From a former President of Tesla comes The
Algorithm—the first book written by any of Elon Musk’s direct reports—a
transformative guide for leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to
emulate the paradigm-shattering approach Musk used to launch Tesla and SpaceX
to meteoric success.
Jonathan McNeill had already founded and sold six startups when Sheryl Sandberg
introduced him to Elon Musk, who was looking for help at Tesla. McNeill was
steeped in the lean principles that had made Toyota a global
powerhouse—principles focused on achieving efficiency and optimization by
incrementally improving existing systems and processes. What he learned from
Elon at Tesla was its antithesis, an approach that required radical rethinking
to explode the status quo, attack complexity, and set seemingly unrealistic
goals. Elon called this five-step framework “The Algorithm.”
- Question
every requirement.
- Delete
every possible step in the process.
- Simplify
and optimize.
- Accelerate
cycle time.
- Automate.
In this book, McNeill details this tremendously powerful set
of tools, which brought Tesla from a production crisis that threatened to
derail it to a period of hypergrowth. During his tenure, revenue boomed from
$2B to $20B in just 30 months. Since his departure from Tesla, McNeill has used
The Algorithm in every enterprise he has worked with to supercharge speed,
efficiency, innovation, and growth. Featuring case studies from Tesla and
SpaceX, as well as from Lululemon, GM, and companies of various sizes across
industries, he reveals how any business can do the same and achieve the
unimaginable.
About the Author
Jon McNeill is the cofounder and CEO of venture
capital firm DVx Ventures. A serial entrepreneur and business leader with a
proven track record of boosting revenue and scaling companies, he served as the
president of Tesla, Inc., and the COO of Lyft.
McNeill currently holds positions on the board of directors
of General Motors, CrossFit, and Lululemon, among others.
A sought-after speaker, he is a frequent contributor to CNBC
and is regularly quoted in business publications such as Fortune, Semafor,
and TechCrunch.
