Social Media Embarrassment

Tesla’s stock dropped by 9% on Friday during a strange podcast where CEO Elon Musk smoked weed and whiskey, leading to two senior managers announcing their sudden exit from the firm. Over recent months, Musk is amid several buzzes, including concerns about if he had been using drugs — legally or illegally — and has been provided an answer by comic Joe Rogan on a Thursday night podcast (Castillo, 2018). Musk smoked as a mixture of weed and tobacco, as stated by Rogan. In recent weeks, this incident quickly added to the debate about the South African-born CEO’s actions and expressed doubts that Musk could have been using other drugs. In an emotional August interview a few weeks ago with The New York Times, the CEO said he worked more than 120 hours per week and admitted that colleagues were concerned about his fatigue (Lainie, 2019). The Times further cited sources saying most of Tesla’s senior executives were concerned about the sleeping Ambien use by Musk.

Whether Musk uses drugs, is tired, or struggles, in his words, during the “exhilarating” moment in life, his conduct provokes — and also seems to contribute to the Californian car company’s increasing lack of talent. Besides, two senior executives, including Gabrielle Toledano as Head of Human Resources and Dave Morton as Chief Accounting Officer, are about to follow Musk’s route.  Dave joined Tesla just a month ago – a day before Musk’s infamous tweet, which indicated that he had plans to convert the company into a private company, particularly shocking (Castillo, 2018). Most of his fans regarded Musk’s behavior to be irreverent. However, the auto manufacturer he helped found begins to bear his toll. The business has been unpredictable, but it has increased even higher after several recent tweets, jumping dramatically up or down. It came close to a record when Musk posted about Tesla going private and just weeks later, dropping by double digits. It took a further downturn this week when Musk renewed the assault on unworthy (Lainie, 2019). At the same time, their high return bonds were down to smaller. Fortunately, Tesla has a legacy of bouncing regularly, and indications this week show that shareholders are now being motivated by increased production at the production facility in Fremont, California, and by Musk’s recent announcement that three of Tesla’s product offerings became America’s best-selling vehicles last month (Lainie, 2019). This gives the CEO confidence to many shareholders: his assurance of profits after years of serious losses for the second quarter of 2019. However, such figures are not yet settled down. Black Rock funds approved a recent resolution from the investor, forcing the car company to name an unbiased chairperson (Castillo, 2018).

References

Castillo, M. (2018). Elon Musk may have violated Tesla’s business conduct policy by smoking weed. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/07/elon-musk-may-have-violated-tesla-conduct-policy-by-smoking-weed.html

Lainie, P. (2019). Role of social media in organizations. Small Business – Chron.com. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-social-media-organizations-30678.html