Tesla Motors: SWOT And PESTEL Analysis, Stakeholders, Organizational Structure, And Employee Motivation Essay.

Learners will use the results of assignment - Research & Analysis Paper – Part I for the Final Project -Research & Analysis Paper – Part II to apply the concepts learned in the course  (modules 1-9), and involves the application of:

• Environmental constraints on management (specific, general, global environment).
• Stakeholders
• Planning and strategic management (S.W.O.T, formulate strategies)
• Organizational Structure and Design (key elements of org structure and design, types of structures, mechanistic versus organic design).
• Foundations of Control.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify key functions of managers within organizations.
• Identify control systems used in management.
• Research environmental influences that managers encounter.
• Analyze elements in the strategic planning process.
• Analyze elements of organizational structure and design.
• Examine motivational strategies used by managers within organizational settings.

Environmental Constraints (12 marks)

• Analyze your organization’s specific, general (PESTEL), and global environment.
• Which environmental constraints does your organization face? Justify your responses.
• How is the organization currently addressing these constraints? Which constraints create the biggest challenges for the organization?
• Which elements have created (or will create) opportunities for them? Justify your  responses.
• Your personal insights/ideas/perspectives must be evident as will you need to make some of your own inferences and assumptions in this section.

Tesla Motors is an automobile based organization which has its origin in the United States of America and the operations are related to the energy and automotive products. The organization has its headquarter in Paulo Alto, California. Tesla Motors mainly specialises in the manufacture of electric cars and solar panels. The assembly plants and factories of Tesla are located in Fremont California. The different models which are sold by Tesla in the automobile based industry include, Model S, Model X, Model 3. The organization was established in the year 2003 by the two engineers named Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard (Tesla.com., 2018).

The operations of Tesla in the automobile industry were further joined by J.B Straubel, Ian Wright and Elon Musk and they became the co-founders of Tesla. The core values which have been developed and are followed by Tesla are based on using the best available technologies in order to offer the products. Encouragement and respect needs to be provided to the employees in order to increase the revenue levels. Learning based activities need to be continued and the environment needs to be respected as well. The industry in which Tesla Motors has its operations is highly competitive in nature and changes in the environment are able to affect the levels of profitability in a huge manner (Tesla.com., 2018). Tesla has responded to the changes in needs of the consumers with the help of its products.

The strengths of Tesla are based on improvement and growth of the organization in the automobile based industry. The organization is empowered by the business strengths which is helpful in competing with the others in the industry. Strong brand name of Tesla has been a major support to the operations of Tesla. The processes which have been implemented by the organization are innovative and the production based processes are also managed effectively. The energy based solutions which are provided by Tesla are based on business based goals which have been set by Elon Musk (Moutinho & Phillips, 2018).

The organizational performance is affected by some major weaknesses of the organization in the automobile industry. The presence of Tesla in the automobile based industry is limited and the supply chain is also not effective. Most of the revenues of Tesla are generated from the US and the presence in China is also low. The products which are offered by Tesla are expensive as compared to the products which are offered by the competitors. The high prices are able to prevent the levels of growth in market share and the customer base as well. The needs based on reforming the strategies based on global expansion are related to the weaknesses of Tesla (Sminia, 2017).

The external opportunities which are provided to Tesla are based on development and growth of the organization in the automobile industry. The performance levels of the business can be improved and growth can be increased with the help of different opportunities which are offered by Tesla. Different opportunities which are provided to Tesla mainly include, expansion of global supply chain, diversification of the business and expansion of global sales. The growth of Tesla is thereby compared to a large organization like General Motors (Wheelen et al., 2017).

SWOT analysis

The aggressive levels of competition which are faced by Tesla are considered to be major levels of threats. The organization is also facing a major threat based on the fluctuations which have taken place in the prices of different materials. The dealership based regulations are also considered to be major levels of threats which are able to affect the growth of Tesla (Moutinho & Phillips, 2018).

