In launching a seek for new chief government of Twitter, Elon Musk has not precisely made the job sound interesting. After a ballot of Twitter’s personal customers referred to as for the entrepreneur to step down as CEO, he tweeted that anybody “silly sufficient to take the job” will “have to like pain a lot”.
But it’s his personal rampage by means of Twitter within the eight weeks since he purchased it that has carried out a lot to account for the challenges his successor will face: a traumatised and shrunken workforce, defecting advertisers, polarised and indignant customers, and politicians and rivals scenting blood.
One Twitter co-investor and loyalist predicts that Musk’s savage cost-cutting will show to be a helpful shock to the system, clearing the way in which for a brand new firm tradition. But it surely has additionally left Twitter wounded and elevated the chance it’s going to battle with important capabilities, like sustaining its technical infrastructure.
The savage retrenchment will at the least go away the brand new CEO with a level of economic stability, if Musk is to be believed. He claimed this week that the swingeing job cuts will convey Twitter’s funds into steadiness once more, regardless of projected income of solely $3bn subsequent yr — 40 per cent beneath its final yr as a public firm. But it’s arduous to flee the conclusion that, in making an attempt to avoid wasting the village, he has come perilously near burning it to the bottom.
This may put the following CEO in a really totally different place to the leaders Musk has elevated at his different firms. These companies have been constructed from the bottom up round lofty missions that concerned grand engineering challenges akin to constructing electrical autos or area rockets.
That has outlined the archetypical Musk lieutenant: technically achieved, rising to the highest by means of an engineering-led organisation the place pace of motion is paramount. To all outdoors appearances, they’re intensely loyal and by no means more likely to problem the boss on the large points or steal an excessive amount of of the limelight. Typical of the breed is Gwynne Shotwell, an aerospace government who joined SpaceX in 2002, the yr Musk based it, and rose by means of the ranks to develop into president and chief working officer.
There are vital variations at Twitter. One is that Musk has stated he’s on the lookout for a CEO, a title he has saved for himself at Tesla and SpaceX. That means he desires at hand over extra duty for rebuilding the organisation, from staffing to repairing relations with advertisers — although he appears unlikely to cede all management over the corporate’s content material insurance policies.
Which may level to a CEO with social media expertise and a powerful enterprise report — one cause, maybe inevitably, that the title of former Fb quantity two Sheryl Sandberg has been extensively touted. However after bowing out of 1 extremely profitable social media profession on the prime, Sandberg appears an unlikely individual to join Musk’s Trumpian antics at Twitter.
Others who’re nearer to Musk’s mind-set — and who’ve already had a hand in his Twitter overhaul — embody David Sacks, who as soon as headed enterprise social community Yammer, and buyers Jason Calacanis and Sriram Krishnan.
But if Musk’s cause for purchasing Twitter was to defend freedom of speech and battle again in opposition to “woke” tradition, he has additionally toyed with an engineering problem that would makes Twitter extra just like his different firms. Musk has mused about making an attempt to show it into an “every thing app”, one thing that may fulfil lots of its customers’ each day wants in a single place.
Including funds is a primary step — a cause that hypothesis has fallen on executives together with Sarah Friar, head of social app Nextdoor and a former chief monetary officer at Jack Dorsey’s funds firm, Bloc; or David Marcus, a former PayPal government who at one level headed Fb’s cryptocurrency. Neither, nevertheless, has the sturdy engineering background that may make them apparent match for certainly one of Musk’s firms.
One one that may match the invoice, according to development inventory investor Cathie Wooden, is Bret Taylor, the previous Twitter chair who not too long ago stepped down as co-CEO of Salesforce and has held key jobs prior to now at Google and Fb. His regular and unflappable manner may also current a steadiness to the hot-headed Musk.
Whether or not he — or some other potential candidate — would wish to throw their lot in with the mercurial Musk is not possible to foretell. However with certainly one of Silicon Valley’s most outstanding jobs up for grabs, there’s more likely to be no scarcity of keen candidates.
