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| Tesla's Headquarters |
I recently visited Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto, California with my daughter and
came away truly inspired. Tesla’s
headquarters is located adjacent to the Stanford University campus in rolling
green hills just south of the linear accelerator and the venture capital lined
Sand Hill Road. I am lucky to know one
of Tesla’s elite engineers who was very gracious and gave my daughter and me a
superb insider tour.
Here are my top five lessons from the visit:
Dream Monumental
Dreams
Hire Amazing Talent
Stick to your Vision
Innovate and Execute
Create stellar products and have fun
Tesla is America at its best. It is a visionary company that is trying to
change the world with its electric vehicles and products. Their newest car, the Model S is not a leaf sized
lawn mower. It is a super charged sexy sports
car that makes you fell like you are in the Jetsons’ world when you drive
it. (More about that later)
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| The Model S from Tesla |
Tesla is a place of monumental dreams and superior talent
that is sticking to its vision of producing electric cars that are better than
their gasoline counterparts. They have
already achieved some of that dream by winning Motor Trend’s car of the year in
2013. (Reference) The company is also working on a battery that
could serve as an axillary power supply for your home and perhaps even support the entire electrical
grid. (Reference)
The people I saw working there have an infectious sense of
purpose that is missing in my world of biomedical research and medicine. They work together without walls or even
cubicles. This promotes a sense of a
united mission. Those of us who work in
research and healthcare are too often siloed in our specific specialities. We almost never cross over and discuss our
problems with colleagues outside of our world.
We need to emulate companies such as Tesla. Their way of executing in the electric car business
could lead to breakthroughs in medicine that could be transformative. I also think Nicola Tesla would be very proud
of how his name is being used.
And by the way, I had a chance to test drive a Model S Tesla
at the end of my visit. It was like a magnetic
bullet train on wheels. I punched the
accelerator and it felt like we were taking off for Mars. #Awesome
