When the good guys behave badly

Monday, October 20, 2008 2:40:56 PM (Romance Standard Time, UTC+01:00)
Here at BestBrains we like innovative companies, and especially we like those that use innovation to solve on of the big problems of this era - Global Warming.

Tesla Motors are one of those companies. They are producing the Tesla Roadster, a cool, all electric sportscar.

Unfortunately Tesla apparently can not demonstrate mature leadership that matches the coolness and innovation of their products. 

According to this blog post and this they apparently decided to close their Detroit office. That means that 90% of the staff there will be without a job.  Information about this was given in a blog-post and those that did not get the message went to work, just to find out that they were fired when logging on to their computers.

One can only hope that management will be able to restore trust and morale in the remaining staff - or we will may seen just another good company destroyed by poor management.


By Bent Jensen
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 10:08:57 PM (Romance Standard Time, UTC+01:00)
Hi Bent,

Interesting story. One can only speculate about the reasons for the kind of communication chosen by the management. The message to the rest of the staff seems to be -- you can't trust us!

One could argue that very sudden financial problems could force management to such short-term-thinking behavior, but I seriously doubt that these kind of problems ever really happen "over night". My point is that massive layoffs can be foreseen, and the best management strategy in my opinion, is to be open and honest about the situation.

If you fail to ensure continuous mutual trust between management and staff, you are going to have a troubled business :-)

Just my two cents,

Sune
Sune Gynthersen
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:43:04 AM (Romance Standard Time, UTC+01:00)
Yes - Trust is built slowly, but can be destroyed overnight. And if employees does not trust management, or the company they are working for, they are less likely to do their very best, which I believe is what a company like Tesla badly needs.
Bent Jensen
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