The world doesn’t need Tesla CEO Musk anymore
I hope this is the last time I have to write about Elon Musk. I really do.
I am truly tired of him: the spurious financial fantasies (you know, like the one that got him into this mess), the false accusations of innocents (you know, as in publicly calling someone a pedophile without a scintilla of evidence), and the derision of all other car companies. Then there’s his hubris to think he is the only person who can save the planet and, well, the encouragement of a cult deeming him the only person who can save the planet.
Most of all, though, I am absolutely sick and tired of the hubris he so obviously holds dear that genius — and no one is denying he’s a smart dude — forgives the plainly asinine behaviour that he ladles on employees, reporters and, well, cave divers in Thailand who dare call out his publicity stunts. He is a boor, and no amount of carbon reduction, no escalation of stock price nor any of the “disruption” the auto industry so needs is worth the crap he thrusts upon us.
And the plain fact of the matter is that we don’t need him anymore. Oh, Tesla certainly does — Barclays recently estimated that roughly half of TSLA’s current stock price is a result of the “Musk premium” — but the planet, the auto industry and even EV development no longer do. Up until two years ago, perhaps even one, you could make the argument that Musk was essential to the greening of the auto industry. But now? Not so much; the march toward automotive emissions reduction and electrification is inexorable. Heck, Tesla doesn’t even build the best luxury EV anymore.
The problem is that, like a certain 45th president, Musk can’t resist the lure of the spotlight, his narcissism so profound that he has come to believe that what is good for Elon Musk is good for his company. Indeed, the only part of this story that is even remotely interesting to me is not that both Musk and Tesla were fined a combined US$40 million with him banned from being chairman of Tesla for three years (not to mention having his communications, i.e., his tweets, vetted by a lawyer), but that his delusional sense of self-importance saw him turn down an SEC proffered deal of just $20 million and two years banishment just two days before. Those wondering if it’s possible to be more egocentric than The Donald only need follow Mr. Musk.
OK, I got that off my chest. But, the editor asked for a column predicting who will be able to tame the errant CEO, and he does sign the cheques. So, against my wishes, here goes:
The smart money or, at least, the smart money’s wish, is either someone from within the company — say Tesla’s president of automotive affairs, Jerome Guillen — or someone from Silicon Valley, such as Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg. Both are highly competent but, I suspect, lack the requisite tools for the specific task at hand.
What Tesla’s board — which, by the way, has also been mandated to appoint two new independent members — needs is a minder, not an enabler and methinks Guillen is in no position to rein in Musk. As for Sandberg, she too is a Musk confidant (he entreated her previously to join the company) and has the added deficit of having no automotive knowledge.
The same applies to other insiders (Tesla chief technical officer JB Straubel or vice-president Peter Hoch Holdinger), Silicon Valley execs or even, as Gene Munster, a managing partner at Loup Ventures and longtime Tesla bull, suggests, Al Gore. My Lord, talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
More rational voices suggest someone from the automotive industry would be better (but not, please God, the Ken doll that walks like a man, former Ford CEO, Mark Fields, as the Telegraph suggests). Ford’s previous CEO, Alan Mulally, might make an excellent steward.
Autovision magazine columnist, Jeremy Cato, credited the energetic Mulally with “an infectious enthusiasm for problem solving and an air of joyous curiosity, even as the walls of woe were closing in.” But he’s likely too smart to take the job. Sergio Marchionne, were he still alive, might have made a great shepherd, but he’d probably insist on buying Tesla. Dan Akerson, formerly of General Motors, would also make a fine marshal, but he’d fire Musk in a heartbeat so that’s probably a no go.
Choices thus limited, so I am going to suggest a name right out of left field: Bob Lutz.
Yes, I know he’s old. But for all those naysayers objecting to any Musk minder, Lutz’s age — 86 — means the position is guaranteed to be temporary. Furthermore, he is a proponent of electrification, has a breathtaking range of knowledge of all things automotive, and would lend Tesla’s board an industry respect that lesser lights could simply not command. Lutz is easily Musk’s intellectual equal — actually, he may be a few points higher on the old Mensa scale — and, most importantly, as anyone has followed the industry these past 40 years can attest, he has the requisite, let’s call it personality, to stand up to Musk’s legendary tantrums.
What a titanic battle of wills that would be. Indeed, on a purely personal note, the Musk/Lutz conflagrations that would surely ensue might be the only thing that might make this story worth covering anymore.
The problem is that, like a certain 45th president, Musk can’t resist the lure of the spotlight.