According to a Yale School of Management poll of 79 CEOs, Elon Musk has become a detriment’ in the value of his companies.

Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu Agency
79% of CEOs polled at the Yale summit believed that Elon Musk is a threat to their companies’ value. Some Tesla investors want him to return to Tesla.

Some of Elon Musk’s friends don’t seem to be as certain about his business decisions.

Yale School of Management has conducted a new survey of 100 CEOs and found that 79% of them believe Musk is a “detriment” in their companies’ value. 69% of CEOs believe that Twitter is at its best, and three quarters said they don’t think the company will be any more valuable in five or more years.

Yale School of Management, 2022 Survey of 100 CEOs. This screenshot shows whether Elon Musk is “a detriment to the value of their companies.” Yale School of Management

The survey was done at the Yale CEO Summit, which was an invitation-only event. The event, which featured top CEOs from the worlds of finance, tech, and transportation, was confidentially polled attendees on a range of business topics including Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

Many executives were also concerned about advertising on Twitter, which was responsible for 90% of their company’s revenue last fiscal year. Polled CEOs, 56% said that companies should cease advertising on Twitter. 100% agreed with the statement that CEOs should be concerned about brands being associated with hate speech. However, 65% of respondents said that their company has not yet pulled its ads from Twitter — despite the fact that there was a rise in hate speech since Musk’s acquisition. Musk claims it has declined.

98% of executives also agreed that Twitter was overpriced by the billionaire when he bought it in October for $44 billion.

According to a press release, some participants condemned Musk’s control over Twitter and his “seemingly arbitrarious decisions” at the company.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the summit’s host, said that Oracle founder Larry Ellison and other Musk fans had “explained away”, the behavior of the Tesla CEOs to him in the past. He pointed out his success at SpaceX as well as at Tesla.

Sonnenfeld said that there have been “some standout technological successes,” referring to Musk’s record. “But, we could match each one of them with ten failures that are overlooked by the media because he dangles a shiny new object and distracts from you.”

Musk seems to be losing favor with some Yale CEO Summit executives, but Insider’s Melia Russ previously reported that some tech founders want to replicate the work Musk did during his crackdown on Twitter. This included massive layoffs and calls for workers to be “extremely hardcore.” Tech investor Daniel Friedberg stated last month that Musk’s Twitter playbook could be a model for Silicon Valley. It was “cut deep.”

Musk indicated that his focus on Twitter may be ending after several turbulent weeks as “Chief Twit” Musk announced Tuesday that he would resign as Twitter’s CEO as soon as he finds someone “foolish enough” to succeed him. This was after 57.5% responded to a poll asking for their opinion. He said that he would continue to lead Twitter’s server and software teams even if he was no longer the CEO. This would be a difficult job that would likely be tedious.

Some might find it a relief that Musk will resign in the future. Many Tesla shareholders are concerned that Twitter has become too distracting for the CEO of the carmaker. Leo KoGuan (third largest shareholder in Tesla) stated on Twitter last week that Tesla needs and should have a full-time C.E.O.

The stock of the electric-car manufacturer has fallen more than 50% this year. However, the shares of the electric-car company responded positively to Musk’s possible departure as CEO of Twitter. In the last 14 months, Musk has sold Tesla stock worth nearly $40 billion.

Business Insider has the original article.
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By: gkay@insider.com (Grace Kay)
Title: Elon Musk has become a ‘detriment’ to the value of his companies, say 79 CEOs in new Yale School of Management poll
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-detriment-tesla-spacex-twitter-yale-summit-ceo-poll-2022-12
Published Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2022 20:56:09 +0000