Tesla Motors: Detailed Report on Strategic Goals, CSR, and Innovation

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Tesla Motors, examining its strategic objectives, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, and innovative endeavors. The report begins by outlining Tesla's strategic goal of creating an affordable mass market for electric vehicles (EVs) and details the company's approach to achieving this goal through selling its own vehicles, selling patented electric powertrains, and acting as a catalyst for the industry. The report then delves into Tesla's CSR efforts, focusing on its commitment to sustainability and environmental friendliness across its communities, customers, employees, investors/shareholders, and government relations. Furthermore, the report explores Tesla's innovations, highlighting its advancements in battery technology, autopilot systems, and sustainable energy solutions. The report concludes by summarizing Tesla's impact on the electric vehicle market and its vision for a future powered by sustainable energy.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Introduction to Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
The aim of the report is to provide a detailed insight into Tesla Motors, an organization known
for its advanced electric cars. The report sheds a light on the strategic goals of the company and
the initiatives it undertakes in reaching. The report also focuses on corporate social responsibility
(CSR) and the various initiatives undertaken by Tesla. There is also a discussion about the
innovation that Tesla undertaken along with a mention of few of its products.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:................................................................................................................................3
2. Strategic Goal of Tesla Motor:....................................................................................................3
3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).......................................................................................6
4. Innovation:...................................................................................................................................8
5. Conclusion:..................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction:
The report provides an overview of Tesla Motors. The company has been found in the
year 2003 by Elon Musk, Marc Tapenning Martin Eberhard and had its headquarters in
California. Tesla Motors has been the designer and manufacturer of advanced electric powered
trains in the world (tesla.com, 2020). The company has never compromised on innovation,
performance, appeal nor did it ever compromise its commitment towards hiring and
development. Tesla Motors preferred to work in smaller focused teams that are efficient and
agile. The company has faster pace, a stimulating work ambience, innovative means and limited
structure. Tesla Motors is also known for its production plants and multiple assembly. The year
2008 has been remarkable as the company launched Roadster which was a battery operated
electric sports car. The Roadster has been the first electric car known for using Lithium ion
battery and travelled over 200 miles. The year 2010 also holds some importance since it is the
year when Tesla registered for IPO. It was also the year when the company bought the General
Motor (GM) factory and signed a deal to cooperate in the development of electric vehicle. The
report here focuses on identifying the strategic goals of Tesla Motors. The report also provided
an insight into corporate social responsibility and the initiatives undertaken by Tesla. Further, the
report also discusses the innovation aspect of Tesla by focusing on its various innovation in
detail.
2. Strategic Goal of Tesla Motor:
Tesla Motors looks forward to selling and designing super-efficient, high performance
electric car (Bohnsack, Pinkse & Kolk, 2014). The cars produced not only represent style and
acceleration but it remains integrated with advanced technologies that makes them one of the
quickest as well as energy efficient car on planet. Tesla Motor has put across the best blend of

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technology and automotive world on single platform. In fact the key technology of Tesla had
been 100 percent electric powertrain (Teece, 2018). The company has tried to alter the
perceptions of the electric vehicles and thereby make the electric cars a feasible alternative
through production of a car that is exciting and beautiful to drive while being one of the effective
production automobile on planet.
The strategy of Tesla has been in entering the higher end market where the customers
remain prepared in paying a premium followed by a drive down the market as quick as possible
resulting in higher volume and lower price with every successive model (Teece, 2018). Strategic
goals thus represented the goals that have been created for identification of intended
accomplishment of the business strategy (Perkins & Murmann, 2018). The long term strategic
goal of Tesla lies in the creation of an affordable and mass market for the electric vehicles (EV).
Tesla however already made an entry into the market with sporty roadster. The production of
Roadster stopped after it introduced a sedan known as Model S. In the year 2015, Tesla started
delivering the first SUV known as Model X. However, the deliveries of Model 3 began in year
July 2017. The company has also been working on the newer and the supercharged model of
Roadster that has been claimed as the fastest car in the world since it possess the capacity of
travelling 60 miles in closer to 1.9 seconds(Saxton, 2013). This car has an expected release date
of 2021. Nevertheless, the most remarkable moment of Tesla in the year 2017 has been unveiling
of the completely electric Semi Truck whose features improved the autopilot and boasted of an
energy consumption that has been lesser than 2kWh for every mile. Tesla Motors received pre-
order bookings from the different delivery companies. The production of the Semi began in the
year 2019.

