Part -time CEOs face difficult challenges, especially when corporate slides

Even if Elon Musk reduces his work reshaping the American government, he will always be a busy guy.

And maybe he’s Also Occupied – and controversial – to manage the many companies in its field as well as it could, have told Business Insider observers in leadership.

Musk, who said on Tuesday that he planned to soon reduce his working time on the government’s ministry of efficiency, had a half-dozen companies to supervise, including Tesla, Xa, XAI and SpaceX.

This adds a lot, especially when, as in Tesla, there are challenges like the fall in sales.

“It is difficult to imagine that there is enough time in a week to really give to each of these attention they need,” said Bi Christopher Myers, director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, referring to musk companies.

Myers said that even if Musk has been exceptional for a long time in his ability to execute several intimateness, keeping a hand in Doge one to two days a week, as Musk suggested, means that there will still be not as much time for him to go deep on sales in Tesla, where car income dropped by 20% in the first quarter.

Even if Musk has devoted all his time outside Doge to the car manufacturer, doing anything only two to three days a week would be a “minimum investment,” said Myers.

Downshifting might not be enough

Another big challenge: the involvement of Musk with DOGE is to deactivate certain potential buyers of Tesla vehicles. This means that simply giving more time to the company may not be enough to solve its problems, Lorenz Graf-Vlachy, professor of strategic management and leadership at the University of Tu Dortmund German, told Bi.

Investors seemed to be supported by the idea that Musk would spend more time thinking about the company and less to Washington, DC. Tesla shares, which dropped in 2025, increased by more than 5% on Wednesday.

Graf -Vlachy, who is doing research on managers who run more than one company – rare breeds he calls “multi -PDG” – said investors often agree with chefs juggling more than one commitment when things are fine.

“As long as everyone becomes rich, no one asks exactly how it goes,” he said.

But when business goes south, investors’ confidence can erode, said Graf-Vlachy.

Even one of the largest Tesla bulls, which has remained optimistic throughout the year, down sales of the company, said that the electric vehicle manufacturer faces a “red situation of the code” if Musk remains in Doge.

“Musk must leave the government, take a major step back on Doge and start being CEO of Tesla full time,” Wedbush Securities analyst wrote on Sunday.

Musk did not respond to a request for a comment on Wednesday to BI on Wednesday.

Myers said that another challenge for Musk is that he described himself not as a microometer but as an even more practical “nano-manager”.

“It seems difficult from Nano-Manage only many companies in this wide range,” said Myers.

He said that it is possible that other musk companies, beyond Tesla, have to take “more rear seat” or that others within these organizations should intensify if Musk continues to devote a very limited time to Doge.

Myers said it could have been easier to see how only a single CEO could simultaneously execute two technology -oriented entities, such as Tesla and SpaceX. However, the management game book can become unclear when the range of the attention of a CEO widens. In the case of Musk, he trampled in the government’s work and acquired Twitter, which he renamed X.

By having such a diverse portfolio, Myers said, it is possible that Musk made more difficult for the employees of his companies to discern a feeling of clear mission.

He said that an employee of Tesla, for example, could be concerned about the success that prices may have on the company. Musk, who said he promotes free trade, could be put in the difficult position, said Myers.

“According to which of his offices discloses the press release, they will take very different positions on the role of the prices,” he said, referring to Doge and the White House position on the prices.

“It can be frustrating, confusing and certainly demotivating for individuals within these organizations,” said Myers about Musk companies.

Multihyphenate CEOs are not new

Musk is not the first CEO to face a meticulous exam for having worn more than one hat. In 2020, activist shareholders and investors wondered if Jack Dorsey could manage Twitter and Block, the two public companies, simultaneously.

However, the Musk universe is much more important, with federal contracts, more than one dollars Billion and thousands of employees at stake.

Jonathan Marshall, executive coach and former assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, said that it was possible to effectively manage several companies.

“Giving a clear direction and having people capable under you in whom you trust makes a huge difference. This allows the chief to step back,” he said.

Marshall said that in the best cases, managers under an occupied CEO can intensify – but the configuration can also go wrong.

“In a case, I saw him lead to enormous ineffectiveness because the leaders estimated that they could not make a decision without the approval of the CEO,” he said. “But where there was a clear direction of a substitute for trust and competent for the CEO, I saw him going well.”

In 2018, then Dean de la Harvard Business School examined how CEOs spend their time, writing that the calendar of a CEO “is a manifestation of how The leader leads and sends powerful messages to the rest of the organization. “”

Non-professional activities, he wrote, could represent a distraction, so that CEOs should “carefully restrict their time on community and social commitments.

Graf-Vlachy said that even if Musk has proven to be able to supervise several companies, there are limits at the distance that the multi-PDG can push.

“There are only 7 days a week, even for Elon Musk,” he said.