It isn’t often that a company is exclusively represented by a single person. Many big brands actually make sure not to be represented by an individual and as such they can keep their unanimous success behind closed doors.
There are other companies that haven’t been able or willing to do so. Companies that have grown as a result of their famous founders, and that get investors because of the leader of the company.
Apple with Steve Jobs paints a similar picture. Jobs was an incredibly visionary that would push his employees perhaps farther than they would like to be pushed. Jobs was known for being at times tough on his employees and would only accept the best that they could give him.
Even years after Steve Jobs has passed away, the thought of Apple and Steve Jobs are closely linked. With Elon Musk, Tesla’s famous founder and CEO it seems that it is the same way.
It is hard to not talk about Tesla without talking about Elon Musk. Elon is known for his unstoppable drive to make the change he sees in his head a reality.
Elon’s success throughout his professional career has not come without spurts of controversy. He was recently sued by the SEC and lost over a tweet he sent out to the world commenting on the fact that he had “secured funding” and playing with the possibility of his involvement with the manipulation of Tesla stock market price.
Investors at times can be frustrated by Elon’s decisions and missteps. He was also seen on Joe Rogan’s podcast smoking marihuana which also drove the price of the Tesla stock down significantly.
There are few famous CEOs and founders that have as much notoriety as Elon, and that is for good reason. The position of CEO and founder of a famous and upcoming company like Tesla is highly scrutinised.
Many investors will critic the decisions of the CEO as they will easily assume that the behaviour of such an outgoing founder will likely represent the future and prosperity of the company they represent.
Now is this correct? Perhaps, but perhaps not. It is true that at the end of the day Elon Musk is just another human like the rest of us. But knowing that in the past a set of actions you have taken has caused a negative effect on the market price of your public company should at least show some type of learning curve from the founder.
Unfortunately, Musk recently had another misstep on twitter. He recently had a variety of sequential tweets where he was expressing certain disdain for the US government's decision to keep people in lockdown for the COVID-19 outbreak.
Later on Musk commented on the Tesla stock price and said that he thought it was “too high, in his opinion”.
This can also be seen as him trying to interfere with the natural progression and growth of the Tesla stock in the public markets. Lowering the price for his benefit, for him to buy more and reap the growth later on.
Should someone who has such an important role in what can be one of the most rapidly growing companies in 2020 be so open about their opinions?
We will all have our own answers for that question, all we hope is that Elon doesn’t permanently damage the Tesla image and as such the impact that Tesla is causing in the world. It would be best if Elon kept those thoughts to himself at times.