Useless meeting? Just walk out

South African-born technology entrepeneur Elon Musk made his fortune inventing online payment systems. He's now doing his best to spend it by inventing very fast means of transport, but that doesn't mean he has lost his business acumen. Far from it, if a leaked memo to employees of his Tesla electric car venture is any guide. 

Tesla makes very good cars but is famously bad at making them profitable: last year it reported a net loss of $2.24bn. Even in Palo Alto investors cannot sustain this indefinitely, so Musk - who also has a privately held rocket launching venture, SpaceX, to burn a hole in his pocket - is now focusing on the bottom line. His memo offers 'a few productivity recommendations' which will cause cheers in many large organisations. 

Some of his ideas may struggle to gain acceptance in the tech industry, in particular his attack on 'acronyms or nonsense words'. But his observations on how information should flow in a corporate environment are sound. 'Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the "chain of command". Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.'

But the real breath of fresh air is his approach to meetings. 'Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time,' Musk says. 'Please get rid of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.'

And for anyone stuck in a non-productive meeting? Walk out, or drop out of a call as soon as it is obvious you are not adding value. 'It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.'

Sounds like excellent advice. To which I would add: do not provide seats in meetings. It is amazing how more focused they become when attendees parade in a school circle rather than bury their heads in laptops. Oh, and abolish conference calls. Entirely. 

Musk sums up: 'In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a “company rule” is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change.'

Alas he signs off with a line that could come straight from his favourite cartoon: 'Thanks for being such a kickass team and accomplishing miracles every day. It matters. We are burning the midnight oil to burn the midnight oil.' But apart from that, I know where I'd be sending my CV - if I knew anything about kickass ways of getting from A to B.