It was a mediocre presentation, thanks to Musk's Muskifying it to the max. Stammering, mumbling, nervous, rushing here and there, not connected with the pace of the audience, assuming the audience understands certain terminology... oh, and having the audience wait like 45 minutes, 50 minutes (or was it over an hour, I forget) for the event to start, and not apologizing at all for making the audience wait so long.
The media often like to say Musk is the next Steve Jobs. It's just the opposite. Musk is the anti-Jobs. He doesn't give a damn about his presentations, he doesn't rehearse for them, doesn't care whether the message gets through or not. If you are bright, and you grok what he's saying, fine. If you are new to EVs, or solar, or stationary storage, or battery technology, too bad.
It's part of a company-wide problem at Tesla: communications. It's really bad. Internal, and external. I believe it's because Musk doesn't value it. It could wind up hurting Tesla and I would argue it already is hurting the company.
I find that very refreshing and exciting. I think we're all hung-over from the over polished, maniacally-focused presentations/shows and overall approach that Jobs was famous for. With Elon you feel like you're hearing from a really bright guy, who'd rather be engineering something in the back room. The fact that he actually delivers, AND seems to deliver on the design side as well - makes it all the more intriguing.
You could argue that Jobs did both - but I think Elon's quirkiness, and outspoken nature/transparency is a pleasant contrast.
Wait you think Musk doesn't value communications? I think it doesn't make sense to jump to that conclusion simply because he doesn't rehearse for PR events. I think any company that doesn't value communication as a top priority could not have made it as far as spacex or tesla. It's the reason he puts machines next to designers and programmers at both tesla and spacex. It's the reason he'll push people to work 80+ hours, because it's more efficient to have one person work 80 hours than two people at 40 due to communication/knowledge transfer efficiencies. It's the reason he has banned most acronyms at spacex. I mean I feel I could keep going on because you have to have to prioritize communications internally if any company, especially a startup, is to do well.
Tesla's communications are so screwed up and have been for so long that, yeah, I blame the CEO. The not-rehearsing-for-events is just a sideshow compared to the trainwreck of communications at Tesla. I've been a customer for two years, and a shareholder longer than that, and at Tesla the right thumb doesn't know what the right index finger is doing, let alone right hand not knowing what left hand is doing. Across the board, from the CEO to PR to IR to service centers to stores... nobody has information and it leads to a really inferior customer experience. Individuals here and there do herculean jobs trying to make up for the organizational weaknesses, but the problem is pervasive and widespread, and I blame Musk, however much he deserves credit for leading his companies to the great success they've achieved. It comes at a cost and I'd argue it's going to be a real nightmare over next two years as Tesla tries to cross the chasm from early adopters to early mainstream with the Model X and then the Model 3 vehicles.
The media often like to say Musk is the next Steve Jobs. It's just the opposite. Musk is the anti-Jobs. He doesn't give a damn about his presentations, he doesn't rehearse for them, doesn't care whether the message gets through or not. If you are bright, and you grok what he's saying, fine. If you are new to EVs, or solar, or stationary storage, or battery technology, too bad.
It's part of a company-wide problem at Tesla: communications. It's really bad. Internal, and external. I believe it's because Musk doesn't value it. It could wind up hurting Tesla and I would argue it already is hurting the company.