Option 1: Tesla

Module 1:
In 2003, a group of engineers laid down the foundation of "Tesla Motors" to develop electric cars
that are quicker, better and easy to drive than gasoline cars". The founding engineers, i.e. Martin
Eberhard and Marc Trepanning became Tesla’s CEO and CFO respectively. Elon Musk became
the Tesla’s Chairman and funded many investment projects through his own capital. In coming
years, Tesla signed a contract with Lotus to design the bodywork and chassis for the first model
of Tesla, i.e. Roadster. In 2006, the founders of Google also invested in Tesla. The first prototype
of Tesla was made in 2006, however; in the year 2008, the final production model was launched.
Roadster was a sports type car, having full electric powertrain and innovative battery technology.
However, only few people could afford to buy this car (Schreiber, 2022).
The first Roadster model became a success, orders were coming in but at the same time,
company was going through financial troubles. The founders of company left the company
completely and Elon Musk took over as the CEO of the company in the year 2008 even though,
the transition of leadership was not swift. Elon Musk - after overtaking as the CEO of the Tesla
secured $465 million loan from the United States Government, which helped company survive
and innovate further. In 2010, the company went public, selling a share for $17. The Tesla
launched model S - an all - electric Sedan that was a combination of efficiency, performance and
safety. The Tesla secret plan was to build a sports car and use that money to build most
affordable zero - emission electric power car. In 2013, Tesla made its first quarterly profit and
opened different ventures such as Powerwall, SolarRoof and Powerpack (Schreiber, 2022).
Tesla also opened its first Gigafactory in Nevada as a facility to produce car batteries. In 2016,
Tesla introduced its Model 3 in line with company’s masterplan. Tesla motors became Tesla
Inc., thus representing diversification. In the coming years, Tesla reached to heights of success
with the launching of EV Tesla truck and cyber truck concept for vehicles. Currently, Tesla
holds significant shares in EV market, i.e. 12%. The business mode of Tesla is D2C (Direct-to-
Consumer) business model, i.e. selling directly to customers. Tesla is broadly divided into three
business models, which are Tech Company, automaker and a hardware supplier. More than 80%
revenue of Tesla comes through selling of electric vehicles, which is around 20 billion dollars
while the other 20% comes through servicing and charging, which is around 1.5 billion
(Schreiber, 2022).
Vision Statement of Tesla:
To “create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition
to electric vehicles” (About Tesla, 2022).
Mission Statement of Tesla:
“To accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass-market electric
cars to market as soon as possible.” (About Tesla, 2022).
Statement of Values of Tesla
The core values of Tesla are “doing the best, taking risks, respect, constant learning, and
environmental consciousness.” (About Tesla, 2022).

Module 2:
The major goal of Tesla is to bring electric cars in markets to make the transport sustainable. In
short term, Tesla is focused to launch Cybertrucka, Texus online and opening new factories in
Germany. Furthermore, three Gigafactories 3, 4 and 5 are also underway to build one in each
regions, i.e. United States, China and Europe. While talking about long-term goals, Tesla aims to
sell 20 million electric cars per year by 2030 (VANNEX, 2021). Tesla is growing at an
exponential rate and its long-term goals are quite challenging but considering its growth patterns,
it can be assumed that Tesla will achieve its long-term goal, one way or the other. The success of
Model 3 can be understood that it has become the best - selling premium vehicle globally. Elon
Musk claimed that the upcoming Model Y would be the best-selling car model in any kind in
terms of numbers by 2023 (MAURER, 2020)
Tesla collects more than 80% of its profits and revenues through selling. Over the years, Tesla
has made many strategic shifts in its retail strategy multiple times, which was mostly derived
through internal factors. Currently, a major shift is underway in the Tesla strategy, where Tesla
will be more focused on delivery centers, remote management teams and cheaper locations rather
than fancy showrooms. Tesla owns all of its stores, thus has the capability to make any changes
when possible. In 2019, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would be receiving orders online and
will be closing its retail stores. Later on, this decision was reversed and most of the retail stores
still open (Lambert, 2021).

