Tesla’s 2020 Annual Shareholders Meeting and Battery Day happened today and boy was it a fresh new approach on what it means to perform your fiduciary duty to shareholders. For starters, upon check in, every individual (or party) was assigned their own Tesla Model 3 or Model Y in order to ensure social distancing and safe viewing of the events that were to unfold. It was like a drive-in live concert without the cool music. What better way to demonstrate to your shareholders all the awesome work you are doing than actually giving them an live experience of your work as you simultaneously tell them about it. I call this the validation feedback loop – in real time.
After the boring stuff was taken care of, Elon Musk was introduced to a chorus of Model 3’s and Y’s honking their horns as a natural substitute to clapping for applause. It’s important to note that we were not told to honk before hand, we all just did it naturally. It’s like growing an extra limb to adapt to a new environment. Only this time, it only toll 9 months of a global pandemic. Honking is now the new clapping, thanks to Tesla.
Elon began by thanking all in attendance both virtually and in-person. He then began listing the recent achievements of Tesla and gave kudos to the fact that the Tesla’s Shanghai team took the Shanghai factory from a dirt pile to fully functioning factory in 15 months. Also Tesla is the only foreign company to fully own and operate a factory in Chain, an achievement that was not lost on all in attendance as demonstrated by another spontaneous chorus of honking.
Another point that got Teslas honking was when Elon mentioned that Tesla just had 4 consecutive quarters of GAAP profitability. GAAP is short for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. GAAP lays down a uniform set of rules and formats, along with guidelines for item measurement, presentation, disclosure and recognition. These are the minimum standards that companies need to include in their financial reports. GAAP reports are in-line with the requirements of state and federal agencies.
When it came to how Tesla stacks up to the competition and the industry in general, there is really no competition because while the rest of the industry has gone down, Tesla has gone up. That point provoked another spontaneous round of honking in appreciation. Furthermore, Tesla was able to deliver significant growth during one of the most (if not the most) challenging times the company has ever experienced in it’s history and mankind in the last century.
For more details of the above achievements and other updates, you can check out Tesla’s 10-K filing with the SEC which should be available in the coming days.
By the way if you like this post and you are in the market for a new Tesla, Tesla has an amazing referral program that offers you 1000 free supercharging miles if you use a referral code when you make your purchase. As a two-time Tesla owner, having owned a model S and model X, I can assure you that purchasing a Tesla will be the best automotive decision you’ve ever made and will ever make in your life. So why not make use of my referral code below and we can both continue to enjoy the wonderful Tesla life.
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