Innovation and Entrepreneurship Report: Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Elon Musk's entrepreneurial endeavors, focusing on his ventures with SpaceX and Tesla. It begins by identifying three key personal qualities that contribute to his success, including his willingness to learn, strong work ethic, and high-risk tolerance. The report then explores three significant entrepreneurial challenges faced by SpaceX, such as financial issues, marketing strategies, and facing criticism. Furthermore, the report assesses Elon Musk's entrepreneurial performance, discussing the shortcomings of Tesla's products, including limited market reach and customer complaints, and emphasizing the importance of teamwork. The conclusion underscores the need for Tesla to address its weaknesses and leverage its strong brand name for continued growth and market success, and also highlights that the company is not just a one-man show and requires teamwork to function efficiently. The report draws on various sources to support its arguments and provides a comprehensive overview of Musk's impact on innovation and entrepreneurship.

INNOVATION AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1. Three main personal qualities of Elon Musk..........................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
2. Three entrepreneurial challenges............................................................................................5
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................6
3. Elon Musk entrepreneurial performance and any shortcoming..............................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
BOOKS AND JOURNAL..........................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Innovation means creative thoughts, new ideas and now imagination in a device or
methods. Innovation can lead to meet any targets in the existing market, new requirement and
unarticulated needs. Innovation is used so that the companies can change there products very
acceptable by the customers and those products can get a high level of customers so that the
company can make a profit out of this idea. Entrepreneurship is when there is launching,
designing and running new business which is first started on a smaller scale. The people who
start such businesses are known as entrepreneurs. There are always high risks in start any
business but there must be sure about the decisions and the steps the company will have to take.
The report will cover the SpaceX which in an initiative by Elon Musk for reaching the
Mars. Elon Musk did not give out his attempt to reach the Mars even after be failed so many
times. The experiment continued and after so many attempts Elon finally found success.
Task 1
1. Three main personal qualities of Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla company and his belief is that when things are important
one will do it anyways, no matter how much the world is against it to happen. Elon is the role
model for many other entrepreneurs because he started with nothing and made everything around
him all by himself. Elon Musk wanted to reduce the price put for the production of rocket and he
made so many rockets for half the amount that the actual rockets cost but they failed for some
reason (Schmitz, A and et.al., 2017). The best point about Elon Musk which makes him what he
is today, is that he does not give up and continues to try to put his best in the next attempt. The
three major qualities of Elon Musk which makes him unique are as follows-
Willingness To Learn Always-
Elon Musk has a bachelor degree in economics and physics. Being only this much
qualified he taught himself more about other subjects which makes him what he is today. There
are so many programmings and taught himself advance subjects. There is no age limit of
learning. With experience comes learning and Elon Musk has learnt a lot from launching so
many rockets which did not become a success but he learnt from them and now is still willing so
keep trying. With knowledge comes new ideas and answers to the problems that the company
must be facing. Elon wants to reduce global warming from the world and improve the living of

people in the environment and without being knowledgeable he would not have realised these
facts. Learning is constant in life and the one who shuts that leaning more and gaining more
knowledge than they will not be able to succeeded in life (Muegge & Reid, 2019).
Characteristic Work Ethics And Hard Work-
Elon Musk is one person in the organisation that wants to work 400 hours a month which
is setting a very good example for the employees of the organisation. Elon enjoys what he does
and therefore willingly works for so many hours because he wants a motivation in doing so. This
way he is not just setting goals for the employees but also standards of the organisation so that
the other employees get motivated to work like he does. Elon has been this way since like
forever towards his work therefore he is hat he is today. Top 50 richest man in the world, Elon
Musk is one of them because of his hard work and efforts put in the company.
Strong Risk Tolerance-
Musk has taken a lot of risks to start up any of his businesses for example spaceX is one
of his innovative ideas to make the rockets reach Mars in half the price possible and he failed
multiple times but till date he has not given up and he is not getting enough funding for it but he
continues his idea (Chang, 2018). Musk was one of the first to start an online bank which was
names X.com and this idea took an investment of millions of dollars. There are many more ideas
which were a great risk for Musk to invest in but he still did because from those risk he learned a
lot and that experience is helping him grow more and more.
Task 2
2. Three entrepreneurial challenges.
Starship is a rocket which spaceX has designed and the lead designer is Elon Musk.
Starship will be launched not before 2021. This rocket is supper heavy which has full reusable
transportation system which is designed for both cargo to the moon, mars and Earth's orbit and
crew. The world's ever developed most power full vehicle ever launched will be starship
(Caneque & Hart, 2017). The challenges faced as an entrepreneurial for the launch of Starship
would be as follows-
Financial Issues-
SpaceX is not being able to get in funds for the making and developing of Starship
because the company has failed so many times that the other company's do not want to invest in

