One of Tesla Inc.’s largest investors said Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk may better serve the company by stepping back every now and then.

James Anderson, a partner and portfolio manager at Baillie Gifford, said Tuesday on Bloomberg Television that his plea to Musk in July for peace and execution was “extraordinarily unsuccessful.” In the following months, Musk tweeted he secured funding and investor support to take the company private, then abandoned that pursuit and settled a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

But around that same time, the electric-car maker also made major progress ramping up production of its Model 3 sedan. As Tesla’s largest shareholder after Musk, Anderson said Baillie Gifford feels it’s appropriate to discuss -- but not dictate -- whether the CEO’s comments help the company achieve its mission. He added that the billionaire should be “enabled to step back from having to feel so driven to comment.”

“You can be in the background,” Anderson said. “I can’t remember the last time that Jeff Bezos turned up on a quarterly call, let alone felt the need to talk about analysts, even though I suspect he’s got some quite big thoughts about them.”

Baillie Gifford holds about 7.7 per cent of Tesla (TSLA.O) shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Edinburgh-based firm also is one of the bigger investors in the Bezos-run Amazon.com Inc.