Elon Musk's 'bad behaviour' is impacting Tesla

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has been at the centre of several public controversies that have resulted in the tech company's stock price falling. Professor André Spicer comments on why a billion-dollar CEO would put his company and his reputation at risk.

Professor André Spicer said:

"Elon Musk's recent antics and their impact on share price remind us of a basic lesson in business: hubris is costly. Musk shows all the signs of executive hubris - excessive belief in his own special abilities, extreme levels of pride in his own achievements, and the sense that normal rules don't apply to him.

Musk shows all the signs of executive hubris - excessive belief in his own special abilities, extreme levels of pride in his own achievements, and the sense that normal rules don't apply to him.

"Musk has routinely undertaken extremely risky courses of behaviour, behaved in bizarre and antisocial ways, and often ignored the advice of others who he sees as beneath him.

"Initially, Musk had been rewarded for this behaviour - through huge investments in his companies and many seeing him as some kind of tech demigod. But the downsides of this hubris are beginning to show.

"Recently, Musk has been advocating his employees should work extremely long hours and even sleep at work if needed. Musk's obsession with the unique and special nature of his work reminds us of Bertrand Russell's warning: ‘One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.’"