Effective Business Management of Tesla Motors Inc

Effective business management is the principle secret behind the successes of virtually every corporation. Tesla Motors Inc. is one of the companies whose management has adopted a flexible management style that adapts to the changing technological and automobile trends. The company was founded in 2003 by a group of vibrant and determined engineers within its current Silicon Valley base. The primary motivation that propelled these young engineers to establish Tesla Motors Inc. was the desire to design and assemble a unique brand of motor vehicles that would prove the ability of electric cars over gasoline vehicles. These electric vehicles were intended to present various advantages to prospective customers such as zero emission of toxic gasses, incredible power, and instant torque.

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The company set out to ensure mass production of electric cars and powertrains throughout the world in an era which coincided with increasing environmental sensitivity and mainstreaming of ecological concepts in industrial processes. Teslas pioneer car was Roadster which was manufactured in 2008 and attracted customers towards the firms brands. The company has also excelled in the production of powertrain components for other vehicles such as Toyota RAV 4 EV and Freightliner's Custom Chassis Electric Van. In a struggle to capture its niche within the complicated automobile industry, Tesla ensures that every new model of its cars is increasingly affordable. This affordability of the firms models complemented its mission of accelerating the transition of the world transportation towards sustainable sources of power.

Tesla models ushered unique technologies into the automobile industry such as enabling the users to charge at home thus they do not incur any cost of gasoline. The Tesla supercharger network provides the vehicles with easy access to high speed charging at an estimated rate of twenty minutes. The company has set up the supercharging stations strategically along the major routes in Asia, America, and Europe which are the large markets for its cars. Teslas productions rate is high and creates several job opportunities for top talent engineers from across the world. Its turnaround time is about two hundred cars weekly.

Currently, the company continues to expand its operations into new areas such as Netherlands. It sets up assembly facilities in these new locations to ensure access to the market. Tesla understands the significance of strategic partnership in cutting costs of operations. For instance, the company entered into a partnership with Panasonic to construct a large Li-ion battery factory in Nevada that would drastically reduce the costs of battery packs used in the Tesla cars. The Nevada-based plant is projected to produce more lithium ion batteries that exceed the word production levels in 2013. These battery packs will increase the robustness electrical grid and avail a backup power supply for the Tesla Motors.

The firm prides itself of selecting, recruiting, and retaining top engineering and design talents from various parts of the world. With a current employee base of one thousand two hundred, Tesla still opens its doors to new graduates with a potential of transforming further the electric cars segment of the motor vehicle industry. The companys focus is not only in making electric motor vehicles but also the development of cutting-edge sources of energy. Tesla gains its competitive advantage from a strong team of innovators and adoption of new technologies that makes it a source of motor parts for competitors such as Daimler and Toyota that uses its battery packs.

Brief Inspirational Background of Tesla CEO; Elon Musk

Musk was born in South Africa in the year 1971 from where he developed a passion for technology and entrepreneurship. This motivation later made him a multimillionaire at his late 20s after the sale of his first company; Zip2. He has been part of several technological developments such as PayPal. In 1999, Musk founded X.com and co-founded Tesla Motors Inc. in 2003. Musk has pioneered in various aspects of technology such as electric cars produced by Tesla Motors Inc., and the first commercial rocket; Space X which was launched into space in 2012.

Elon Musks leadership styles within Tesla Motors Inc.

Elon Musk has fostered multiple leadership styles in the operations of the multi-billion company; Tesla Motors Inc. He has adopted both participative and authoritative leadership models. In his liberal methods, Musk encourages Tesla Employees to continually explore and bring forth ideas that are consistent with the companys clamor to entrench electric motor vehicles within the industry. In fact, he has established a culture in which employees are supposed to research, innovate, and develop new ideas that contribute to the mass production of the hi-tech electric cars. In essence, he believes in the potential of every worker. The employees are rewarded or promoted based on their respective contributions to the general objectives of the firm. For instance, its motivation strategies including promotion, bonuses, and rewards are based on a scale of one to five in which rating four and five are regarded as great and phenomenal. Based on this motivation scheme, only employees who have done innovative or extraordinary things to the company are rewarded.

