Even Musk wants more voting power in corporate matters

For Elon Musk's bosses at Tesla, the board of directors, it can be hard to know which man might show up for work.

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Is it the self-described workaholic with little patience for employee work-life balance, or the late-night party animal whose drug use reported this month worries some leaders? Is it the visionary who once said he wanted to be involved with the electric-car maker for "as long as I can be useful," or the CEO who is publicly threatening, as he did this past week, to take his ideas elsewhere unless he gets a giant new payday that gives him more control of Tesla? We're not talking about typical employee-of-the-month behavior.

That's why the past few weeks might well live on as a business-school case study on the complexity of managing a superstar talent who has succeeded with maverick ways but also, for some, can go too far. Just as it isn't easy for a manager to course-correct a star performer who gets out of line, a board can struggle to rein in a celebrity CEO, especially if everyone is enjoying the company's stock performance that papers over troubling signs.

At present, Musk directly holds 13% of Tesla shares, or about 21% if including unexercised options, according to the company's most recent regulatory filing. That's down from 21% directly held at the end of 2016.

Now, he's publicly asking for 25%, to give him more voting power in corporate matters.

The timing of his latest demands adds to worries by some investors about Tesla's corporate governance regarding Musk and his commitment to the automaker. One of the questions submitted by individual investors to Tesla ahead of its quarterly earnings call on 24 January asks if they should be concerned when Musk says he is uncomfortable expanding Alat Tesla without greater control.