Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Critical Evaluation of Elon Musk's Personal Qualities and Challenges Faced by SpaceX

This article evaluates Elon Musk's personal qualities that made him a great entrepreneur and discusses the challenges faced by his SpaceX venture in launching the 'Starship' and setting a self-sustainable city on Mars. It also evaluates Musk's entrepreneurial performance and shortcomings in investing in a venture.

Innovation and
Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1..............................................................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of three main personal qualities which made Elon Musk as a great
entrepreneur for grasping business opportunities that are presented throughout his lifetime 1
TASK 2..............................................................................................................................................3
Critical discussion about three entrepreneurial challenges which Elon Musk's SpaceX venture
will face with existing 'Starship' launch together with their vision to set first self-sustainable
city on planet Mars......................................................................................................................3
TASK 3..............................................................................................................................................5
Critical evaluation on Elon Musk entrepreneurial performance addition to any type of
shortcoming while investing in a venture....................................................................................5
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The term innovation is delineated to an idea which is changed into practical reality. It is
something which transforms an idea into a solution which have potentials to add value from
perspective of customers (Elert, Henrekson and Stenkula, 2017). Similarly, entrepreneurship
refers to creation as well as extraction of value. It is a concept associated with establishing,
developing, running and managing a business venture with the aim to gain profit through taking
multiple kinds of risks within corporate world. For an entrepreneur, innovation and
entrepreneurship plays key role in contributing towards success in competitive scenario. The
assessment is prepared on Elon Musk who is an entrepreneur and founder of SpaceX and is
working for launching humanity's first ride towards Mars.
The assessment covers three main personal qualities which made the personality a great
entrepreneur. It also highlights three entrepreneurial challenges which the venture of the
entrepreneur will face with current launching and vision of establishing a sustainable city on
planet Mars. Moreover, it evaluates entrepreneurial performance and shortcomings within
investment in a venture.
TASK 1
Critical evaluation of three main personal qualities which made Elon Musk as a great
entrepreneur for grasping business opportunities that are presented throughout his
lifetime
Personal qualities are said to characteristics which makes a person who they are. In
other words, personal qualities describe the ways through which an individual apply themselves
to a role along with task (Burns, 2016). With the help of personal qualities, a person becomes
successful entrepreneur for the purpose of acquiring opportunities for the businesses in
competitive world. In context to Elon Musk, some of key personal qualities that have played
huge role in becoming a great entrepreneur for grasping business opportunities are as
evaluated:
Passion for innovation: The personal quality acts as as driving force that assist in an
entrepreneur for striving for better. As per Cottrell (2015), it have been evaluated that passion
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to drive innovation is one of personal quality which makes a person a great entrepreneur as it
helps in recognising business imperative of forecasting addition to embracing changes that are
occurring within competitive environment. In relevance with Elon Musk, passion for innovation
have made the personality a great entrepreneur as with this, the entrepreneur have devised a
culture of innovation that inspires others for working with pace of change rather than staying
with ideas of day late. Through passion for innovation, Elon Musk have believed in great things
and transformed various processes or methods for solving all types of problems which arises.
The entrepreneur is more passionate to bring innovations in real world and with this personal
attribute, key innovations that are created includes SpaceX, Tesla electric car, electricity
ventures and many more. Furthermore, with the personal quality, an entrepreneur puts extra
efforts and deal with hurdles that ensures them to overcome roadblocks in the path as well as
forge ahead to set goals.
Ability to network: To become a great or successful entrepreneur, it is important to
have personal characteristic of potential for connecting with population as well as recognising
opportunities for partnership to achieve success. As per the statements of Carvalho (2017), it is
critically evaluated that an individual becomes great entrepreneur through having potential to
meet with new people which assist in facilitating access to required resources together with
knowledge which is needed to establish and manage a business. In context to Elon Musk, the
entrepreneur have competence to build and maintain relationship with others that made the
personality a great entrepreneur in the industry. Through the personal quality, Elon have
learned from failures and success of others along with applied them in their entrepreneurship.
Active professional networking is key to become great entrepreneur as despite of various off-
putting connotations, it assist entrepreneur to develop and maintain long term relationship.
This helped Elon Musk to participate in various meetings so to get to know about people who
could assist and help them financially for establishing successful venture that includes SpaceX,
Tesla and hence forth.
Risk taking potential: Within an entrepreneur, risk taking potential is vital as without
having willingness for exploration of unknown, an individual particularly entrepreneur cannot
discover anything different and unique. Risk taking comprises lot of things and investment in
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ideas. Entrepreneurship is closely related with taking risks and accepting uncertainties.
Entrepreneurs have potentials for taking wider number of risks for the purpose of attaining
greater success, however, not all people who takes risks are great or successful entrepreneurs.
As per Yang (2017), it have been critically evaluated that entrepreneur such as Elon Musk have
differentiated approach for risks as the personality is always ready for making investment of
time, resources and efforts. To explore unknown, Elon Musk is bestowed with trump card and
evaluate all risks which are to be undertaken in coming time frame. The personality devises
plan prior to take risks, also makes backup plan (In case situation of loss of mishap) along with
establish suitable ground to achieve expected results of risks. Elon have risk taking ability
through which various risks such as establishing SpaceX and working to launch humanity's first
ride towards Mars are undertaken.
