Elon Musk: A Case Study on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This assignment is a comprehensive case study analyzing Elon Musk's entrepreneurial ventures, focusing primarily on SpaceX and Tesla. It begins by evaluating three key personal qualities that have contributed to Musk's success, such as optimism, passion for innovation, and personal influenc...Read More

Innovation and
Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Critically evaluating any three main personal qualities that made Elon Musk a great
entrepreneur.................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Critically discussing three entrepreneurial challenges that Elon SpaceX business will face
during Starship launch and his vision in developing first sustainable city on planet mars.........5
TASK 3-...........................................................................................................................................7
Critically examining Elon Musk entrepreneurial performance and any shortcoming during his
investment in Tesla.....................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Innovation and entrepreneurship are two elements that help companies to grow even
better than its last few years or months and to succeed in specific sector. Innovation is considered
as process of innovating some new product or services, while entrepreneurship is defined as
competence of person which they may use to develop, manage and organize innovative idea. The
current assignment will be based on Elon Musk, which falls under list of the most popular
entrepreneurs in the world. The study will explain any three main personal qualities that made
him a great businessman and will also justify three entrepreneurial challenges that his business
will face with recent Starship launch. Furthermore, the report will clarify additional research to
critically examine Elon Must entrepreneurial performance and any shortcoming during high
investment in context of specific venture.
TASK 1
Critically evaluating any three main personal qualities that made Elon Musk a great entrepreneur
A personal quality is defined as trait that make a person able to conduct beneficial and
useful activities in term of starting a new venture, launching a new product etc (Norboevich,
2020). Here, three main personal qualities discuss below in regard to Elon Musk;
Optimistic-
This quality is described as stable personality characteristic which relate to positive
expectations among person regarding future events (Gordeeva, Sheldon and Sychev, 2020).
Optimistic is one of the personal qualities which made Elon Musk a successful business man in
the world of corporate. It helps to make him able in context of grasping venture growth
opportunities that presented throughout his lifetime. He is quite optimistic with his recent launch.
His optimistic attitude towards own work and competence to rise above failures make him a
great entrepreneur and different more than rest of the entrepreneurs in the whole world. He is a
genius person, which defines his great sense and optimistic nature. According to this personal
quality, he ignored what is inconvenient and attempts to achieve set aims and objectives, which
is quite beneficial for him (Tutton, 2020). This personal quality, drive the attention and
concentration of Elon Musk towards conducting hard work and also towards attitude which
enables them to never give up regarding any challenge as easily as pessimists.

With this attitude, he more likely to continue work toward his aims, even in face of
challenges, obstacles and setbacks. Optimistic personality made him a great person and
successful entrepreneur. It permits him to gain competitive edges in term of launching Start ship
space craft, which in return provides a lot of benefits to Musk.
Passion for innovation-
In the world, each person have a specific personal quality, which makes them capable to
do certain activities. Passion of innovation is one of personal qualities that makes Musk able to
become a great entrepreneur (Luu and Nguyen, 2020). This attribute made him able to innovate
some new products such as his first Rocket ride to Mars. It enables them to recognize his venture
imperative of embracing modifications occurring in competitive business environment through
rapid improvement in each aspect of corporate world and emerging technologies as well as
demand for innovative ideas in term of goods or services. For instance, Elon Musk is a true
innovator as he innovates must electric jet. Many people consider him as the most innovative
person because he seems to trust that there is a creation to solve varied issues that arises. He is
quite passionate about innovation and according to this attribute Musk innovate many items.
Innovation is described as process of introducing something in new in term of products or
services, which help a company to satisfy the needs of their target customers. His personal
quality made him successful businessman and also enable him to change the whole world.
Personal influences-
Just like above two personal quality, the current one also contribute to made Elon Musk a
well-known entrepreneur. It is one of the best qualities that many entrepreneurs have and gain
benefits through it. It made Musk a great person and entrepreneur in term of making him able to
respect values and efforts of his workers (Breen, 2020). For example, he has potential and ability
to influence all the staff members by taking their valuable suggestions, it helps him to earn great
respect from each candidate that work within company from longer period. Elon with personal
influences attribute has influencing by contributing innovation to the world that improved it in a
different or unique manner and creates a social affects in positive manner. He attempts to
influence society and employees as well by using effective and appropriate tactics. He motivates
people to succeed and help them feel like they are important part of his organization. Musk's
drive the attention of his senior executives to find out ways to encourage and motivate
employees through selflessness.