this company and Elon Musk being himself will not give up his dream and his hard work for this
mission to accomplish. The financial condition of spaceX is not good at all and the company will
not still continue to do its work to make this mission a success. Musk has never given up on any
mission till he does not achieve it and that's exactly what makes him unique and a man who loves
his working area will always want to do the best in each try to attempt to achieve it (Kirilyuk,
Mandik & Lichevskaya, 2018).
Marketing Strategy-
SpaceX is not a being able to market itself anymore because the portfolio of this
company has become a big obstacle for them because they have not achieved any success till
now (Edwards-Schachter and et.al., 2015). The company will have to get in more investors by
gaining trust on the investors so that they can get more people for investing in there company
otherwise they will not be able to launch starship.
Facing Criticism-
The company has not achieved any success which is making them get criticism from
everyone and the company is not being able to grow and starship is not being able to launch
before 2021. Starship is the heaviest rocket and will create history in the world but because of the
criticism no one is willing to invest in this company band that is not making this rocket a
success.
Task 3
3. Elon Musk entrepreneurial performance and any shortcoming.
Tesla was founded in 2003, July. Tesla is coming out with electrical cars so that they can
reduce global warming and there are a lot of customers complaining about the company and the
brand name. CEO of Tesla is Elon Musk is the one who got in this new idea of making electronic
cars because it is his idea to save the world which could help them be unique in automobile
company and also save the world (Etzkowitz & Zhou, 2017). These electronic cars are going to
be cheaper than most the cars in Tesla and will be affordable by the people who are the average
customers. In 2019, Tesla got permission to start manufacturing in China which was a big deal
for them because that can reduce there cost and price of the cars so that they can capture a larger
market.

The drawbacks of the new product of Tesla or the shortcoming is that they have a limited
market under them and that market also has complains for Tesla a lot. Tesla is not just one mans
work but it's a team work so Musk can only motivate his employees to get the work done faster
and maintain the quality and standards of the company. The customers do not like the services
the company is providing them and there is a default in cars which they receive and that makes
the customers very angry (Muegge & Reid, 2019). The production of the vehicles is very slow
and the people are not happy with the company's production then the slow work is also not
making the customers satisfied with the finished good.
Tesla is a strong brand name and has innovated ideas always to invest in the cars and
company to work more efficiently but this work is not of a single man the entire team has to get
to work and do it properly. Tesla always manages to come out with innovative ideas but can not
fall in the right place for the customers to like there work.
CONCLUSION
Elon Musk the CEO of Tesla is a hard working man but it is not the job of an individual
for making the company work efficiently. He can play a major role in motivating the people of
the company but he can not do everyone else work for them.
Tesla knows its weaknesses so they should start working on there negatives to achieve
the best in the market so that they can make major profits. Tesla is having a very strong brand
name and has a limited market. Tesla has a going run to grow and become even better.

REFERENCES
BOOKS AND JOURNAL
Caneque, F. C., & Hart, S. L. (Eds.). 2017. Base of the pyramid 3.0: sustainable development
through innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Chang, K. 2018. Falcon heavy, in a roar of thunder, carries SpaceX’s ambition into orbit. The
New York Times. 6.
Edwards-Schachter, M and et.al., 2015. Disentangling competences: Interrelationships on
creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Thinking Skills and Creativity. 16, 27-39.
Etzkowitz, H., & Zhou, C. 2017. The triple helix: University–industry–government innovation
and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Kirilyuk, A., Mandik, N., & Lichevskaya, S. 2018. 5 Ideas of Elon Musk.
Muegge, S., & Reid, E. 2019. Elon Musk and SpaceX: A Case Study of Entrepreneuring as
Emancipation. Technology Innovation Management Review. 9(8).
Muegge, S., & Reid, E. 2019. Elon Musk and SpaceX: A study of entrepreneuring as
emancipation. In ISPIM Conference Proceedings (pp. 1-13). The International Society
for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM).
Schmitz, A and et.al., 2017. Innovation and entrepreneurship in the academic setting: a
systematic literature review. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal.
13(2). 369-395.