Essay Sample on Elon Musk and Tesla

Introduction

Elon Musk, an engineer and technology entrepreneur, was born on 28th June 1971. He has three country citizenship of South Africa, USA, and Canada. He is CEO and founder of the SpaceX Company and the Boring company, co-founder and architect of Tesla Inc. and also the co-founder of PayPal. Mr. Musk is ranked 21st most influential person and 54th most affluent in the world by Forbes as of October 2018 having the net worth of 22.8 billion dollars. He is a degree holder in economics and physics too. His vision is to curb global warming by production and consumption of sustainable green energy.

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Being the co-founder of Tesla Inc., which is the manufacturer of electric vehicles, Mr. Musk is the chief executive of Tesla Inc. His leadership has brought success in the company with substantial profit returns yearly. Despite the difficulties faced by the company in production and deliveries, Mr. Musk led the company raise its output to more than 4000 cars per week in the second half of 2018 and hired three trucking companies to speed up delivery. By the end of 2018, the company had sold 245,240 cars which were 100,000 more than the previous year's sale. This attracted more investors to the company. Indeed, he is firmly bonded with the company.

Mr. Musk's endurance and perseverance are the key success of the growth of the Tesla Company. He believes in the company's success when people see its downfall. Once he was quoted saying the toughest time of the company is far behind it. The chief executive focuses on customer service improvement in the world to maintain its market and enjoy reduced competition in the automotive industry.

Although possessing excellent leadership skills, Mr. Musk's behavior brought an impact on the company. Once, he appeared on the camera smoking marijuana. Though California law considers it legal, it is illegal in federal law. This incident brought concerns and critics among people, questioning his behaviour and leadership stability of the company after separately chief accounting officer, Dave Morton resigned. The event caused Tesla's stoke price to fall by 6.3%.

After the retirement of Tesla's chief finance officer, Deepak Ahuja, Mr. Musk surprisingly picked his unknown relative, Zach Kirkhorn succeed the vacant post. Though Zach was most qualified for the position, the appointment brought a negative impact on the company. The company's shares dropped by 5% due to the appointment. The company did not make Zach available for an interview.

Once, Elon Musk's tweet about the Tesla Company brought chaos and misunderstanding among its investors. His tweet was considered misleading investors that he intended to buy out the Tesla Company to make it private. Having a 19% stake of the company, he planned to buy shares worth 10 million dollars. That caused the Security Exchange Commission (S.E.C) to sue him in federal court. However, they reached a deal that left the chief executive out of his chairman post in the company's board for the next three years and a fine of 20 million dollars.

The agreement also allowed him to remain as chief executive officer. The tweet went viral leaving the public confused on the future of the company previously having a series of hiccups after struggling to meet production goals of its new car model. It would have caused him pushed out of leadership role in Tesla Company and hindering SpaceX and the Boring companies from going public with him as their executive officer. The atmosphere created by the tweet saw the company's stoke drop by almost 14%. This forced S.E.C to appoint two independent directors to monitor Mr. Musk's communication with the investors. The commission was trying to force corporate governance in the company, an issue Mr. Musk was not happy with it. The stepping down as chairman of the board tasked the board to decide who should replace him as the case on his allegations proceeded.

However, after controversial allegations surrounded Mr. Musk's tweet on the company, he proceeded on buying shares of the Tesla company worthy 10 million dollars and committed himself buying other shares worth 20 million dollars on future.

Tesla Company finally appointed Robyn Denholm new chairman of the board as a replacement of chief executive, Elon Musk for six months period notice. The appointment caused a rise of 0.9% in Tesla shares. Denholm was named a good choice for the company due to her vast experience in the automotive industry having worked with Toyota motor corp. In Australia. She was regarded as smart, practical, good listener and hardworking to fit the post. The appointment was supposed to revive the broken trust and confidence of the investors to the company after what appeared to be the downfall following Mr. Musk's tweet.

The company investors were unclear if stripping off Mr. Musk's chairman role will change his behaviour. The truth is, he continued mocking S.E.C and allegedly tweeting he had deleted his titles for Tesla. The company's board was heavily criticized with a lack of independence by some investors since some of the directors had a close personal or business relationship with Mr. Elon Musk. Taking account of his brother, Kimbal Musk was one of the board members.

Despite Elon Musk having differences with S.E.C, his tweeting habits, and questionable behaviours, he is considered the backbone of the Tesla Company. In either way, the company will need him for its survival. His entrepreneurial skills and professionalism have sailed Tesla Company to its massive success in the competitive automotive industry.