With mentioned personal qualities, it becomes easy for an individual to become a great
entrepreneur so that they are able to grasp opportunities for establishing and managing
business throughout their lifetime.
TASK 2
Critical discussion about three entrepreneurial challenges which Elon Musk's SpaceX venture
will face with existing 'Starship' launch together with their vision to set first self-
sustainable city on planet Mars
Entrepreneurs are popular for constant brainstorming as well as having new ideas about
the ways to capitalise together with making more money. An entrepreneur faces various
challenges in the path of achieving success. In relevance to Elon Musk, who is most successful
entrepreneur with net worth of around £136 Bn addition to multiple organisations namely
SpaceX, Tesla and many more. Elon Musk have faced various failures during their career but all
these have resulted in reaching to successful heights (Thompson, 2018). By concentrating on
situations or complex journey towards success, there are certain number of situations related
to entrepreneurial challenges that will be faced by Elon Musk with launch of Starship and vision
to set first self sustainable city on the planet Mars:
Civil space safety: Administrator of NASA that is James Bridenstine went to ballistic at
the time of hearing the information that Elon Musk have smoked marijuana on podcast as well
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as ordered safety review about two entities which had contracts or agreements for carrying
astronauts to International Space Station next year. In this, Bridenstine has reason for become
anxious as astronauts of United States have been hitching rides in Russian rockets at the
duration when Space Shuttle retired in 2011. In future, tenure of space agency will be
considered and judged first addition to foremost through the ways transitions of astronauts
back to United States made launch of vehicles as well as spacecraft fares (Ngugi and Goosen,
2021). In accordance to Associate Administrator of NASA, safety review of both organisational
internal operations will include all things which can impact safety. People of NASA are expecting
from companies including SpaceX to exhibit a safety culture that is suitable to human space
flight. This is an entrepreneurial complexity that Elon Musk would face as it is difficult to
understand cultural factors which can influence receptivity to risk, design clothes, behaviours in
operations and so on related to safety. For example, SpaceX of Elon Musk is only launching
venture which proposes fuel for rockets at the time when astronauts are on boards. This could
be explained as a cultural tendency to accept wider risk than deemed prudent in devising vision
for first sustainable city on Mars.
Oversized capital requirements: To reach and establish a sustainable city on planet
Mars is quite expensive. It needs all types of costly tools and equipments which do not exist in
present world that starts with big successor to Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Elon Musk's SpaceX is
hoping that Air Force will assist foot the bill in order to develop Super Heavy Starship, however,
result of existing military launch competition will appear preclude to that. Thus, it is evaluated
that Elon Musk would face complexity to generate necessary financial resources for launching
SpaceX and establishment of sustainable city on Mars. Meanwhile, the venture is embarked on
a plan for orbiting 7500 small satellites within constellation capable to provide broadband
Internet service much on Earth (Kier and McMullen, 2018). For Elon Musk, there are certain
risks which are hard to quantify for upcoming projects. In case, when SpaceX will generate
types of returns related to successful tech organisation, then financial burden could be
bearable by Elon Musk. However, it seems like the enterprise or investment plans for SpaceX
and establishing a self sustainable city at Mars are out of sync from potentials of entrepreneur
to raise essential capital.
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Commercial market stagnation: International market for commercial space launch is
restricted or not big. It is figured out by Bryce Space and Technology who is an analytic outfit
that it is nearby to $ 6 Billion annually. SpaceX of Elon Musk have powers to dominate the
market through providing cut rate prices to place communications satellites within
geosynchronous orbit. This orbit enables to remain at above level on surface of Earth even
when people are travelling at thousands of mile per hour as they match with rotation of planet
(Schoemaker, Heaton and Teece, 2018). Although launch of SpaceX claimed that around half of
market demand for geo satcom stagnated. In the duration of 2003 and 2015, demand went
down. Arianespace is one of biggest competitor of SpaceX that says that it requires around 10
per year for remaining viable which is one of challenge that Elon Musk will face in future. Lower
demand is seen as new normal that is why suppliers initiates for bailing. Although, number of
launch providers, especially, state backed providers are growing that is resulting in high
competition for the entrepreneur.
All entrepreneurs faces and will face challenges in future about launching their products
and working to implement vision (Volentras, 2018). However, despite of mentioned challenges
as well as destructive rockets, motivation together with dedication of Elon Musk is one of
reason that will help in achieving positive response to successfully launch SpaceX and build self
sustainable city in Mars.