Apart from adopting a participatory leadership style, Musk is also a visionary leader who takes an authoritative gist, especially when giving junior employees instructions and reaffirming Teslas mission. He tells his employees what he expects from them and the sits back to allow them to execute the plans through consistency and teamwork. He exemplifies the face of a visionary leader by according every employee the responsibility to accomplish their part within the production continuum and make things happen as anticipated. Through this approach, the skilled engineers employed in Tesla Motors not only gain pride from their work but also enjoy doing it.

Just like any classic enterprise, Musk, and other Tesla stakeholders crafted a strong mission statement that inspires every employee to work in earnest to achieve excellence. The companys Mission Statement which is to accelerate the worlds transition to sustainable energy. Underscores the firms managements resolve to disrupt the traditional motor vehicle industry which was characterized by gasoline and petroleum cars. In Tesla, Elon Musk understands the centrality of human resource in its success. Therefore, he has embraced a strategic organizational culture that inspires competence requisite in developing innovative products within the outsoaring automotive firm. Within the context of the companys vision, Musk empowers every worker to explore new solutions for the emerging market needs to make the business flourish within the complex automotive industry. The firm consistently encourages its employees to innovate new approaches in engineering and car design that support critical improvements of the company. Through this organizational culture, Tesla not only succeeds in outsourcing the best skills and ideas throughout the world but also maintains them to ensure the continuity of exemplary operations in producing electric cars and other associated products.

Teslas corporate social responsibility

Musk ensures that the company upholds its corporate social responsibility to the customers, and employees. Its code of conduct restrains employees from engaging in exploitative or unfair trade with unsuspecting buyers and also sets out a clear framework through which junior employees can report to the segment manager and other top managers on any shady deals committed by fellow employees. On the side of employees, Tesla meets its corporate social responsibility through competitive remuneration, training and collaborates with partner companies, merit-based promotions and allocation of bonuses for the exemplary preface.

Tesla Motors communication framework

Tesla maintains a blog and a website through which customers can comments and other top employees including Musk respond. These customer feedbacks are critical in informing the company on the next course of advancement in their models. Employees too are motivated to communicate their innovations and challenges directly to the segment managers within the production plants. Nonetheless, the company does not allow its employees from forming workers unions which undermine its democratic reputation but is also advantageous to its operations since individual employees who feel dissatisfied can easily resign without unduly influencing other competent ones.

Tesla operates in the least sense of bureaucracy and allows every worker to bring in new ideas to be intergraded into the mainstream production as long as their feasibility is adequately assured to be in line with the cardinal corporate objectives. In fact, the chief executive officer asserts the need to reason from the first principles including identification of the root factors to conceptualize a problem and develop indispensable solutions. Other operational principles that Tesla embraces include quick response to trends and changes doing the impossible, constant innovation, motivating employees to think like the company owners, and supporting teamwork.

Politics within Tesla Motors Inc.

While Tesla does not tolerate politics among the lower level employees, its executive is reminiscent of a real democracy in which the Corporate Governance Committee makes decisions from time to time on the best candidates to be on the companys board. The board members are then endorsed during the Annual General meeting that brings together all the companys stakeholders. Moreover, the companys directors are elected every three years without a limit of the number of times one can be re-elected. Without capping the number of the re-election of trustees, the company allows room for individuals who have a firm grip of the companys operations to work repeatedly.

Tesla is a typical company that allows its stakeholders to universally access critical information concerning progress such as accounting, internal controls, and financial statements and audit reports. They are also authorized to ask pertinent questions through the corporate secretary on a day to day manner.

Teslas Current Operations Strategy

Business-level Strategy

Tesla has a targeted differentiation strategy that motivates it to provide high performance and innovative cars to its customers. This differentiation is a critical operation plan since Tesla serves a broad market that encompasses individuals from the middle to upper-income levels.

Corporate Level Strategy

Tesla employs a concerted effort to entrench a strong influence in the automobile industry. It also affirms its global presence within the industry by marketing some of its products such as battery packs to other automakers. The firm also enters into strategic alliances with several companies such as Panasonic intended to develop more efficient batteries for Tesla cars. It also cooperates with some ordinary electronic motor manufacturers such as Toyota and Daimler for the development of motor parts, engineering, and production.

Global level strategy:

Apart from operating in its first United States market, Tesla focuses on actively influencing the global motor industry through the introduction of overseas segments in new regions. Already, the firm has subsidiaries in Asia, the Americas, and Europe.

Appendix 1: Interview Schedule for Tesla Motors Chief Executive Officer; Elon Musk

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