Comment: Musk tetchiness suggests Tesla experiment is under threat

Opinion

There has been a disturbance in the force. Billionaire space pioneer, time-traveller and immortal super-being Elon Musk considers himself one of the world's great mavericks but last week his impatience with us mere mortals reached new heights.

Quarterly earnings calls are a long-standing and important feature of the public markets. A company reports its latest financial figures, then executives face questions from analysts about the results.

Yet Musk, it seems, has little time for such convention, arrogantly refusing to respond when quizzed about the financial health of his struggling electric carmaker Tesla.

At one point Musk interrupted, saying: "Next. Boring bonehead questions are not cool."

He then chose to field 20 minutes of questions from a 25-year-old YouTube star.

Perhaps Musk was just tired and grumpy. It can't be easy trying to simultaneously conquer space, consign the combustion engine to history and revolutionise the speed of terrestrial travel.

Yet Musk's tetchiness hints at a much bigger problem: that Tesla has some real issues. When the boss of a large public company, particularly one that is burning through cash at the frightening rate that Tesla is, objects to a handful of routine questions, alarm bells ring loudly. No wonder his petulant display wiped more than US$4 billion ($5.7b) off Tesla's share price.

Musk should be careful that he doesn't attract comparisons with some of the big corporate disasters of modern times, which were presaged by bosses who dismissed those that dared to probe.

Elon Musk chose to field 20 minutes of questions from a 25-year-old YouTube star. Picture / AP

Former UK tech darling Autonomy banned analysts from attending executive presentations before it eventually imploded. And Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling was caught calling one dogged inquisitor an "a******".

Musk is unquestionably a genuine visionary but his dismissive attitude is what makes him a hero to supporters. He recently advised Tesla employees to walk out of unproductive meetings. Like Donald Trump, his supporters lap up the insolence - the more Musk attacks his detractors, the more the fanboys cheer him on.

When the boss of a large public company, particularly one that is burning through cash at the frightening rate that Tesla is, objects to a handful of routine questions, alarm bells ring loudly.

Still, in this instance he is wrong to lash out. Concepts like profit, capital expenditure and cash flow may seem irrelevant to an entrepreneurial wizard on a mission to upend the entire car industry, but they have proven to be pretty reliable tools when it comes to assessing a company's long-term prospects.

His reticence to answer some fairly basic questions suggest the great Tesla experiment is under threat.