Importance of above three personal qualities in context of other entrepreneurs-
Three types of personal qualities has discussed above in context of Elon Musk, which
provide benefits to him in term of making able to be a great entrepreneur forever. All these
qualities are also beneficial and essential for other entrepreneurs. Optimistic, personal influences
and passion for innovation as personal qualities play vital role in success of businessman and
allow them to get competitive advantages in term of increasing sales, customer satisfactory level
and profitability as well.
Illustration 1: Tesla's quarterly report could land Musk another $3 billion
(Source: Tesla's quarterly report , 2020)

TASK 2
Critically discussing three entrepreneurial challenges that Elon SpaceX business will face during
Starship launch and his vision in developing first sustainable city on planet mars
While operating a venture an entrepreneur faces many challenges, which affect their
work, management practices, decision-making process, and operational efficiency as well in a
negative manner for short or may be longer-term period. Just like the other successfully
businessman companies, Elon Mask's company named SpaceX will also face major
entrepreneurial challenges during recent Starship promotion and his vision in developing first
self-sustainable city on Mars planet.
Oversized capital requirements-
With recent Starship launch and vision to establish first sustainable city on planet, Elon
Musk has faced major challenges such as oversized money requirements (Chen and et.al, 2021).
It is not that easy for any businessman to launch a rocket and plan to reach at Mars, as the overall
process is quite expensive. Due to costly equipments and other resources, Elon Musk face the
challenge and that is over budget, which put negative impact on its vision and process of
developing sustainable place on Mars. It can be said that going to marks is highly expensive
decision, as it needs all sorts of costly raw materials, technologies and other equipments that
does not recently exist. It is one of the biggest challenges, which he faces and because of it, he
focused on using appropriate methods.
Technology challenge-
Along with above barrier, Elon Musk's organization will face another major challenge
that put negative impact upon process of establishing city on Mars and recent launch of Starship
(Sheehan, 2021). Due to lack of advance technologies firm will face challenge to refuel orbital,
which is quite important to do in term of increasing its speed to reach at planet Mars. It is the
biggest challenge for company to refuel rockets on time which goes under process of reaching
planet. Starship launch will need to refuel a single Mars bound in low earth orbit, it will include
convert of hundred tones of liquid oxygen and methane. According to the CEO, this is one of the
most complicated technology challenge that SpaceX venture will face and have to overcome, by
taking right action in term of using advance technologies.
Military market access-

This entrepreneurial challenge also impact procedure of Starship Launch in negative
manner (Robert, Puteaux and Najjar, 2020). Before launching starship and establishing first self-
sustainable place on Mars where people will live like they live on earth, Elon Musk organization
will need to take access from military market as they accountable for managing national security
space systems. United State, air force is recently awarded in context of developing legal
aggrievement for a new generation of launch rockets, orbital and other vehicles. Without taking
military market access or rewards, SpaceX is unable to launch their starship, which affect its
vision statement and current management practices negatively. In recent time, firm is still
compete in second stage of system, but it recognizes like government will not be funding
development of any new launch vehicle for SpaceX.
Impact of above three challenges on any entrepreneur's project-
Three entrepreneurial challenges has discussed above in appropriate manner, which will
affect Starship launch. These barriers may also impact on any businessman projects in negative
manner. For example, oversize capital requirements impact the way an entrepreneur take
decision to add key features within its products just to make it unique and much better than rivals
goods. In order to launch a new product in market, varied resource are required which make
budget over according to the expectations. Military market access is another major issue or tasks,
that impact overall operational efficiency.
Ways to overcome these challenges-
In order to overcome above three entrepreneurial barriers, Elon Musk and other
entrepreneurs that operate in similar sector may consider varied approaches that are accessible in
the business world and utilized by many businessman's (SpaceX beginning to tackle some of the
big challenges for a Mars journey, 2019). For example, SpaceX will outline a plan, according to
that it will send at least two cargo missions to Mars at first chance to fuel rocket. Furthermore, in
context of oversize money requirement, company will focus on developing plan including which
management may consider sources of funding that is actually a major concern of any
entrepreneur (Trencher, Taeihagh and Yarime, 2020).
Ellon Musk may take initiative in context of innovation by considering the theory of
innovation such as diffusion of innovation. Innovation is one of those key elements that
contributes to enhance the growth and to get better success in context of ventures.

TASK 3-
Critically examining Elon Musk entrepreneurial performance and any shortcoming during his
investment in Tesla
Entrepreneurial performance is defined as a person ability which drive their attention
towards be effective in his or her careers that help to achieve desirable results in negotiations or
to get organizational success (Bergner, 2020).
Elon Musk have varied types of competence that he used in his personal and professional
life. As chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, he seems to be everywhere all at once to push his
teams members toward success and hard work without taking stress from key challenges (Kim,
2020). As a founder of TESLA, he work really very hard to get his company a successful brand
in the automotive sector. By influencing his workers, he has build a strong team of candidates at
workplace who are able to contribute to gain competitive advantages. After Joining tesla in 2004,
he attempts to make firm able to be competitive for longer period against rivals that has operated
in same industry from longer period of time. In term of effective strategies he oversees all
engineering, product development and design of organization's goods, which is quite beneficial
for him as it help him to determine key issues that may impact productivity of brand in negative
manner. Just because of his hard work and creative mind, company stock closed above 100
billion market capitalization for very first time. In recent time, it is impossible not to think of
Elon Musk without effectively thinking of Tesla (Cornell, 2020). It can be analysed that with the
help of his guidance and passion for innovation, organization has successfully launched varied of
vehicles in market, which in return increased profitability and productivity just like other leading
brands in the automotive and other sector has well.
Furthermore, along with above attempts, Elon Musk also contribute to build an effective
teams at Tesla by using motivational approaches and key techniques. For example, he
encourages each applicant to share personal thoughts, ideas and options relate to growth of his
company, which in return help him to gain competitive advantages and create a positive work
culture within brand (GS and LS, 2020). He always considers the need of staff members and
drive the attention of seniors to do so, that may help to improve workers performance and
productivity. He does his the best to encourage candidates to succeed. He is the major
shareholder of varied organization such as Paypal, Hyperloop etc. Musk really motivates workers
in same manner to how most entrepreneurs do. For example, as successful entrepreneur he

