Elon Musk Does it Again with Another Collaboration

Many thought Elon Musk of Tesla was crazy when he released all the patents to his Tesla electric car a few months back. Why would someone release such trade secrets and encourage his competition to copy his innovation? Perhaps his latest collaboration tells us why. Tesla just announced it will be working with Panasonic to create the largest battery manufacturing plant called “Gigafactory” By sharing with the world his innovative secrets on the electric car, when new manufacturers enter the fold they will need to buy their batteries from someone. Who better than the man who told them how to build the car? Musk stands to win big when other companies start building more electric vehicles and need batteries for those cars. Not only will he still be the man who revolutionized the electric car, making his Tesla a premium ‘get’, but he will also benefit from every car sold that modeled his innovation, regardless of who manufactured it. We could all take a page from Elon Musk’s book of collaborative know how.