Elon Musk Tries To Manage Twitter Like Tesla – Big Mistake

Elon Musk is trying to manage Twitter the same way he manages Tesla. It's a big mistake, as they are different companies requiring different management styles.

Tesla is a manufacturing company requiring a traditional management style based on close monitoring and control of work schedules and execution of standard tasks. Employees must be at their posts at the exact time and closely coordinate tasks with other employees and machines.

Twitter is a service company requiring a modern management style that releases the ingenuity and creativity of top talent. It focuses more on what employees deliver rather than on how they deliver. Moreover, unlike conventional talent, top talent is highly mobile. It will head for the exits and join the competition once the working environment becomes hostile, as seen on Twitter lately.

"The management style it takes to run a tech firm successfully is vastly different from other types of companies," Art Shaikh, Founder, and CEO at CircleIt told International Business Times in an email. "While efficiency is critical in every industry, and perhaps even more so in tech, the path to creating that efficiency is different. Allowing the team to ideate, recharge, and work in a relaxed environment is essential to growth. Unfortunately, what Musk is doing makes Twitter a less desirable place for top talent, which will only accelerate the growth of competitors like Mastodon."

Musk's experimentation with Twitter's management style reminds that of former Apple executive Ron Johnson's experimentation with JC Penney's marketing style a decade ago, which ended badly for the iconic retailer.

Still, Shaikh thinks that Musk's recent "loyalty pledge" he demanded of his team is one move that hints that he is attempting to manage Twitter differently.

But can he do it? Anat Alon-Beck, LLM, SJD, business law professor at Case Western Reserve University, doesn't think so.

"Elon Musk himself just admitted during his trial that he is not fit to be a manager—of Twitter or even of Tesla," she told IBT. "He says he is an engineer, not a manager. It shows. Twitter is a completely different beast than Tesla. Musk initially helped Tesla develop its brand. Now he is ruining it. He is also driving Twitter to the ground, even recently ominously tweeting a picture of a tomb."

Professor Alon-Beck thinks that Musk is different from the transformational leader that the social media pioneer desperately needs now.

"A social media leader needs to focus on satisfying quotas on a day-to-day basis, to go beyond the regular day-to-day, and spend the time necessary to create a solid team of employees by promoting team building. Additionally, the leaders of social media companies tend to motivate their employees by setting goals, implementing incentives, and providing opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Musk doesn't fall into this category of leaders. "Tesla is a fancy car company. Twitter is an elite social media platform," she added.

Disclosure: The author has a short position on Tesla's shares