Module 3:
The market share and customer base of Tesla depends upon factors such as Innovative in
technology, cost effectiveness in the transportation sector. The macro environment of Tesla is
diverse because of the company's diversified products and its target markets. In terms of political
factors, the changes in Government policies can affect Tesla strategies (NEUMANN, 2019). In
terms of Economic factors, such as trade levels, market growth and other factors can also effect
Tesla's business. Furthermore, the technological, ecological and sociocultural factors and legal
factors could also affect the Tesla according to Pestle analysis. Tesla is succeeding in every
ground, i.e. increase in production, increase in profitability but Tesla also needs to focus on other
factors to continue its journey and ensure its survival (KISSINGER, Tesla, Inc.
PESTEL/PESTLE Analysis & Recommendations, 2019).
The five forces analysis with respect to Tesla observes the significant external factors in the
energy and automotive industry. In order to ensure its place in the market, Tesla should divert its
attention to competitive rivalry, along with giving due attention to buyers, suppliers and
substitute pressure. The strategic effectiveness of Tesla has helped Tesla to build resilience in
electric vehicles. The major competitors of Tesla are Honda and Ford in car manufacturing but
Tesla has embarked on its success by focusing on EVs (premium electric vehicles). In electric
cars, there is competition but there are no strategic groups yet. Tesla is now entering in the self-
driving and higher end electric car markets (KISSINGER, 2019).

Module 4:
Tangible Assets of Tesla:
The tangible assets of Tesla are valued at $66.038 B as of March 31, 2022. It shows a 24.68%
growth per year. (Tesla Total Assets 2010-2022 | TSLA, 2022)
Intangible Assets of Tesla:
The intangible assets of Tesla in terms of Goodwill are as follows;

 Developed Technology
 Trade Names
 Favorable contracts, leases, and net.
 The other intangible assets are;
 Accumulated amortization
 Gigafactory Nevada water rights
 In process research and development (Analysis of Goodwill and Intangible Assets, 2022).

The VRIO analysis of Tesla shows that financial assets and resources of Tesla are most
significant as they help Tesla to combat external threats and invest in external opportunities. The
Tesla food products, Tesla highly trained employees, Tesla patents, distribution network, and
research and development projects holds great value and importance and helps Tesla gain a
competitive edge. Financial assets and resources of Tesla are also rare as such, a few companies
only acquire large amount of financial resources. The employees, patents and distribution
network of Tesla is also rare as per VRIO analysis, as they are found only in few firms. The
financial resources, distribution Network and patents of Tesla are difficult and costly to imitate
as compared to its food products and employees. The distribution network and financial
resources of Tesla are well organized accordingly to VRIO analysis and plays an important role
in helping Tesla to gain an overall competitive edge (Pratap, 2021).
The core competencies of Tesla includes car manufacturing, battery pack technical, improvement
of motors, batteries and inverters. Power train technology is one of the most significant core
competency of Tesla, which gives it a competitive edge (NCERT Point Team, 2022). The SWOT
analysis of Tesla discusses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The strengths of
Tesla includes the usage of renewable energy resources, such as solar energy, highly qualified
and trained employees, partnerships, leadership, brand name and innovation. The weaknesses of
Tesla include a small manufacturing force, limited presence in the world market, a restricted
target group due to high prices, low profitability due to high operational costs and the issue of
Tesla's succession. Tesla has many opportunities as well such as the opportunity to expand its
manufacturing centers, sustainability, battery production and the Innovation of Auto Pilot driving
technology. The threats of Tesla includes high competition who are producing affordable care,
new emerging innovative technologies, rules and regulations, long term sustainability power of
Tesla cares and Elon Musk - who is a center of controversies due to his erratic behavior
(PEREIRA, 2022).

Module 5:
Tesla owns the entire supply line itself from production to distribution, i.e. it sells directly to
customers, which is one of the most important reasons for its success. The creation of full
electric semi-truck, which can covers more than 400 miles with 30 minutes charge only.
Powertrain systems have also added to Tesla's success as Tesla sells it to other car manufacturing
companies as well. The creation of "supercharger stations" has helped Tesla to grow as it offers
chapter and easier ways to adopting to Tesla. In my opinion, Tesla is currently focused on
creating economic value creation, as its main mission is to sell vehicles at very affordable rates.
(Han, 2021).
Tesla did not pay attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR) for a long time. Currently,
Tesla is carrying out many CSR programs and initiatives such as Employee health and safety,
gender equality and rights of minorities, 2at34 consumption reduction, waste reduction and
reduction in carbon emissions. Furthermore, it has also taken many other charitable donations
such as Tesla served more than 16000 individual who were suffering from disasters by its
disaster relief projects (Dudovskiy, 2021).

