In both Tesla and SpaceX it's part of the culture that safety worries are elevated to very high levels very quickly. There was one guy (vet, nontechnical something or other) in SpaceX who was fired for abusing this, but what struck me most about the story was how he was in repeated contact with the technical person directly under Musk before he went directly to Musk himself. It seemed like that had all been fine, and he was only fired after refusing to let it go with Musk (plus IIRC he was basically out of his depth with the issue).
Musk is ultraproductive and works very closely with his employees. Tesla only has two factories; it's on a much more manageable scale than something like Toyota.
Right. That is what I am calling out. The fact that he will do this is ludicrous and certainly not anywhere near the best use of his time.
We are not talking about a small mom and pop or lean startup with limited resources.
> and then the management made sure these processes
The CEO of Toyota? Almost certainly not.
Undercover boss type things or spending a few hours in a call center or store or anywhere to get a seat of the pants feel for things? Sure.