1. Made optimistic claims about future product.
2. Some of the people tasked with implementation disagreed about optimistic claim.
3. Those people got fired for underperforming.
4. All people on the team tasked with implementation agree with optimistic claim.
5. Doubled down on the promise.
Repeat every year.
I can't see how a CEO could be blamed in this scenario, as clearly they were lied to by their subordinates.
Lying about features or the number of cars being produced etc. can't be limited to mere optimism because they mentioned specific numbers in a public way that were not true.
> fired for underperforming
The irony, since Musk destroys every brand and product he's ever touched. I've never seen a more polar opposite to the Midas effect at work. It has to be intentional.
That too was sarcasm :-)
You shouldn't be too hard on Musk regarding the "destroys" though: Many people are so incompetent you don't even get to hear about their failures! And others loot professionally without you ever getting to know about it. You have to ignore a lot to state "it has to be intentional".
See also: Poe's Law.
Unless you include some clear indicator that you are being sarcastic, posts like this will be seen as fully sincere by many, many people.