The True Impact of Management and Culture on Brands – Valuable Lessons From Elon Musk’s Brazen Mistakes
Elon Musk’s latest performances aren’t doing his brand any favors. Instead, he appears to be spearheading the downfall of the SpaceX, Tesla, and X brands with undue reservation.
Brand Finance revealed that X (formerly Twitter) dropped a staggering €5.248 billion in brand value between 2022 and 2024 in a recent press release, revealing an unprecedented loss of market share.
If billions of revenue lost don’t indicate the decline of the X brand and its regular market, nothing will.
Additionally, the Tesla share price on the Nasdaq showed a steep incline in early 2020, with a steady decline since August 2022.
Even technological innovation can't convince the regular market of an excellent brand culture or happiness management construct.
Controversial leadership, poor company values, a toxic culture, and mismanaged relationships when Musk makes contact with customers are among some of the reasons why the X, SpaceX, and Tesla brands suddenly decline.
However, the infamous giant may provide insight into how other industry leaders could rebrand with a healthy, inclusive culture and efficient management.
Organizational culture is the cornerstone of good corporate values and sustainable company performance.
Real-life lessons provide the best insights into what to avoid when managing a brand’s reputation and culture for long-term success.
Integrating a happiness management construct, sustainable models, and a positive, inclusive company culture play an essential role.
Discover Elon Musk’s mistakes to avoid similar consequences and leverage corporate happiness, good company values, healthy contact with customers, and an organizational culture that welcomes financial performance and employee retention.
How Does Corporate Culture Affect a Brand?
A strong culture focused on customer satisfaction plays a crucial role in financial performance, corporate identity, operational efficiencies, and even employee retention.
Sadly, Elon Musk's entrepreneurial orientation, business management, and lack of emotional intelligence are quickly shrinking his market share.
Lesson 1: Elon Musk’s Market Trust Decline and Brand Dilution
Controversial leadership, toxic management, bad market culture, and the enforcement of subjective political hogwash on X certainly hurt Elon Musk’s market trust.
The Kantar Media Reactions 2024 Booklet reveals the shocking truth of Musk’s erratic behaviors on X.
Only 4% of marketers feel that X Ads provide brand safety, while 39% believe in Google’s ability to provide the same.
Sadly, 26% of marketers plan to reduce X advertising budgets by 2025 due to the fear of other content harming their brand.
Undoubtedly, customer satisfaction, a positive culture, and cultural identity are missing from Musk's core values.
Furthermore, The Guardian suggests the market value of X has declined by 71% since the Twitter/X rebranding in 2023.
Firstly, Elon Musk’s constant political opinions forced down every X user’s throat are one of the key factors contributing to the poor company culture.
The BBC published why Musk wasn’t invited to the UK Summit as being an instigator on X, even posting and later deleting conspiracy theories.
One tweet that truly upset the UK government was Musk’s race riot public comments that further heated the situation in the UK and damaged his cultural identity.
More recently, Elon Musk has brazenly chosen to change the block feature on X, disabling people’s ability to block him and other users.
His direct contact with customers shows a bold lack of proper corporate values and a failed happiness management construct.
Forbes explained the controversial change, suggesting X users will still see content and tweets from persons they blocked but won’t be able to engage.
In other words, blocked individuals will also see your tweets and content, a disturbing showcase of Musk's disturbing company values.
These social media missteps damage the brand entirely. Elon Musk’s lack of a positive culture and forcing his subjective opinions on others may cause the platform to lose more users, including content marketers.
Musk's business management and company culture miss the mark entirely.
Elon Musk may undo the X brand with his hyperbolic claims, media backlash, and lack of accountability.
However, he may harm Tesla and Space X more as he has a terrible relationship with happiness management and misses the vital role of good market culture.
Lesson 2: Investor Confidence Erosion & Stakeholder Alienation
CNN suggests that Musk tried his best to remove the “Twitter Sitter,” a company-appointed moderator for Tesla tweets.
Employee morale and well-being aren't Musk's common goals, even though they play a vital role in employee retention.
The board-certified moderator had to approve every Tesla tweet after claims suggesting that Elon Musk’s tweets mislead investors about the brand, showing a lack of trusted core values.
Elon Musk’s Supreme Court appeal was dismissed only to further break down investor confidence and alienate stakeholders who agree that his Tesla tweets are grossly misleading and misinformed.
Musk's X presence continues to devour the company culture, possible business success, and even employee engagement. None of his tweets give him a competitive advantage.
