Elon Musk ran a great show in California: “At a much-anticipated event in Los Angeles, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stepped onto the Warner Bros. stage to introduce a future many have dreamt of but few thought achievable any time soon: a world where cars drive themselves, where steering wheels are relics of the past, and where the hustle of daily commuting is replaced by peaceful, autonomous journeys.”
But investors did not believe the show and Tesla stock is down about 8% as I write. When your vision is so gigantic that you lose your followers, do not be troubled. Average companies focus on the needs of customers. Decent companies serve them at the level of expectations. But category-defining companies serve the perceptions of customers. But most times, those customers do not even believe until the full products have been cooked and baked for them.
Yes, when the product becomes a reality, those customers evolve from being just customers to FANS. Verizon, a US telecom company, rejected the Apple iPhone, but Steve Jobs went ahead and changed history.
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What Musk presented may not be evident until customers start experiencing these products. As I wrote in Harvard Business Review on a piece titled “Mastering the Apple Game of Customer Perception” (here ), Elon Musk is leading the world into a new tech-tribal age, and he is likely going to succeed.
Elon Musk Unveils Tesla’s New Robotaxi, Cybercab, And Robovan, Operated by AI
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