The high-profile CEO mishaps of ’23
Another year, another endless news cycle driven by the world’s top corporate executives, with moments ranging from cringe-worthy to downright bizarre.
While some chief executives seemed to relish the spotlight, Elon Musk chief among them, others were inadvertently thrust into social media’s harsh glare.
Here are some of the most high-profile management misadventures:
The Muskiest moment
Of all the jaw-dropping Elon Musk moments this year, the pinnacle came on stage at the New York Times DealBook Summit when he told advertisers that have stopped spending on X, formerly known as Twitter, to go “f-” themselves. Many companies distanced themselves after Musk endorsed an antisemitic post in November.
Still, if advertisers leave X, the platform’s failure will be their fault, not his, Musk said, calling their retreat a form of blackmail.
Billionaire cage match bluff
In June, Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to what perhaps passes for a duel in 2023, posting on X: "I’m up for a cage match if he is lol." The peculiar invitation came shortly after news surfaced that Meta Platforms Inc. was set to release Threads as a competitor to X.
Zuckerberg, who practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, readily agreed. Musk advertised a showdown in Vegas in August, and then started a rumor it might actually be staged in the Colosseum in Rome, which Italy’s culture minister promptly debunked. But Musk began making excuses as the summer weeks slid by, saying he might need surgery for his neck/back/shoulder. Zuckerberg eventually called his bluff, saying it was "time to move on."
OpenAI’s about-face
The abrupt firing and rehiring of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman by the board played out over the course of a long weekend. The whole thing was pretty bizarre, with some of the drama unfolding on social media. Between angry investors and employees, virtually all of whom threatened to quit, the board beat a hasty retreat.
As rumors swirled that he might return, Altman posted a photo of himself at the San Francisco office wearing a guest badge: “first and last time i ever wear one of these.” In an especially strange twist, one of the ouster’s leaders, OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, later recanted and pledged to “do everything” he could to reunite the company.
The view from Acapulco
When Stellantis and UAW leadership met in August, Mark Stewart, the company’s chief operating officer for North America wasn’t physically present — he Zoomed in from Acapulco, Mexico, where he has a second home. That didn’t go over well with workers who resented the executive’s calls for employees to temper bargaining demands in the name of economic realism.
The UAW’s deft new communications team — which includes veterans of Senator Bernie Sanders’ runs for the Democratic nomination for president — seized on the faux pas. Pro-union social media accounts later spread footage and photos of a sunglasses-wearing Stewart smiling by the beach. He made it to the next meeting in person.
Management’s massage time
In October, Tony Fernandes, cofounder of AirAsia and a top executive there, went to LinkedIn to post a picture of himself, shirtless, getting a massage while sitting at a conference room table. “Got to love Indonesia and AirAsia culture that I can have a massage and do a management meeting,” he wrote. Online followers quickly spoke out, with some commentators calling it inappropriate for an executive to indulge in bare-chested personal care while also purportedly running the company. One person said she didn’t think women at his company “would be comfortable or safe in this context, and given you’re the boss, they likely won’t challenge you or say anything.”
Fernandes said he’d just endured an 18-hour flight and was in pain, and that the massage was a spontaneous suggestion by somebody in the Indonesia operation. He deleted the post while apologizing: "I didn’t mean to offend anyone."
The flight must go on
United Airlines canceled 751 flights on one day in June — more than any other airline — and its hub airport in Denver was among the hardest hit. But chief executive Scott Kirby was able to bypass the congestion by taking a private jet to Denver from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey that day, prompting an apology.
"Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home," Kirby said in a statement. "I sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around-the-clock for several days — often through severe weather — to take care of our customers."