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Thus, market expansion has been one of the crucial requirement for initiating further
development of the Tesla Motors within automobile industry (Barmore, 2013). The targeted
customers must be in their mid-20 and the early 40’s. The basic investment must be placed on
the improvement of the existing service and the innovation of the new products through heavily
emphasizing on the development and research thereby gaining competitive edge. Therefore, for
achieving the goals, Tesla Motors will enhance the variety and the number of the electric
vehicles that remain available to the mainstream consumers in the three following ways:
 Selling of the own vehicles: This can be done through either online or through the
showrooms owned by the company. The initial models has been Roadster also known as
Model S. The company is however expected to start selling Model X by the next year.
 Selling of Patented Electric Powertrain: This implies selling of components to the
other auto manufacturer so that they are able to deliver their electric vehicles to the
customers soon. Thus, the company went into a partnership with Mercedes and Toyota
for supplying the charging system and batteries.
 Serving as the Catalyst: This implies serving as positive example for the other
automakers thus portraying that there lay a pent up consumer demand for the vehicles
which are not only efficient but high performing.
Therefore, the strategic goal of Toyota is described via the following table
Expansion Plans Partnership with Traditional
Automakers
Looking Forward to Newer
Application of Tech.
Reaching the production goal
of achieving the 20k mark for
Model S.
 Partnership with
Mercedes and Toyota
 Expanding to all the
automakers
Electric motors and battery
technology had broader
potential for application

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 Standardizing the Ev
parts for effective
manufacturing.
3. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been defined as self-regulatory business model
that enables a company in remaining socially accountable not only to themselves but also to the
stakeholders and public (Hoi, Wu & Zhang, 2018).Tesla Motor addresses the interest of the
stakeholders through the strategy of corporate social responsibility which focuses on the aspect
of sustainability and the environment friendliness of energy storage, automotive and products
that generate energy. The CSR initiatives of Tesla includes:
1. Communities: Tesla remained socially responsible through reducing the car
emissions. More recently, Tesla moved a step forward and decided in releasing valuable patents
for the company. The purpose behind release of patents has been to reduce the greenhouse gas
primarily produced by the cars powered by gasoline. Tesla realized that it will not be able to
meet all the international demand for electric cars but what the company realized was that the
protection of the planet has been vital compared to its profit. Tesla therefore wanted the big
automotive company to start using its technology with the hope of making the electric cars
increasingly affordable.
2. Customers: One of Tesla’s corporate social initiative has been the protection of the
interest of the stakeholders and the shared value through gearing the corporate social
responsibility towards environment friendly and sustainable energy based automotive
production. The corporate social responsibility of Tesla has been enhanced to global level instead

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of simply being a local one. Another notable sacrifice or contribution made for betterment of the
global enrichment has been the release of the patents based on the corporate technology for the
public. The mission of Tesla lies in accelerating the world towards the sustainable energy. Tesla
thus tried to prove to the people that they did not have to compromise for driving the electric
vehicle since electric cars are considered to be quicker, better and more fun in driving compared
to the gasoline cars.
3. Employees: This stakeholder group had interest in equal treatment, career
development, higher wages and opportunities. They have been crucial as they has always had an
impact on capacity of service and production in business. In order to classify the interest of
employees, Tesla undertook various actions in relation to CSR which includes global warming,
sustainable workforce and programs related to the global leadership. In order to protect the
health, capabilities and the productivity of employees, the company has undertaken initiatives
such as sustainable workforce. Besides this, the company has undertaken various development
programs which involved monitoring of profits and performance of managers and employees in
order to motivate them in achieving the organizational goals. The company has also put forward
leadership programs for the managers of the middle level. These programs falls under activities
of CSR and the dedication of firms in addressing interest of employees.
4. Investors/Shareholders: Shareholders have been the key stakeholder group in
Tesla who has been really supportive in achieving the business objectives and goals. The prime
interest of shareholders in Tesla has been in maximizing profit of the business within the market.
They are vital since they seem to impact the company’s capital. Therefore, for addressing and
understanding central interest of the shareholders, Tesla has been planning for the electric
vehicles under approval and guidance of shareholders (Engels & Szabo, 2017) .The plan for the

