Half-Time CEOs Face Robust Challenges, Particularly When Enterprise Slides

Even when Elon Musk cuts again his work reshaping the US authorities, he’ll nonetheless be a busy man.

And maybe he is too busy — and controversial — to run the various corporations beneath his area in addition to he may, management observers instructed Enterprise Insider.

Musk, who stated Tuesday he plans to quickly scale back his time engaged on the Division of Authorities Effectivity, nonetheless has half a dozen corporations to supervise, together with Tesla, X, xAI, and SpaceX.

It provides as much as rather a lot, particularly when, like at Tesla, there are challenges like slumping gross sales.

“It is arduous to think about there’s sufficient time in every week to actually give every of these the eye that it wants,” Christopher Myers, the school director of the Middle for Progressive Management on the Johns Hopkins Carey Enterprise Faculty, instructed BI, referring to Musk’s corporations.

Myers stated that whereas Musk has lengthy been distinctive in his capability to run a number of entites without delay, preserving a hand in DOGE one to 2 days every week, as Musk advised he would possibly, means there nonetheless will not be all that a lot time for him to go deep on reviving gross sales at Tesla, the place auto revenues dropped 20% within the first quarter.

Even when Musk devoted all his time outdoors DOGE to the automaker, doing something solely two to 3 days every week can be a “minimal funding,” Myers stated.

Downshifting won’t be sufficient

One other huge problem: Musk’s involvement with DOGE is popping off some would-be patrons of Tesla autos. That signifies that merely giving over extra time to the corporate won’t be sufficient to repair its issues, Lorenz Graf-Vlachy, a professor of strategic administration and management at Germany’s TU Dortmund College, instructed BI.

Buyers appeared buoyed by the concept Musk would spend extra time interested by the corporate and fewer on Washington, DC. Tesla shares, which have tumbled in 2025, rose greater than 5% on Wednesday.

Graf-Vlachy, who researches leaders who run multiple firm — uncommon breeds he calls “multi-CEOs” — stated buyers are sometimes OK with chiefs juggling multiple dedication when issues are going effectively.

“So long as everyone’s getting wealthy, no person asks precisely how that is taking place,” he stated.

However when enterprise goes south, buyers’ confidence can erode, Graf-Vlachy stated.

Even one in every of Tesla’s greatest bulls, who has remained upbeat all through the corporate’s 12 months of declining gross sales, stated the EV maker faces a “code-red scenario” if Musk stays at DOGE.

“Musk wants to depart the federal government, take a serious step again on DOGE, and get again to being CEO of Tesla full-time,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a word on Sunday.

Musk did not reply to a request for remark Wednesday from BI.

Myers stated that one other problem for Musk is that he is described himself not as a micromanager however as an much more hands-on “nano-manager.”

“It appears arduous to nano-manage that many corporations throughout that extensive of a spread,” Myers stated.

He stated it is potential that Musk’s different corporations, past Tesla, must take “extra of a again seat” or that others inside these organizations must additional step up if Musk continues to commit even restricted time to DOGE.

Myers stated it may need been simpler to see how a single CEO may concurrently run two tech-focused entities, like Tesla and SpaceX. But the administration playbook can get blurry when the scope of a CEO’s focus widens. In Musk’s case, he is waded into authorities work and bought Twitter, which he renamed X.

By having such a various portfolio, Myers stated, it is potential that Musk has made it more durable for workers at his corporations to discern a transparent sense of mission.

He stated a Tesla worker, for instance, would possibly fear in regards to the hit that tariffs may have on the corporate. Musk, who has stated he favors free commerce, may very well be put in troublesome positions, Myers stated.

“Relying on which of his places of work is releasing the press launch, they will take wildly totally different stances on the function of tariffs,” he stated, referring to DOGE and the White Home’s place on tariffs.

“That may be irritating, complicated, and definitely demotivating for people inside these organizations,” Myers stated of Musk’s corporations.

Multihyphenate CEOs aren’t new

Musk is not the primary CEO to face scrutiny for carrying multiple hat. In 2020, shareholders and activist buyers questioned whether or not Jack Dorsey may run Twitter and Block, each public corporations, concurrently.

But the Musk universe is way bigger, with federal contracts, over a trillion {dollars}, and hundreds of staff at stake.

Jonathan Marshall, an govt coach and former assistant professor on the Nationwide College of Singapore, stated it’s potential to run a number of corporations successfully.

“Giving clear path and having succesful folks beneath you whom you belief makes an enormous distinction. It permits the chief to step again,” he stated.

Marshall stated in the most effective circumstances, executives beneath a busy CEO can step up — however the setup can go unsuitable, too.

“In a single case, I’ve seen it result in great inefficiency because the executives felt they could not decide with out the CEO’s approval,” he stated. “However the place there was clear path from a trusted and competent substitute for the CEO, I’ve seen it go effectively.”

In 2018, Harvard Enterprise Faculty’s then-dean examined how CEOs spend their time, writing {that a} CEO’s calendar “is a manifestation of how the chief leads and sends highly effective messages to the remainder of the group.”

Non-work actions, he wrote, may signify a distraction, so CEOs ought to “fastidiously limit” their time on group and social engagements.

Graf-Vlachy stated that although Musk has confirmed himself able to overseeing a number of corporations, there are limits to how far the multi-CEO can push himself.

“There are solely 7 days every week, even for Elon Musk,” he stated.