When I see a car or a rocket or spacecraft, I only see what s wrong. I never see what s right. It s not a recipe for happiness.
— Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, tells the Wall Street Journal he has OCD on product-related issues.
The WSJ article, published in advance of Musk s planned appearance Tuesday at the Detroit Auto Show, shows that Musk s exacting nature isn t a recipe for happiness at Tesla, either, where turnover is a fact of life. (George Blankenship, VP of sales, left in 2013; Tesla s China chief resigned last month; the company went through three general counsels in three years; etc.)
Musk is very, very demanding, and it s not the right speed for a lot of people, says Ricardo Reyes, vice president of public relations, according to the newspaper. (Reyes himself left the company, then came back.)
Whatever the personnel issues at remains the driving force of the electric-car maker. Says Cristiano Carlutti, a former Tesla executive in Europe: You take Elon out of the company, [and] the market cap would go down 80 percent. Musk, who said last year that he intends to stay CEO of Tesla for four or five more years, also told the WSJ that there is no succession plan in place.
Photo: Elon Musk in 2013. (Nhat V. Meyer/Mercury News archives)