Module 6:
In the initial years, Tesla focused on a generic differentiation strategy to gain a competitive edge.
The company was mainly focused on creating unique products with the main aim to create high-
end market for electric vehicles. The strategy moves down, i.e. customer pays for premium
products and then driving the price down, i.e. lower prices with each successive model. Tesla
does not have a cost leadership position rather Tesla has novelty centered business model. The
Tesla approach to market is different and unconventional, i.e. it does not rely on TV commercials
for markets rather it is focused on word of mouth and referrals. Furthermore, Tesla directly sells
products to its customers. The generic business strategy of Tesla organization is broad
differentiation, i.e. it builds its competitive edge over products development that are entirely
different from the products of competitors (Rowland, 2018). At first, Tesla used differentiation
focus to create unique and high-end cars but with time, it changed to broad differentiation. The
business strategy of Tesla includes, market penetration, product development, market
development and diversification (Shipley, 2020).
Module 7:
In the industry life cycle, Tesla currently lies in the growth phase, i.e. Tesla is entirely focused
on increasing its production, which is leading to an increase in its growth. Tesla focus is to
produce 20 million vehicles per year by 2030 and it is doing everything in hand to do that. There
are many strategic implications of Tesla's position in industrial life cycle, i.e. mergers and
acquisitions, research and development, development of new products, and Geographic
expansion. Currently, Tesla is relying on incremental approach as its innovation strategy as it is
looking for ways to improve existing electronic vehicles. Tesla innovation strategy has focused
on software integration and in-care hardware to produce high-end cars. The innovation of electric
cars includes innovation of batteries, charging stations and car designs (Dyer, 2021).
In terms of intellectual property rights, Tesla has opted an open source position and the
underlying reason behind it is that Tesla wants the development of electric cars and want to
tackle the issues carbon crisis. One of the most recent innovation of Tesla is "Solar Roof" - a
roofing system having the ability to harness solar energy into power homes. The strategy that
Tesla currently using to reach to mass market is to sell premium products, which in turn will
drive the market down as far as possible leading to lower prices and higher unit volume. Tesla is
currently opening 3 more production centers in different regions of the world with the intention
to increase the production capability with each passing day. Tesla used open innovation approach
to innovate, it is currently working very well, and Tesla is reaching near to its target with each
passing day (IMPACT REPORT, 2021)

Module 8:
Tesla is vertically integrated in the fields of manufacturing, production, sales steps and assembly
in the value chain. Some of the key steps in which Tesla motors value chain is break down are
product planning and design, i.e. diversity, vehicle safety, fuel economy, infrastructure,
recycling, logistics - Tesla motors as key player and extraction of raw material, usage of vehicle
and avoidance of suppliers who use illegal means. Tesla chain participates in multiple industries
for its value chain, thus it is highly vertically integrated (Tesla's Vertical Integration Is
Something Automakers Are Eager To Copy, 2022). Tesla is tapered integration, i.e. it is
manufacturing some of its products but also buy and sell similar products. Tesla motors
manufactures its products offshore, i.e. in Europe and Japan. The pros of offshoring includes
availability of cheap labor, no need to invest in infrastructure, time saving and increased
efficiency. The cons of offshoring are lower productivity, lock of quality, customer
dissatisfaction, loss of flexibility and confidentiality, difficult to manage, cultural, language and
legal barriers. The corporate strategy of Tesla motors is that it differentiates itself from its
competitors by offering quality product and high-class customer service. Considering the
demand, Tesla have expanded itself, both in terms of retail supply chain and geographically
(Benam, 2020).

