Tesla CEO Elon Musk interviewed by CNBC on May 16, 2023.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Elon Musk, who bought Twitter late last year for $44 billion, added to his portfolio by naming himself CEO.Although he recently announced a successor to the position, the position currently remains in his hands and he remains the tesla and SpaceX.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, he talked about trying to manage his schedule. CEO Council Summit.
“As you can imagine, my days are very long and complicated,” Musk said. “And there’s a lot of context switching,” he said, emphasizing that “context switching is a pain.”
Musk said he usually tries to divide his schedule, “so the day is mostly company.”
But this is not always possible. This Tuesday is “Tesla Day,” he said, but he “could end up late tonight on Twitter, and then tomorrow will be part Tesla Day, half Twitter, and then Thursday will be half SpaceX, half Twitter.” -Tesla Day.”
He described his work as “somewhat intertwined” and said “time management was extremely difficult”.
Complexity was bad for his investment. Tesla’s stock price more than halved in the two months after the Twitter deal closed last year amid concerns that Musk would have little more time to focus on the electric car maker, even as competition in the market intensifies.Meanwhile, advertisers have fled or temporarily halted their Twitter campaigns, and in March Musk lower down The company is valued at $20 billion. Musk said Tuesday that many advertisers are coming back.
While other executives may outsource their schedules to chiefs of staff or administrative assistants, Musk said he does most of his own. He said he had “a part-time assistant” to help him manage his work schedule, a fact confirmed by a former Tesla employee.
“It’s impossible for other people to know what the priorities are,” Musk said, adding that he typically works most of the day and ends at 2 a.m., his usual bedtime.
At Twitter, Musk now plans to transition to executive chairman and head of technology, with former NBC advertising executive Linda Yacarino as CEO.
However, Twitter is primarily a tech company, so his current job as CTO may be demanding.
Thorold Barker, the Wall Street Journal’s editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, asked Musk if his business had a succession plan.
“Succession is one of the toughest, oldest issues,” Musk said. “It has plagued countries, kings, prime ministers and presidents, and chief executives throughout history.”
Musk said he had told the board who, “under all circumstances,” was his choice to take over in a “worst-case scenario.” He stressed that the company’s board could also move in the other direction as far as who should succeed him.
At Tesla, there’s speculation about the treasurer zachary kirkhorn One of Musk’s approved successors.
As CNBC previously reported, Musk’s companies frequently engage in related-party transactions, and he faces political pressure to more clearly separate them.
For example, after Musk took over Twitter, he empowered dozens of employees from Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Co. to help him with his social media business. The “transition team” he built at Twitter was involved in everything from code reviews to decisions about people and facilities.
Musk is also a co-founder and donor to OpenAI, a former nonprofit now backed by Microsoft. 2017 Financial Documents Musk donated Tesla vehicles worth around $250,000 as part of his early multimillion-dollar donations to OpenAI, according to OpenAI.
More recently, Musk has been publicly attacking OpenAI’s corporate structure and the amount of ownership it sold to Microsoft. On Tuesday, Musk talked about X.ai, a rival he wants to develop to challenge OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind.
“I don’t want to rush into an announcement,” Musk said. “But OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft seems to be working well, and X.ai and Twitter and Tesla may have something similar.”
watch: Elon Musk uses generative AI in marketing
