By Alec Hogg
My regular Rational Perspective podcast on Biznews Premium is being well received. Especially Monday’s edition devoted to Elon Musk’s appalling recent behaviour, which knocked the Tesla share price and earned a zinger from vice chairman Charlie Munger at the Berkshire AGM.
The podcast triggered a pointer from Biznews community member John Kinghorn’s to an exceptional article in the HBR which predicts an unfortunate end to Musk’s high profile career. Writer Steve Blank draws uncanny parallels between the boy from Pretoria and his spiritual forefather, Billy Durant, who founded mighty General Motors in 1904.
Unable to overcome the challenges of focus and execution, Durant was twice ejected as GM’s chief executive by bankers after huge debt took the company to the brink of extinction. It is Durant’s successor, Alfred Sloan, whose name is associated with GM’s glory years. The actual founder died in obscurity, eking out a living as the manager of a bowling alley in Flint, Michigan.
For all his admirable qualities, long forgotten Durant found it impossible to delegate important tasks to others. Just like Musk. He was also distracted by external interests, partly because he could never be accused of lacking self confidence. Everyone acknowledged Durant as a great visionary. But history tells us skills required to take advantage of a unique business opportunity are very different to those required to sustain it.