Yet, a positive company culture plays a crucial role in investor confidence.
Furthermore, well-known investment advisor Ross Gerber tweeted in April that Elon can’t sell Teslas because of his disruptive behaviors. Gerber continues to call Musk out for blaming a lack of Tesla sales on economic pressures or a looming recession.
A lack of accountability also hurts a brand’s reputation!
A strong corporate culture can be seen in companies being accountable for their actions.
Meanwhile, the Tesla share price over the last four years confirms that stocks are volatile. Stock price volatility and a lack of accountability are some issues.
On the other hand, mismanagement is another problem.
Reuters suggests that the damaged reputation, negative press surrounding all Elon Musk corporate culture brands, and a lack of care for employee well-being are likely the reasons for the decline in Tesla model purchases.
Tesla’s consideration scores fell by 8%, while BMW's, Mercedes Benz's, and Audi EV models’ consideration points rose to 44-47%. Musk's entrepreneurial orientation and lack of happiness management construct are likely allowing the brand to decline.
Furthermore, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) confirmed that Tesla delivered the target number of EV models worldwide in 2023 but lost the “most EV models sold” worldwide title to the up-and-coming Chinese BYD supplier, perhaps revealing potential risks for long-term success.
Conscious buyers are turning to Chinese and well-known German brands that also manufacture gas models because they’ve lost trust in the Tesla brand due to Elon Musk’s hyperbolic claims, regulatory objections, and controversial leadership.
The company's performance and cultural identity continue to suffer.
Finally, PR Week reminds us that the Tesla PR department's elimination in 2020 was a public relations crisis that only further damaged the brand, alienating stakeholders and drastically reducing investor confidence. Job satisfaction certainly wasn't on the table that day, either.
Lesson 3: Controversial Leadership Instability & Regulatory Scrutiny
In more recent news, California rejected the SpaceX launch proposal Elon Musk delivered based on his toxic culture, orientation construct, poor company management, overpromising, outspoken demeanor, and erratic yet potent political biases.
SpaceX intended to launch 36 rockets from an airforce base under the California Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction. However, California Coastal Commissioner Gretchen Newsom voted to reject the proposal for good reasons.
Newsom described Elon Musk’s management style as disturbing!
Furthermore, she disproved his enforced presidential elections injection, especially because he wasn’t running for the presidency.
Sometimes, Musk's lack of ethical culture hurts him more than his outspoken nature despite his technological innovation through the ages.
Environmental factors also convinced some commissioners to reject the proposal.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX accuses California Commissioners of being politically biased and is currently suing the agency, revealing his brutal lack of emotional intelligence and relationship with happiness management.
Additionally, the erratic tweets and overpromising nature of Elon Musk shot his own idea in the foot when he accused emergency services of blocking satellite coverage, suggesting the opposite of excellent brand culture and long-term success.
Furthermore, The Guardian suggests that Musk falsely accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of blocking SpaceX Starlink satellite coverage intended to supply relief efforts to Hurricane Helene victims in Florida.
A pattern of alleged non-compliance and the arrogant belief that he’s above local laws are becoming more and more visible. Regulatory scrutiny is a primary concern for the SpaceX brand.
However, SpaceX hits back at FAA allegations, claiming that the penalties for alleged license violations regarding public safety proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were inaccurate and outrageous.
The outspoken Elon Musk, once again, took to social media, tweeting that some resignations from the FAA were expected.
Leaders need to use the strategic factor of treating others like you would have them treat you to change how they engage customers, investors, and employees.
An unspoken nature may serve some well but won’t make the SpaceX brand survive or succeed. The constant badgering of federal agencies and regulatory boards on X is part of why the SpaceX brand is damaged.
The Impact of Management and Culture on Brands Conclusion
Elon Musk is a prime example of brand inconsistency, reputation damage, unpredictable behavior, customer loyalty loss, negative press, and a lack of sustainable development goals, all leading to the deterioration of the X, Tesla, and SpaceX brands.
Draw valuable lessons from the mistakes made by Elon Musk. Manage the brand efficiently and inject the right culture to ensure growth and scale development for long-term success. Our business consultancy services provide expert advice for brand consistency with sustainable development goals.
You can also explore our go-to-marketing strategy consulting services to enrich a brand with a strong culture and a fail-proof happiness management construct.
Contact us to discuss how you can avoid the mistakes Elon Musk made to hurt his brand.
