Corporate Culture of Tesla Inc.: A Report on Strategy and Challenges

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Tesla Inc.'s corporate culture, examining its impact on the company's strategy, decision-making processes, and overall success. The report begins with an introduction to Tesla and its innovative approach, emphasizing the importance of its corporate culture in driving innovation and ethical values. It delves into the key features of Tesla's organizational culture, highlighting the emphasis on innovation, rapid response, and teamwork. The report then explores Tesla's strategies, including Elon Musk's 'first principles' approach and the company's focus on technological advancement and market differentiation. It analyzes the decision-making processes within Tesla, including considerations for product design, customer satisfaction, and supply chain management. The report also addresses the challenges Tesla faces, such as the risks associated with its start-up culture and the need to retain key leaders. Finally, it offers suggestions for how Tesla should adapt its values and culture to ensure future success, emphasizing employee prioritization and the alignment of culture with organizational results. The report concludes with a list of references used for research and analysis.

Corporate Culture
TESLA, Inc.
2018
Student Name
11/30/2018

Corporate Culture 1
Introduction
Tesla Motors one of the global automotive organizations which was founded in 2003, Elon
musk a CEO of a former company which launched Tesla as a main of the electric car industry
and encourages both innovation and ethical values (Debord, 2016). Tesla’s culture generates
human resource competency essential for generating more of innovative produces in future.
Its culture signifies the customs and standards that define employee’s behaviour and
decisions. Its culture authorizes its employees to look for idyllic solutions, which makes
corporate to stand out differently in a motorized industry.
Tesla’s culture
Tesla works over innovations and encourages their employees by continuous improvements
made in a business. By maintaining its human resource capabilities and a continuous growth
in global market by making improvements in electric auto- mobiles, batteries, solar panels
and other related products which highlights the strategic effectiveness within its corporate
culture.
Tesla is having an inventive problem-solving organisational culture. This kind of culture
inspires workforces to develop profitable solutions and helps in solving the emerging
problems to the target market. Likewise, company has developed the advance electric
vehicles that have internal combustion engines, which are the solutions to the environmental
issues. The company keeps on introducing the advance electric vehicles, which reflects the
benefits of corporate culture (Matousek, 2018).
The main features of tesla’s organisational culture highlights that they believe in moving fast
this highlight the employees’ capability that tends to respond rapidly and make changes in the

Corporate Culture 2
international market. They have always “do the impossible” mindset as it encourages the
employees to think out of the box moreover, such conditions open up new opportunities,
which strategically helps tesla to improve the overall performance. They also keep on
innovating because it helps in maintaining the competition with the other automotive
companies (Hawkins, 2017). They also works with the mindset of “we all are in” which
shows that synergetic teamwork that contributes to tesla’s competitiveness. Therefore, the
above-mentioned culture of Tesla’s majorly focuses on encouraging innovation, which helps
the company to grow and expects to accommodate news needs of a market by expanding and
diversifying its product offerings in future (Hawkins, 2017).
Tesla’s strategies
Elon Musk always wants that his workers to use an ancient mental strategy called
“first principles”. In this strategy, the idea was to do everything, which is underpinned
by a company, instead of blindly following the directions or sticking up to particular
process (Clifford, and Mejia, 2018).
A company also focuses on using advanced machineries in its electric automobiles in
order to maintain its competitive edge against the other auto mobiles companies like
as Bavarian motor works(BMW), Honda motors company and Nissan motor
company.
They also worked over strategic adjustments, ensure corporation’s resilience, doing
technological advancement and working according to the changing customer
preferences are the strategies adopted by tesla’s to make increments in the profits.
Company to maintain its competitive advantage, it works on attracting early adopters,
such strategy supports organisational growth, which is based on increasing sales
revenue.

Corporate Culture 3
They also broadly focuses on differentiation, they develop such products that
distinguish Tesla Company from the other firms in the similar business. They are
different because they majorly focus on integrating the advance environmentally
friendly technology. Their main target is to attract all potential customers. Therefore,
company is now majorly focusing on uniqueness of its product.
Last but not the least, tesla’s focuses on intensive growth strategies in which its
primary strategy is market penetration in which company are selling its more of
electronic cars in United States. In addition, secondary strategy is about product
development like the company offer solar panels, world’s first fully electric sports car,
such innovations helps companies to keep its extensive investments in research and
development. Thirdly, Tesla wants to enter into a new market and generate
more sales and wants to grow globally. They also focus on diversification, with this
strategic approach tesla wants to acquire other organizations and enter joint ventures
to progress entirely into new merchandises (Rowland, 2018).
Decision making of Tesla
Elon Musk works over strategic decisions for optimal productivity and maintains operational
effectiveness and high productivity in order to have success in an organisation. While making
strategic decisions they keep a keen eye over certain things, as they have to focus on
decisions regarding the designing of goods and services in which they have to focus on costs,
quality objective and resources. Other than this, satisfying customers’ quality expectations is
the main objective in the strategic decisions. This happens through regular quality check and
maintaining quality improvements initiatives. Moreover, location strategy is maintained by
proper decisions like in from what all countries the resources will be managed and in which
country, did Tesla sell its products to generate more sales (Denning, 2018).