TASK 3
Critical evaluation on Elon Musk entrepreneurial performance addition to any type of
shortcoming while investing in a venture
Elon Musk could be said termed as do-it-all-personality as Elon have realised complex
accomplishments in multiple professional fields comprising Internet, sustainable transportation,
software, clean energy, automobiles, e-commerce and space world. In limited time duration,
Elon have reached from humble background to great entrepreneur. The whole entrepreneurial
path of Musk is featured through determination, curiosity, requirement for leading addition to
innovation in order to improve the globe. In simple terms, Elon is an introvert by nature and
was isolated in childhood days. Perhaps, this seclusion have devised an opportunity for
generating numerous ideas along with bringing them in real world. Till the age of 24, the
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personality have already defined key areas of emphasis including the Internet, Outer space as
well as Sustainable and Renewable energy (Gonzalez and Winkler, 2019). At present, Elon is
popular as an inventor, visionary leader and an individual who have achieved what few only
dream to do.
On the basis of Timmons Model of Entreneurship, it is analysed that three key factors
which influence success of entrepreneurship within Elon Musk are opportunities, teams
together with resources. Elon Musk is one of those entrepreneurial personality who have
understand all these factors and became potential for balancing all effectively. Therefore, Musk
is considered as a personality who have achieved mastered in attaining critical success factors.
There are multiple opportunities that have been searched by Elon Musk. Along with this, Elon
have also shaped all these opportunities into widely successful businesses names as Tesla,
SpaceX, The Boring Company, SolarCity, Zip2, X.com and OpenAI. All this is possible as Elon rely
on effective teams of engineers as well as accumulating optimum resources for the purpose of
driving growth. The entire processes is featured through risk taking that touches career addition
to personal cash flow with purpose of making rewards which reflect risk along with efforts that
are part of venture (Muegge and Reid, 2019).
Most of Elon Musk investment are related to opportunity driven along with market
forces that shaped all the opportunities. The first venture which was established by Musk was
Zip2 which was a Web software company for newspaper publishers. In some time duration
only, the venture was sold and the capital was further used to launch X.com that is an Internet
financial service entity. This venture was later merged with a firm named as Confinity in order
to devise PayPal in the year 2001. Later, in the year 2002, Elon emphasised towards affordable
space travel and worked to launch SpaceX so to promote affordable space exploration. In 2014,
the entreprenur became part of Tesla Motorts and launched various electronic automobile
making. Moreover, HyperLoop is another venture of Elon which is high speed transportation
system for public. The entrepreneur have strived for adding or creating values for customers
time to time with durable commodities for humanity. However, market opportunities despite of
business plans along with finance have drive Musk. The entrepreneur readily invested as well as
gain financial resources for the purpose of supporting failure proof opportunities for business.
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While establishing a venture that is named as Tesla which is business for electric cars,
solar panels along with energy solutions for other businesses and homes, there is one of
shortcoming that is faced by Elon Musk during investment that is raising required capital. It is
because after developing idea and organising team, one of challenge that entrepreneur goes to
face is to raise capital. Elon Musk was the one who envised the story for organisational future.
Making attempts for convincing investors about things that do not exist presently is one of
challenge faced by the entrepreneur specifically in economic recession. There is wider than to
raise money than simply asking investors for funds. There are investors that are ready for
making investment in already well established business but prior this, they prefers to become
sure to achieve greater returns (Ziemianski and Golik, 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the assessment, it is concluded that innovation and entrepreneurship goes hand in
hand. Entrepreneurship is significant because it comprises potentials for improving living
standards addition to devises wealth. Likewise, innovation assist in advancing society as it
resolves various types of problems pertaining in society along with enhance capacity to act. Key
personal qualities that makes a human as a great entrepreneur to grasp opportunities for
business success are passion for innovation, risk taking ability and networking. There are certain
entrepreneurial challenges including oversized capital requirements, Civil space safety and
commercial market stagnation that would be face by an entrepreneur to launch business and
establishing self sustainable city on Mars.
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REFERENCES
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Palgrave Macmillian,Basingstoke.
Carvalho, J. M., 2017. Social innovation and entrepreneurship: The case of Porto region.
In Entrepreneurship: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 850-887).
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Education of University——Based on the Reform Characteristics of Global Education in
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Ngugi, J. K. and Goosen, L., 2021. Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability for ICT
Students Towards the Post-COVID-19 Era. Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship,
Innovation, Sustainability, and ICTs in the Post-COVID-19 Era, pp.110-131.
Kier, A. S. and McMullen, J. S., 2018. Entrepreneurial imaginativeness in new venture
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Schoemaker, P. J., Heaton, S. and Teece, D., 2018. Innovation, dynamic capabilities, and
leadership. California Management Review. 61(1). pp.15-42.
Volentras, T., 2018. Interiority and objectivity with Starseeds on the pale blue dot: a thesis
presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in
Social Anthropology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand (Doctoral
dissertation, Massey University).
Gonzalez, K. and Winkler, C., 2019. The entrepreneurial breaking point: undergoing moments of
crisis. Management Decision.
Muegge, S. and Reid, E., 2019. Elon Musk and SpaceX: A study of entrepreneuring as
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for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM).
Ziemianski, P. and Golik, J., 2020. Including the Dark Side of Entrepreneurship in the
Entrepreneurship Education. Education Sciences. 10(8). p.211.
Online:
Thompson. L. 2018. Existential Challenges facing Elon Musk. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2018/12/11/five-existential-
challenges-facing-elon-musks-spacex/?sh=49f6c377127d>
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