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Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

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Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#331

Post by kentm »

gfody wrote: post #236
arkis22 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A little more context from the WSJ article ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/teslas-elon-musk-turns-conferen... ) >“We’re going to go to YouTube, sorry. These questions are so dry. They’re killing me.” He directed the operator to take questions from Tesla investor Galileo Russell, whose HyperChange TV YouTube channel features a video titled, “Why I Bought Tesla Today at $255/Share.” >Mr. Russell, who had campaigned to g…

In the grand scheme of things figuring out how to make model3's faster than they can sell them is a boring problem for Musk and I could imagine how frustrating it must be to have all the banks freaking out as if they're going to miss a fleeting opportunity to sell a bunch of cars. It's like when Nikola Tesla was trying to build worldwide wireless telegraphy but J.P. Morgan just wanted him to make fluorescent lights.…

Whether a problem is interesting is orthogonal to whether its important. This is an earnings call and scaling up production is actually an important issue to address for the company's long-term viability.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#332

Post by nostrademons »

petra wrote: post #322
nostrademons wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO role is Chief Ivory Tower Visionary. As CEO, your #1 job is to set the vision and strategy for the company, and your #2 is to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off, which is dramatically easier with a strong vision. He does desperately need a good COO though to make sure Tesla can actually deliver on its promises.

Is it really ideal doing things this way ? Or is it just part of an ego trip, and deciding on such complex things as vision an strategy for a company are better done in a collaborative fashion, maybe with the CEO as the final arbitrer ? And how much of that image of a all knowing visionary CEO is just a manufactured image ?

It's pretty difficult to generate a coherent vision by committee - you usually end up with something that nobody finds compelling, not even the people who collaborated on it.

And of course the image of an all-knowing visionary CEO is a manufactured image! It's not like people can actually predict the future. Rather, it's selection bias at work. Those CEOs whose vision doesn't resonate end up getting replaced, or their company goes bankrupt, and then they get written out of the history books. The thing is, you need to have a vision to get people excited and actually rowing in the same direction (nevermind the right direction), so without that you're dead in the water anyway.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#333

Post by drcharris »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #250
ryandrake wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these shareholders he’s talking to, or investment bank analysts trying to get the CEO to fill in their spreadsheets for them? I guess I’d be a bad CEO but I don’t get why an “investor” call should be about the company showing respect, bowing down and kissing Wall Street’s ring.

There is a difference between asking straightforward financial questions from his shareholders with grace and tact and "bowing down and kissing Wall Street’s ring" Yes his shareholders, you know the people that were specificly invited to this call, own the company and that he has to directly answer to, by law. Instead musk decided to childishly deflect.

On this specific point, he refused to answer two questions from (Wall St) analysts, and instead got questions from a (retail) shareholder. That would seem to be the right priority, even though his attitude was wrong.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#334

Post by nostrademons »

wrinkl3 wrote: post #330
nostrademons wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's probably planning to ICO. Worked for Telegram, and taking questions from YouTube is a great first step toward raising billions in cryptocurrency. Also, recent events have proved that pissing off the entire financial community so much that they refuse to lend you money because you always lose it is no barrier to becoming President of the USA - and, in fact, can help, because the entire electorate hates the financ…

This comment began with a questionable proposition and then just kept going downhill.

No kidding.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#335

Post by Avshalom »

jek3939 wrote: post #324
Avshalom wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all that Musk is credited with versus what he actually invented he is not Tesla, he's Edison with worse business sense.

He’s building things other places won’t touch because of the economics Everyone wants to sit and cross t’s and dot i’s because they are trained those matter more than net new If those are the only conversations you have, only doing things you’re sure will be comfortable the economy and society stagnate Economics are not the law of the land or reality. They’re a control mechanism for our output as a thinking, feeling,…

Literally every industry he's involved in has competitors several of which pre-date his entrance in each.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#336

Post by whoisjuan »

aresant wrote: post #172

Not that it's going to happen. But Apple is sitting on ~$270b of cash (1). And is run by a guy in Tim Cook that is a world class operator and fulfillment guy. And who has been criticized for lacking vision :) We can dream right? (1) https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/01/apple-q2-2018-earnings-heres...

At a market cap of 50bn, assuming they would pay a premium price of let's say 70bn, it's a completely pointless transaction. It's too much money that they could deploy more strategically into other verticals with less risk.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#337

Post by FireBeyond »

pm90 wrote: post #289
pvg wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attracting the right kind of investors is more important to him than attracting all the investors. That seems a bit counter to the purpose of an open public market.

Is it really though? An open public market just means that anyone can purchase the stock; not that just anyone should .

The open public market means that the market decides who can purchase the stock, and that it's not the sellers place to decide who _should_ purchase the stock.

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#339

Post by supergirl »

mephitix wrote: post #5

I was on this call. It was extremely cringey/embarrassing to hear Elon dismiss valid questions. At the same time, it was fantastic to see a young, smart, retail investor (Gali from Hyperchange) get to ask so many questions directly to the leadership team. I thought before the call that Gali would get to ask only one question, like the other analysts. He was able to ask almost 10! It was surreal. I was left feeling th…

musk is cringey in general

Re: Tesla Plunges After a Conference Call

#340

Post by throwaway84742 »

xkjkls wrote: post #279
throwaway84742 wrote: post #180

Meh. I say, fuck the “analysts”. The dude is on fire. He can afford it. This is as close to the second coming of Steve Jobs as we’re going to get for quite some time. This is rock n roll. I’m just enjoying the show over here: my TSLA position is relatively small.

Afford what exactly? To run a cash flow negative company for quarters on end?

Yes.
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