Corporate Culture 4
Tesla, in addition looks over the decisions related to job design and human resource for this,
company ensure effectiveness of personnel through regular training as well as working over
the leadership development programs. Addition to this they also have to work over supply
chain management, which states that they have to focus on effective and efficient supply
process. Inventory management is also one of the main category on which company has to
generate decisions (Debord, 2016) .Moreover, Elon Musk also uses six-step process to solve
problem and look for a new idea make decisions accordingly, which are:
Ask a question
Gather evidence
Develop axioms based on evidence
Draw conclusion based on cogency in order to determine, Axioms are relavant
Seek refutation to further break your conclusions
If nobody invalidate conclusion, then they are probably right
Challenges of Tesla
Tesla start up culture has big challenges for future because they are stirring into the risky and
critical stage of its expansion, as they push themselves to expand its numerous new products
that include colossal challenges (Fehrenbacher, 2015).While start-up they had to recruit and
restrain key leaders which helps company to achieve its goals. Likewise, in future the

Corporate Culture 5
employees of tesla have to work as teamwork in order to fulfil the customers’ requirements.
In future, they also need to make good relationships with its workforce, as they are main
ingredients of the company. Last challenge due to the culture is, Tesla needs to make money
and should figure out how the entangled ordinary problems within the organisation culture
can be solved and try to be extraordinary (Brooks, 2018).
How challenges constrain future of Tesla
The challenges arises out due to the culture has a major constrain for future plans because if
company will not recruit and restrain key leaders then the company without the leadership
will not effectively and efficiently work out the plans set by the top management. In addition,
if employees of the Tesla Company will not work as a team then, none of the companies’
requirement will meet the expectations of their customers (Houser, 2017). Other than this,
tesla has to maintain such culture within an organisation in which employees work more
effectively and efficiently along with this, the company could earn profits and try being
extraordinary for future. Moreover, if all this is not maintained by the company within its
culture then it will be a major constrain for planned decisions (Gupta, 2017).
Suggestions
Tesla should change its values and culture in order to ensure successful future by more
focusing and giving more priority to employees and their safety. An activate awareness helps
the company in knowing different perspectives and through feedbacks which also helps in
formatting decisions which were set earlier. Other than this, accepting the change in which,
managers of tesla has to work in such a way that it lead from the front line, not from some
safe or relaxed ivory tower. They should always put their team safety over other things. Tesla
employees within an organisation should work and deliver the right experience in order to

Corporate Culture 6
ensure successful future. Lastly, aligning the organisations culture with the results which
demonstrates the overall success of the organisation because we all know the right culture
with the right sets of values accelerates successful results.

Corporate Culture 7
References
Brooks, R. (2018) Workplace spotlight: the challenge of maintaining tesla’s mission- driven
culture [Online] Available from: https://peakon.com/blog/workplace-culture/tesla-company-
culture/ [Accessed 30/11/2018]
Clifford, C., and Mejia, Z. (2018) Why Elon Musk wants his employees to use an ancient
mental strategy called “first principles” [online] Available from:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/why-elon-musk-wants-his-employees-to-use-a-strategy-
called-first-principles.html [Accessed 30/11/18]
Debord, M. (2016) Elon Musk made totally mind- blowing changes to Tesla’s strategy
[Online] Available from: https://www.businessinsider.in/Elon-Musk-just-made-a-totally-
mind-blowing-change-to-Teslas-strategy/articleshow/52116423.cms [Accessed 30/11/18]
Denning, S. (2018) why Elon Musk is key to Tesla’s success [Online] Available from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniedenning/2018/10/08/why-musk-is-key-to-teslas-
success/#7bd1704c33f5 [Accessed 30/11/2018]
Fehrenbacher, K. (2015) Tesla’s start-up culture has big risks and rewards [Online]
Available from: http://fortune.com/2015/08/21/teslas-startup-culture-musk/ [Accessed
30/11/18]
Gupta, S. (2017) Three biggest challenges that Tesla is now facing [Online] Available from:
http://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/article/Three-Biggest-Challenges-That-Tesla-is-Now-
Facing-/10-06-2017-119867/ [Accessed 30/11/18]
Hawkins, A.J. (2017) How Tesla changed the auto industry forever [Online] Available from:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/28/16059954/tesla-model-3-2017-auto-industry-influence-
elon-musk [Accessed 30/11/18]

Corporate Culture 8
Houser, K. (2017) 7ways Tesla is changing everything [Online] Available from:
https://futurism.com/ready-for-edit-7-ways-tesla-is-changing-everything [Accessed
30/11/2018]
Matousek, M. (2018) Tesla’s problems are mounting- here’s everything that has gone wrong
so far this year [Online] Available from: https://www.businessinsider.in/Teslas-problems-
are-mounting-heres-everything-that-has-gone-wrong-so-far-this-year/articleshow/
63848170.cms [Accessed 30/11/2018]
Rowland, C. (2018) Tesla, Inc.’s Generic strategy & Intensive growth strategies (analysis)
[Online] Available from: http://panmore.com/tesla-motors-inc-generic-strategy-intensive-
growth-strategies-analysis [Accessed 30/11/2018]