The One to Watch

If you, dear reader, were taken aback by Tesla's model P85D being named not only 2015's best car by Consumer Reports but the best car in history, join the crowd. Last month Forbes named Tesla the most innovative company in the world.

High praise indeed for a twelve-year-old auto maker in a 120-year-old industry.

It doesn't require an imaginative leap for Tesla to have developed the best battery technology or the best electric drive train, but how can the windows, paint, safety features, brakes, "fit and finish", comfort, handling, and the myriad other items that go into an automobile also be better than cars from much larger, more experienced manufacturers?

The answer lies with the people that Tesla hires and how work is organized. [bold added]

[Founder Elon] Musk has engineered a team and process that look different....Musk is known for selecting people based upon their ability to solve complex problems–not based upon experience. Says Tesla Chief Information Officer Jay Vijayan, “Elon doesn’t settle for good or very good. He wants the best. So he asks job candidates what kinds of complex problems they’ve solved before and he wants details.”

Elon Musk: "I don’t care if they graduated from university or even high school.”

After hiring folks with a demonstrated ability to solve complex problems, Tesla deploys them in small teams that sit cheek-by-jowl to hasten the solutions. “Our communication allows us to move incredibly fast,” says chief designer Franz von Holzhausen. “That is an element that isn’t happening in the rest of the automotive world. They are siloed organizations that take a long time to communicate.” Von Holzhausen was able to design the award-winning Tesla S with a team of just three designers sitting next to their engineering counterparts. Bigger automakers typically have 10 to 12 designers working on each new model.

The Bay Area is home to leading businesses and celebrity CEO's (e.g.,Mark Zuckerberg--Facebook, Sergey Brin & Larry Page--Google, Reid Hastings--Netflix, Larry Ellison--Oracle, Tim Cook--Apple, Marc Benioff--Salesforce.com), but if I had to choose one to watch, it would be Elon Musk.

The CEO of Tesla Motors is also the CEO of SpaceX and the Chairman of Solar City.
He works on the hyperloop in his spare time.