Harvard professor: Twitter's new owner is a 'case study of failed leadership' | Hacker News Reader

Harvard professor: Twitter's new owner is a 'case study of failed leadership'

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1 pointmandeepj7 comments

> George explained that although Musk "did a brilliant job in creating Tesla and he's done a lot of good things [at SpaceX] too," his transformation of Twitter is a "big mistake."

I think the conclusion that Twitter is a bad fit for Musk is true but not for the reasons this guy claims. This is the best analysis I've seen: https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-business-playbook-...

And, about the "good things" he did at these companies: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/

>a Harvard leadership expert

I can’t read the article but who’s that “leadership expert”? Aslo, success has nothing to do with leadership and what not, it’s mostly by luck, just like gambling but with a non rigged machine, or maybe rigged a little.

Headline conflates two sources referenced in the article.

The Harvard Leadership expert did not say that Twitter was "a case study of failed leadership."

That came from a Columbia professor.

This is fresh considering the source. Harvard or not, we are talking about criticism from people that have never actually been in the trenches of running a business or leading under fire. I'm reminded of the Shaw quote “Those who can, do; those who can’t teach”

Just at a quick glance, I see a couple really obvious examples that show Musk's leadership effectiveness. Seeing as the Elon Musk "Twitter Chapter" of the book is barely off the first page, it seems ridiculous to draw definitive conclusions until we get to the end of the story.

> Harvard or not, we are talking about criticism from people that have never actually been in the trenches of running a business

Never heard of this guy making the criticisms before, but looking him up reveals that he's been the VP of Honeywell, President of Medtronic, and served on the board of directors for Target, Exxon, and Goldman Sachs before becoming an executive fellow at Harvard. Still no idea if any of his criticisms are valid, but I wouldn't brush him off as just an academic with no industry experience.

I was reacting to the criticisms coming from Professor Klepper from Columbia Business School, who had previously told Insider that Musk's Twitter takeover is "a case study of failed leadership."

In hindsight, your response exposes my failure to be clear.

I didn't clarify what i was reacting to, and by referencing "Harvard" i confused the reader about the target of my angst, when in actuality, the the headline of the post "a case study of failed leadership" was directing my focus.

In this particular case he is in close contact with the employees and day to day operations. His other companies shall we say are run a bit more indirectly. It is shaping up to be one of his more spectacular failures. By spectacular I mean expensive. Time will tell.

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