Jon McNeill took Tesla from $2 billion to $30 billion in revenue as one of Elon’s top lieutenants. His secret? Total focus on a few goals, and obsession with the customer.
McNeill recently gave up his secrets in The Algorithm. This slim volume explains how Tesla went from struggling startup to trillion dollar company.
I couldn’t put this book down on my recent vacation. Here are three key lessons I’m already using in my work…
1. Set goals for meetings. “The point of this meeting is to get everyone together…” This is an actual quote from one of the bosses I encountered early in my career.
Right away I thought, “So the point of this meeting is to have a meeting?”
Corporate America is filled with pointless meetings. If you add up the hourly wage of everyone there, these meetings cost many thousands of dollars per hour.
Elon makes sure that his companies don’t waste time. They agree on a goal for a meeting up front. Anyone who isn’t needed is encouraged to simply get up and leave.
Try setting a goal at the beginning of all your company meetings. You can save a lot of time!
2. Look at your product from your customer’s perspective. When the author was president of Tesla, he would go into the showrooms and go through the car-buying experience.
He found that the Tesla representatives often didn’t follow up with potential customers. So he instituted a new process to make sure that every lead is followed up on.
For me, startup founders are my customers. I think to myself, “What do they need?”
Above all, they need prompt and clear responses from me. If you’re trying to raise money for a company, you can’t wait a week to get your emails returned.
So I try to get back to every founder within 24 hours or less. At the end of meetings, I clearly explain what I’m looking for before I invest.
One place where I can improve is getting founders a meeting faster. I’m going to try to get folks on the schedule sooner whenever I can.
3. Small teams, clear goals, accountability. Elon likes to form a small team and give them a clear goal. Then he has them report back regularly on their progress.
If you know you’re going to have to report to the CEO in a week, you’re going to work really hard. You can’t come back to Elon next week and tell him you didn’t accomplish anything!
In the average corporation, goals and responsibility are unclear. And with nine layers between you and the CEO, you can avoid being noticed.
That’s not going to happen at Tesla.
Take the most important goal at your company and assign a small number of people to work on it. Make them report back to you weekly or even daily.
You’ll be surprised how much gets done!
Wrap Up
Elon’s companies operate on a different level from most businesses: clear goals, accountability, and focus on the customer.
Try setting a couple key goals in your business. Make it crystal clear who’s responsible.
In my business, I’m thinking hard about how to make founders’ experience better. I’m going to try to get meetings on the schedule faster so founders don’t have to wait.
The better I service the founders I work with, the more great entrepreneurs will come to me.
What changes do you want to make at your company?
More on tech:
Elon Musk (Part 1): Overcoming the Odds
Three Lessons on Business from Warren Buffett
Save Money on Stuff I Use:
This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.
More on Fundrise in this post.
If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!
I used this app every single day to dictate to my computer, I’m even dictating this text using Wispr Flow! It’s way better than Apple’s native dictation.
My productivity is up about 25% since I started dictating rather than typing. I’m also less tired and stressed.
Get a free month of Wispr Flow Pro here!
Tremendous 
Leave a comment