Module 9:
Tesla is following all the three strategies, i.e. build, borrow and buy in order to increase its
growth. In order to eliminate the strategic gap, Tesla has entered into different strategical
partnership and have carried out multiple operations as well (Market Trends, 2020). Tesla, in
order to ensure its growth have entered into several strategical partnerships in the past with
different organizations. The three of those strategic alliances are Catalyst Commodities Ltd,
EMS (energy market services) and Gen Scape (Strategic Partners, 2022). Tesla made alliance
with the catalyst commodities because it is working to enable more profitable energy business in
the European markets and Tesla wanted to capture these markets. The Energy Market services is
Tesla's strategic partners in Pacific region for the delivery of GXP and RCPD forecasts. In my
opinion, Tesla is successful in achieving its goal behind strategic partnerships largely, i.e. it has
got access to Europeans Markets and have built an important place in Asian markets.
Furthermore, it has also been successful in opening its production centers in different regions of
the world, which were in fact the ultimate goal of Tesla. Along with that, the Tesla production
capacity is going up with each passing day, which shows that Tesla is successful largely (Paul
Lienert, 2020). Tesla does not have a formal strategic alliances management system. However,
the personality of Elon Musk and its strategic alliances acquiring alliances systems have played
an impressive role in Tesla success in managing strategic partnerships.

Module 10:
Tesla is not varying its products and services to adapt to different countries, rather Tesla is
completely focused on electric cars and making cheap and customer friendly to attract the
markets worldwide. Tesla's marketing approach is also quite the same throughout the world, i.e.
it relies on customer satisfaction and word of mouth for marketing purposes. Tesla is opening its
production centers throughout the world and more espe76cially in China in order to achieve low
- cost input factors, which in turn would help Tesla to develop new competencies. In my opinion,
the Tesla appraisal is quite appropriate for all the three areas, i.e. to access larger markets, to gain
low - cost input factors and to develop new competencies (IMPACT REPORT, 2021). Tesla is
following transactional strategy as its global strategy just like other car companies as it wanted to
attract diverse markets rather than producing the same product for different markets (Market
Trends, 2020). In order to increase and diversify its revenue streams, Tesla has attracted Asian
and European markets. The Tesla strategy is to attract high end markets and then driving the
prices down by reducing the production costs and decreasing the prices (Kamkoum, 2018).

Module 11:
The organizational structure of Tesla is traditional, driven from managerial control and
operations to expand the market. It follows U - form or functional organizational structure, where
organizational structure is the main defining force. The employees are divided into different
groups depending upon the functions they perform (Meyer, 2018). The characteristics of Tesla’s
organizational structure are as follows; function based hierarchy, divisions and centralization.
The function-based hierarchy is flows from Chairman or CEO to Finance, technology, global
sales and services, engineering and legal. The Tesla’s organizational structure and its managerial
control is effective in terms of multinational operations. Further advantages of Tesla's
organizational structure includes ease in implementation of strategies, which leads to increase in
growth and also aids in gaining competitive edge (Meyer, 2018). The disadvantages of Tesla's
organizational structure includes rigidity and limitations to rapid adjustments which hinders
organizational growth. Tesla has gained a competitive edge against its competitors from the day
one in the fields of innovation (Bianca Cardenas, 2021). Furthermore, in order to gain the
maximum sphere of the market, Tesla has always adopted itself according to the changing
environments whether internal or external. Tesla has opened production centers across the world
and carried out strategic alliances (IMPACT REPORT, 2021).

Module 12:
The Tesla board of directors consists of 9 numbers. The biggest shareholder of Tesla is Elon
Musk. The board of directors of Tesla overseas the management of Tesla and serves as prudent
fiduciary. There are two female board of directors in Tesla (Reinicke, 2020). The Tesla CEO
Elon is not chair of the board of Tesla; rather it is female board of director Robyn Denholm, who
is the Chair of Tesla's board of directors since 2018. The top three largest stockholders of Tesla
are Kimbal Musk, Zachary Kirkhorn and Jerome M. Guillen while the top institutional
shareholders of Tesla are Elon Musk, Susquehanna Securities and Capital World Investors
(REIFF, 2020). The Tesla has been accused many times of unethical steps, which are legal in
nature but are unethical, i.e. issuing fake press releases, selling defective vehicles and violation
of environmental factors. Considering the Tesla's rising success and its popularity, I would
definitely like to work for Tesla and invest my many in Tesla stocks because the Tesla's stock
prices are rising at 130% rate per year (Tesla Revenue 2010-2022 | TSLA, 2022).

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