what he wants and then acts on his ideas
▪ Strategy and action lead to results
“Unless you commit to acting in the present, the change you want will never
happen in the future”
- ELON MUSK

8. Creative Thinking / Ambitious
▪ In 2001, Musk conceptualized "Mars Oasis“ - a project to land a
miniature experimental greenhouse on Mars
▪ Kosmotras offered one rocket for US$8 million – expensive
▪ Ended up founding Space X
Elon’s Goals and visions
▪ Reduce global warming
▪ Reduce risk of human extinction "making life multi-planetary" by
establishing a human colony on Mars.
▪ Vision to change the world and humanity
“I feel fairly confident that we can complete the ship and be ready for a
launch in about five years. Five years seems like a long time to me”
- ELON MUSK

9. Problem Solving
Five things Musk thought 25 years back that will change the world:
• Making life multi-planetary
• Accelerating the transition towards sustainable energy
• The Internet
• Genetics and AI
Over the past 25 years he solved problems in all of these 4 fields.

10. Key to Solve Problem

11. ▪ He is a bridge between the market requirements and what the
engineers on the ground aspire to do
▪ Elon Musk leads by “doing” more than “telling”
▪ Musk understands that teamwork is a necessity for any team or business
to succeed.
▪ It is integral to employ a team that operates in a cohesive and team-
oriented fashion
Team Leader/Leadership

12. HUMAN SKILLS

13. ▪ Most companies run with the prime motive of being profitable
▪ Elon genuinely wants to change humanity
▪ Interested in mankind as a whole and wants to explore how
technology can change the world we live in
▪ Wants to explore how technology can change the world we live
in
Humanitarian

14. ▪ Uses brilliant management trick
▪ Musk doesn't just set deadlines
▪ He gets people to take ownership over their projects
▪ "He doesn't say, 'You have to do this by Friday at 2 p.m.’" "He says, 'I
need the impossible done by Friday at 2 p.m. Can you do it?’”
▪ Finds the time to celebrate the success with his employees and thank
them.
“The one thing Tesla is good at is that we throw good parties.”
-ELON MUSK
Communication

15. Musk has recently had to deal with claims that the facility has led to high injury
rates he sent out an email earlier this year sharing his concern about the safety of
his workers and ensuring the claims were overstated
Musk’s Email:
“No words can express how much I care about your safety and wellbeing. It
breaks my heart when someone is injured building cars and trying their best to
make Tesla successful”
“ I’ve asked that every injury be reported directly to me, without exception. I’m
meeting with the safety team every week and would like to meet every injured
person as soon as they are well, so that I can understand from them exactly
what we need to do to make it better. I will then go down to the production line
and perform the same task that they perform”
“ At Tesla, we lead from the front line, not from some safe and comfortable
ivory tower. Managers must always put their team’s safety above their own”
Care for the safety of employees

16. ▪ Elon is a brilliant applied engineer and has the ability to think at the
system level of design
▪ He gets his hands dirty by working with the engineers on the ground
▪ Rare to see a “C level” person work hand in hand with the junior folks.
▪ He personally test-drives the changes to the Tesla car before it goes out
to customers
▪ He loves getting into the details
Works on ground level

17. TECHNICAL SKILLS

18. Curiosity
▪ When Musk was in 3rd or 4th standard he ran out of books to read
from the library! As a result he began reading the Encyclopaedia
Britannica
▪ Bachelor of Science degree in physics and a Bachelor of Science
degree in economics
▪ He wanted to start a space company, so he decided to learn all he
could about rockets. At company party, he even bought and read a
Soviet rocket manual

19. ▪ In 2013, Musk releases sketch and concept of the Hyperloop.
Hyperloop is a conceptual high-speed transportation system that
can achieve speeds up to 760mph or 1223kmph approx.
▪ Vertical take-off landing supersonic jet aircraft with electric fan
propulsion, known as the Musk electric jet
Invention

20. YouTube channel - ColdFusion. (2017). The Story of Elon Musk. [Online Video]. 30 July 2016. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7N-9E_e-wk. [Accessed: 1 October
2017].
Bloomberg/Tom Metcalf. 2017. Elon Musk Adds $5 Billion to His Fortune After SpaceX Soars. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-03/elon-
musk-adds-5-billion-to-fortune-as-spacex-soars-chart. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
The Mercury News. 2014. 2014: Rocket Man: The otherworldly ambitions of Elon Musk. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/04/10/2014-rocket-man-the-
otherworldly-ambitions-of-elon-musk/. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
Youtube channel - TED. 2013. The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity ... | Elon Musk. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgKWPdJWuBQ. [Accessed 1
October 2017].
PBS. 2017. Elon Musk and the frontier of Technology. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript1292.html. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
Business Insider. 2016. The top 10 business visionaries creating value for the world. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/top-ten-business-visionaries-creating-
value-for-the-world-2016-6. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
Entrepreneur-Middle East. 2016. 'Why Him?' Director on Elon Musk's Amazing 'I Can't Come to Work Today' Excuse. [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/286858. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
CBS NEWS. 2012. SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth, ends historic trip. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/spacex-dragon-returns-to-earth-ends-historic-trip/.
[Accessed 1 October 2017].
Forbes. 2013. What Do Toyota And Mercedes See In Tesla? A Bit Of Themselves. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2013/06/01/what-do-toyota-and-
mercedes-see-in-tesla-a-bit-of-themselves/#105fe5ef386a. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
TESLA. 2016. Tesla Makes Offer to Acquire SolarCity. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.tesla.com/blog/tesla-makes-offer-to-acquire-solarcity. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
DAILY BULLETIN. 2017. Hyperloop competition brings new mass-transit technology to life in Hawthorne. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailybulletin.com/2017/01/29/hyperloop-
competition-brings-new-mass-transit-technology-to-life-in-hawthorne/. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
Medium - Backchannel. 2015. How Elon Musk and Y Combinator Plan to Stop Computers From Taking Over. [ONLINE] Available at: https://medium.com/backchannel/how-elon-musk-
and-y-combinator-plan-to-stop-computers-from-taking-over-17e0e27dd02a. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
Bloomberg/Mark Chafkin. 2017. Elon Musk Is Really Boring. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-02-16/elon-musk-is-really-boring. [Accessed 1
October 2017].
The Verge/Nick Statt. 2017. Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a venture to merge the human brain with AI. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-
musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs. [Accessed 1 October 2017].
References

21. Questions ??
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