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electric vehicles has been helping in reducing cost that is incurred by petroleum and fuel since
electric cars will be comparatively cheaper. In present times, the shareholders have remained
concerned about the adjacent environment so that the very concept of the electric vehicles
enables the company in maximizing profit within the market. Providing the electric cars for
reducing the harmful gases has been part of the corporate social responsibility for the Tesla
Motors that will help performance improvement of the firm within the electric car industry.
5. Government: Production of electricity and transportation has been two big sources
of emissions of the greenhouse gas that makes up for over half the emissions occurring in the
United States (tesla.com, 2020). The ecosystem of Tesla be it the solar aspect or batteries or the
vehicles all aims at reducing environmental impacts caused by electricity production,
transportation and the energy use by the homes, people, grid and the business. In the year 2006,
prior to launch of Tesla Roadster, the company did not have any viable option for the electric
vehicle. At present, there are closer to 3 million electric vehicles on roads on a global scale with
the rate of production increasing on a day to day basis. In fact, the auto industry is gradually
making a move towards electrification thereby providing respite to the government. This is
because, in the recent time the government has recognized harmful effects of the vehicle
emissions through its integrated combustion engine and gradually started to take tangible steps
towards having a future which is not only sustainable but environment friendly.
4. Innovation:
Innovation has been defined as the creative thoughts, new ideas imaginations in the
form of a method or a device (Cooper, 2018). Innovation is often viewed as application of the
better solutions that are able to meet the newer requirements, market needs as well the
unarticulated needs. Tesla Motors has been another name for innovation. Today, the company

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has not only built electric vehicles but has also stepped into the generation of infinitely scalable
cleaner energy as well as storage products. The company believes in discarding the over reliance
on the fossil fuel and initiate a move towards a better future with Zero emissions. The products
of Tesla has been able to offer complete solution towards storage, usage and a sustainable
generation by drawing its power from sun. The company believes in envisioning a world that is
powered by the solar energy, run on the batteries and ensures transportation via electric cars.
Tesla products are quite sustainable by design since they are being built in a sustainable manner.
Some of the innovative products of Tesla include:
 Commodity cells: These are the cylindrical shaped lithium ion batteries that finds usage
in the consumer electronics. They are produced at minimum cost and today is
manufactured in Japan, South Korea, China and Asia.
 Autopilot: The autopilot designed by Tesla represents a suite comprising of innovative
driver assistance system which has adaptive cruise for control, self-parking facility, lane
centering facility along with an ability of automatically changing the lanes (Ingle &
Phute, 2016). It is also empowered to autonomously navigate on the freeways having
limited access and the capability of summoning the car to and from the parking lot or
garage.
 Solar Glass Roof Tiles: The solar roof helped in powering the homes through
accumulating energy from sun and thereby converting it into electricity by using the roof
tiles that seem to complement the architecture of the house (tesla.com, 2020). It is
available with an integrated battery that collects energy during day and stores it in order
to make it available anytime thereby turning the home into personal utility. These tiles
comes with 100 year warranty and produce clean energy that adds value to the home.

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5. Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be said that, Tesla had been able to achieve a significant position
when it comes to electric vehicles. Roadster had been its first electric vehicle introduced in the
year 2008. The report provides a detailed insight into the strategic goal of the company and how
it plans to achieve it in the long term. The corporate social responsibility shows how Tesla has
undertaken various initiatives in moving towards sustainability. Another core aspect of Tesla is
its innovation. The report shows how the company remains a step ahead in delivering innovative
products.

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References:
Barmore, C. (2013). Tesla Unplugged: Automobile Franchise Laws and the Threat to the Electric
Vehicle Market. Va. JL & Tech., 18, 185.
Bohnsack, R., Pinkse, J & Kolk, A., (2014). Business models for sustainable technologies:
Exploring business model evolution in the case of electric vehicles. Research
Policy, 43(2), 284-300.
Cooper, C. (2018). The Truth about Tesla: The Myth of the Lone Genius in the History of
Innovation. Race Point Publishing.
Engels, J. L., & Szabo, K. (2017). Shareholders’ reaction to Corporate Social Responsibility
issues: An event-study of CSR announcements on stock prices.
Hoi, C. K., Wu, Q., & Zhang, H. (2018). Community social capital and corporate social
responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(3), 647-665.
Ingle, S., & Phute, M. (2016). Tesla autopilot: semi-autonomous driving, an uptick for future
autonomy. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, 3(9).
Perkins, G., & Murmann, J. P. (2018). What does the success of Tesla mean for the future
dynamics in the global automobile sector?. Management and Organization
Review, 14(3), 471-480.
Saxton, T. (2013). Plug in America’s tesla roadster battery study. Technical Report.
Teece, D. J. (2018). Tesla and the Reshaping of the Auto Industry. Management and
Organization Review, 14(3), 501-512.