For better or worse, jerky CEOs are the ones who change the world

According to Forbes Magazine, Elon Musk, CEO of the electric car manufacturer Tesla, is the world's richest man with a net worth of over $250 billion. Tesla itself is the world's eighth-most valuable company.

A recent 688-page biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson hit No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. In her review of the book, Harvard historian Jill Lepore writes, "The book upholds a core conviction of many executives: sometimes to get (things) done you have to be a (jerk)." She goes on to call out Musk's "pettiness, arrogance, and swaggering viciousness."

There's little doubt about Musk being a jerk. In the book, Isaacson reports, "(Musk) didn't have the emotional receptors that produce everyday kindness and warmth and a desire to be liked." There's a joke that went around Silicon Valley comparing Musk to the sun: The closer you get, the more you get burned. His subordinates have fallen like redwoods in a clear-cutting operation. In a nine-month period, 44% of his direct reports left compared to a 9% average at peer companies. He called a British diver who helped in the 2018 rescue of Thai schoolboys from a cave a "pedo" - slang for a pedophile. I don't know him, but he sure doesn't sound like a nice fellow.

In my time in Silicon Valley, I did cross paths with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the subject of another hefty biography by Isaacson. How did Jobs treat his employees? Isaacson notes, "He could stun an unsuspecting victim with an emotional towel-snap, perfectly aimed." Silicon Valley historian Leslie Berlin wrote, "His management style was dismissive." No wonder, given his tendency to divide his subordinates into two categories: "insanely great people" and "crappy people." He also allegedly orchestrated an illegal conspiracy among tech companies to keep salaries down. He didn't think rules applied to him.

Apple is the world's most valuable company with a market cap approaching $3 trillion. No. 2 is Microsoft. Back in 2001, a federal court found that Microsoft, under the leadership of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, had violated U.S. antitrust laws.

Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, allowed its platform to be used by Russians in an attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election despite warnings. Earlier this year, he laid off over 10,000 employees from the company, now known as Meta Platforms and No. 7 on the list of the world's most valuable companies. Heidi K. Gardner, distinguished fellow at Harvard Law School, said using email to sack the employees with little or no warning implied Zuckerberg treated employees as "chess pieces that can be moved about and discarded at will."

Are Musk, Jobs, Gates and Zuckerberg, then, the heirs to the robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries? John D. Rockefeller was America's first billionaire. His Standard Oil crushed competitors and was broken up by the trustbusting President Teddy Roosevelt. Henry Ford owned the notoriously antisemitic The Dearborn Independent, disseminated at every Ford franchise in the country. The paper published front-page articles blaming the world's problems on "The International Jew." Andrew Carnegie founded Carnegie Steel, the pioneer in efficient steel production. In July 1892, the company hired Pinkerton detectives armed with rifles to break a union-led strike at a plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Twelve died in the confrontation.

The seven men (and they are all men) mentioned above were CEOs of startup companies that exploded in size and changed the world - by developing the oil, steel, auto, personal computer, handheld, social networking and electric vehicle industries. All seven started or joined their companies when they were young, ranging in age from 19 for Zuckerberg's founding of Facebook to age 39 for Ford starting his car company.

All were obsessed with oversized goals. For example, Musk's goal for Tesla is "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." In recruiting Pepsi president John Sculley to Apple, Jobs asked him, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?" Henry Ford's aim was "a car in every garage." In 2017, Facebook said its mission was "to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together."

Jessica Grose recently wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times entitled "C.E.O.s Don't Need to Be Monsters." She's right, of course - in general. However, she appears to be wrong for those few CEOs who can drive a startup into the top 10 in market cap while changing the world.

© Creators, 2023