Political factors – The government incentives offered to the automobile organizations are considered to be a major opportunity. The global trade based agreements which are made in the automobile industry are political factors which affect the operations of Tesla. Political stability is considered to be a factor which is able to affect the levels of profitability (Annarelli & Nonino, 2016).

Economic factors – The economic conditions which prevail in different countries are major factors which are able to affect the operations and profitability levels of Tesla. Different economic factors which have a significant effect on Tesla mainly include, decrease in battery costs, decreasing the renewable energy based costs and issues based on economic stability. The lower battery costs are able to affect the business performance which is depicted by Tesla (Blackwell & Eppler, 2014).

Social factors – The social conditions which trend in the industry that affect the products offered by Tesla include, increase in the popularity of low-carbon based lifestyles, increase in the preference based on renewable energy and improvement in levels of wealth distribution (Elmes & Barry, 2017).  

Technological factors – The rates of technological changes in the automobile industry are quite high. The automation based activities have increased and have been able to affect the effective operations of Tesla. The popularity based levels of the online mobile related systems have started increasing in current business environment. This has been able to bring changes in the facilities which are offered by the cars (Engert, Rauter & Baumgartner, 2016).

Legal factors – The protection of international patents have been increased in the latest times which has been able to affect the policies which are developed by Tesla in the industry. The regulations based on energy consumption keep changing and further the products of Tesla have been developed accordingly.

Environmental factors – Changes which have recently taken place in the climate and expansion of different environmental programs have been taken into consideration by production activities performed by Tesla (Hanson et al. 2016).

The customers can be considered to be the major stakeholders of Tesla Motors in the automobile industry. The products which are developed by the organization are thereby able to affect the choice of the customers. The need of current environment is fulfilled by Tesla with the help of different products that are offered to the customers (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014).

The organizational structure which has been developed by Tesla Motors is functional or U-form in nature. The unitary form of structure is thereby based on the organizational functions which are performed by the employees. The structure can be considered to be function based and centralized in nature. The different departments of the organization which are able to represent the global hierarchy include, chief executive officer and chairman, technology, finance, global sales and service, legal and engineering. These departments are able to play a key role in the effective operations of the organization in the automobile industry (Moutinho & Phillips, 2018).

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be implemented in an effective manner in order to analyse the needs of employees at all levels of operations and fulfilling them accordingly. Different stages of needs described in the model include, physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs (Sminia, 2017).

Tesla Motors can aim at expanding its operations to different countries other than its largest markets China and US. The organization will be able to increase the levels of revenues and profitability with the help of proper expansion and entry into the new markets. This will also play a key role in the ways by which the organization is able to increase its presence in the automobile market.

References 

Annarelli, A., & Nonino, F. (2016). Strategic and operational management of organizational resilience: Current state of research and future directions. Omega, 62, 1-18.

Blackwell, R., & Eppler, D. (2014). An approach to strategic situation analysis: Using models as analytical tools. Journal of Global Business Management, 10(1), 80.

Elmes, M., & Barry, D. (2017). Strategy retold: Toward a narrative view of strategic discourse. In The Aesthetic Turn in Management (pp. 39-62). Routledge.

Engert, S., Rauter, R., & Baumgartner, R. J. (2016). Exploring the integration of corporate sustainability into strategic management: a literature review. Journal of cleaner production, 112, 2833-2850.

Hanson, D., Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2016). Strategic management: Competitiveness and globalisation. Cengage AU.

Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Moutinho, L., & Phillips, P. (2018). Strategic analysis. In Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management (pp. 46-79). Routledge.

Sminia, H. (2017). Strategic management basics. In The Strategic Manager (pp. 13-29). Routledge.

Tesla.com. (2018). Electric Cars, Solar Panels & Clean Energy Storage | Tesla. Retrieved from https://www.tesla.com/

Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2017). Strategic management and business policy. pearson.