performs actually quite well and in influencing manner in term of taking decision to reward
staffs for their hard work to innovate and contribute to produce innovative products such as
Starhip, electric cars, solar panels, energy solutions for other brands etc.
He has ability to encourage people to perform in productive and creative manner which is
beneficial for both management and workers. He had a courage to take challenges while leading
many firms including Tesla, his family and other close people have prided upon him as he
always invested his own money or saving into own organization to make each of firm successful,
productive, and succeed.
Shortcoming-
On the other hand, along with benefits and success, Elon Musk has faced several
challenges in term of failure during his investment in Tesla, which affect profits margin and
productivity of brand. For example, he invests a lot of money within chosen company to grow it
even better than last few months or years while operating in automotive industry. In term of
shortcoming, he gets fail to transform TESLA as private organization, because it is a public firm
and its duties are much bigger element, which bring barriers during process of being private.
These challenges may also arise due to external and internal forces. External forces are
one of those components that put negative impact on sales and strategic management plans of a
company.
Furthermore, the main failure of Elon Musk is parts of Tesla model 3 which being made
by hand. He did not get success in this project after investing money. Shortcoming is defined as
failing or something that is recognized to be a flaw (Vivek, 2020). Musk fail to produce hand
made parts of his Tesla model 3. He decides to manufacture major portions of vehicles by hand
more than on a production line or using technologies because automated production operation
was not ready to utilize yet. Not only this he also gets failed during investment in many projects
with Tesla. Elon Musk attempt to use spontaneous battery combustion within his TESLA model
5, which also get failed because of specific reason. The main reason behind failure of this project
is issues with spontaneous battery combustion, which impact Musk expectations and enable him
to get desire outcomes.
After failing in certain projects with organization, he still stands strong and work hard to
grow even better, which is one of the best things about him. Elon Musk never accept failure and

always drive their attention towards developing innovative or creative ideas that may help to
transform shortcoming into success.
CONCLUSION
From above analysis, it has been concluded that Elon Musk as a great and successful
businessman, contribute to change the world in positive manner. By innovating new 10 excellent
inventions he has successfully changed the universe. By taking right actions and developing
strategies, he overcome challenges and with success launch Starship. His passion for innovation,
made him well-known innovator who always focus on creating something new.

REFERENCES
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incrementally predict intention, status and success of leaders and entrepreneurs
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Teams. In New Leadership in Strategy and Communication (pp. 95-106). Springer,
Cham.
Chen, Q. and et.al, 2021. Civil Aircrafts Augmented Space-Air-Ground Integrated Vehicular
Networks: Motivation, Breakthrough and Challenges. IEEE Internet of Things
Journal.
Cornell, B., 2020. The Tesla stock split experiment. Journal of Asset Management. 21(7).
pp.647-651.
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attributional style: Attributions following positive events matter most. European
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GS, D. and LS, M.R., 2020. Customer perception towards tesla electric car’s innovative
features. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government. 26(2). pp.521-
527.
Kim, H., 2020. Analysis of how Tesla Creating Core Innovation Capability. International
Journal of Business and Management. 15(6).
Luu, N. and Nguyen, H., 2020. Entrepreneurial passion and a firm’s innovation
strategies. Journal of Small Business Management. pp.1-25.
Norboevich, T.B., 2020. Analysis of psychological theory of emotional intelligence. European
Journal of Research and Reflection in Educational Sciences. 8(3). pp.99-104.
Robert, F.A., Puteaux, M. and Najjar, A., 2020. Small Satellites Market Growth Patterns and
Related Technologies. Handbook of Small Satellites: Technology, Design,
Manufacture, Applications, Economics and Regulation, pp.1-41.
Sheehan, S.W., 2021. Electrochemical Methane Production from CO2 for Orbital and
Interplanetary Refueling. Iscience. p.102230.
Trencher, G., Taeihagh, A. and Yarime, M., 2020. Overcoming barriers to developing and
diffusing fuel-cell vehicles: Governance strategies and experiences in Japan. Energy
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Tutton, R., 2020. Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Techno-Optimism: Examining Outer Space
Utopias of Silicon Valley. Science as Culture. pp.1-24.

Vivek, S., 2020. Cascading Failure From Targeted Road Network Disruptions. arXiv preprint
arXiv:2010.09887.
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