Leadership, Innovation and Change

Running head: LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION AND CHANGE
LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION AND CHANGE
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1LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION AND CHANGE
Company overview – Tesla t
A big group of engineers who had an aim in proving that driving electric vehicles can be
lot better founded Tesla in the year 2003. They proved that electric cars can be lot better, quicker
and more fun than the simple gasoline cars which are found today. Tesla is not only known for
building electric vehicles but also are known for developing infinitely scalable and clean energy
generation and storage products. It is believed by Tesla that the faster the world stops relying in
the fossil fuel which are coming to an end and move to the electric vehicles which are zero
emission vehicles, it will be a better future (Huang, 2019).
The chosen leader is Elon Musk – Tesla
Elon Musk is the co – founder and CEO at Tesla who is known for overseeing all the
products, which are designed, engineering as well as manufacturing of all the electric vehicles,
batteries and solar paneled sunroofs. Elon Musk is also the co – founder, lead designer and CEO
of the Space Exploration Technologies or the Space X. There he is known for overseeing the
development and manufacturing the advanced rockets as well as spacecraft. His mission in Space
X is go reach beyond the Earth’s orbit and create a self sustaining city in Mars. He is alos a
leader and CEO of Neuralink, which is aiming to develop ultra – high bandwidth brain machines
which will be able to connect the human brains with the present computers (Boudette & Musk,
2018). He is also known as serving as a CEO of The Boring Company which is known for
combining fast and affordable tunneling technologies with a fully electric public vehicle which
will be able to run at high speed in order to convey the long distance travel.

2LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION AND CHANGE
Challenges which are faced by Tesla
Tesla in just building cars, the company needs to boost up the production line of the cars
which are manufactured in Tesla. Due to lack of leadership skills, by various top executives are
leaving the company Tesla is in a position of not meeting its primary goals and meeting targets.
According to Chen & Perez (2018) in the year 2018, the company had finally made an
achievement in meeting its long delayed goals of manufacturing 5000 of Tesla Model 3 per
week. Musk had essentially building the line second for assembly and production unit under a
huge tent in Australia in order to meet the target. Now Musk needs to prove that it was not a
coincidence, and Tesla has the capability of maintaining and even increase the level of
production in the recent years. Tesla had also promised of delivering the Model 3 to the Tesla
fans who had made an investment of $1000 dollars to the company. Therefore, they need to
speed up their production line in order to meet the targets
Tesla need to start making money by hitting the production targets as because it need to
turn the revenues of the company into profits. The company is in badly need to cash in order to
survive the existing market. In the words of Ji et al. (2019) it is estimated that the company is
running under a huge debt of$1.2 billion dollars and Tesla is planning to build a $2.0 billion
dollar plant in China which will be very critical for Tesla to expand in order to become the
world’s largest market for car sales in China. Musk has denied in an interview about the fact that
the company is facing financial problems. He says that the increase in the sales of the Model 3
will help Tesla generating enough cash, which will make Tesla profitable in the coming years.
Dealing with the lawsuits an d the investigator of the company is a very big challenge
which is faced by the company. Tesla was hit by two stakeholder’s lawsuits charging Musk that
he had a “funding secured” which was a false statement, he also had an attempt of manipulating

3LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION AND CHANGE
the stocks. Numerous reports shows that the Securities and Exchange commission was also
looking into the fact that whether Musk is violating the securities law with the claim of “funding
secured”
Re-establishment of Tesla in the present years has helped Tesla to grow really very fast
and its investors are willing to invest in Tesla and provide funding to the company so that Musk
can build his company accordingly. But after the initial excitement of the investors, the market
for Tesla soon showed that the investors are in a doubt that whether Musk will be able to lead the
company and remain as a public company. Musk says that the short sellers of the company and
the investors are betting that the stocks of the company will be declining. This constant fear,
uncertainty and doubt about Tesla company among the shareholder and customer is damaging
the reputation and goodwill of the company.
Tesla is facing problems with the command head of the company. There is urgency for an
experienced manager in order to help the company run in its day-to-day business. Numerous top
executives have left the company rather then working under Musk’s mercurial management style
in the present years. According to Olsson (2018) finding the right person would not be easy. It is
not possible for Musk to spend hours in the company and factory premises in order to manage
the company. In the words of (Shivaram,2019) Musk is known for spending more than 120 hours
a week, rarely leaving the factory and not having time to meet with the family and friends.
Whereas keeping on working for more than 120 hours a week is a good idea.
Leadership Style of Elon Musk in Tesla
The different types of leadership styles are: