Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X Holdings Corp., speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on May 6, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.
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Tesla Former board member Steve Westley said Thursday that the company could use more of the distraction of high-profile CEO Musk at a critical moment for the electric vehicle industry.
“For any CEO of any of the top companies in the world, you need to be fully focused on what you’re doing. It seems like Mr. Musk is focused on too much right now,” Westley told the annual People of the Year conference. told CNBC.
Westley said Musk’s waning focus is part of the reason Tesla lags behind its “Big Seven” peers, noting that Musk would be wise to follow the leadership example of tech darlings Nvidia.
“If you look at someone like Jensen Huang — who is arguably the greatest CEO in the world right now, consistently delivering great results — focus is key. Tesla could use that more,” Weiss said. said Turley, a managing director at Tesla.
He added that the recent saga surrounding employee layoffs and Musk’s pay added to the growing disruption faced by the serial entrepreneur, and that recent revenue that fell short of expectations suggested the company had “lost ground.”
However, Westley said the extent of Musk’s responsibility for Tesla “will be determined by the board of directors.”
Still, he said Tesla has the ability to launch new products in an increasingly competitive market, noting that a newly announced low-cost Tesla model priced at $25,000 could be available in early 2025.
“Don’t bet against this guy (Musk), he has a pretty good track record,” Westley said.
CNBC has reached out to Tesla for comment.
Tesla disappointed investors last month with its biggest quarterly revenue drop since 2012, adding to the negative news after it announced it would cut more than 10% of its workforce.
Meanwhile, Musk’s concurrent commitments to multiple other ventures, including SpaceX, X, Neuralink and The Boring Company, have sparked debate about the entrepreneur’s worth. Tesla received generous compensation of $56 billion.
Tesla’s slowdown comes at a critical time for the electric vehicle industry as competition intensifies and a trade dispute between Washington and Beijing over Chinese subsidies intensifies. Last week, U.S. President Biden imposed a new 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles starting this year. He said the move was to prevent China from “dumping” cheap products into the market.
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