Examining The Impact Of Entrepreneurship And Innovation On Tesla In An Essay.

Elon Musk is the co-founder, CEO and Product Architect at Tesla, overseeing all product development, engineering, and design of the company's electric vehicles, battery products, and solar roofs.

You are required to examine the contextual factor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Tesla.

Assess how this contextual factor would be utilised by the organisation to enhance business practice.

Tesla is the company that operates in automobile industry. The company was founded in 2003 with the aim to deliver the market with the zero emission electric cars (Elon Musk, 2017).  The main aim of the company is to support the sustainability in transport by providing the electric cars to the mass market as soon as possible. As the company has aimed to such an innovative thought, this requires them to be innovative and creative in implementing the thought process and have to incorporate entrepreneurship at every level of their business.

Entrepreneurship is defined by the activities that are performed by the entrepreneurs. The major task that an entrepreneur used to do is to take the risks in order to get the profit out of the investment they made in any of the business. Innovation is the subset of entrepreneurship. This is because an entrepreneur needs to be an innovator in terms of creativity and in terms of development (Morris, Kuratko & Covin, 2010). Both these factors are considered as the contextual factors that affect the businesses like Tesla. Tesla is the firm that incorporates both these factors in their strategies so as to get success.

The aim of this study is to examine the contextual factors such as entrepreneurship and innovation and their impact on the company called Tesla.

This study helps in analysing the contextual factors and to know about their impact on the company's strategy and functioning. This also helps in identifying the ways in which the company respond to these contextual factors.

Entrepreneurship is the process that is conducted by the entrepreneur in order to make out the profit from the investment. This requires the entrepreneur to take risks.

There are many theories that support the concept of entrepreneurship. The economic theory is the theory that has been given in 1700 (Windrum, & Koch, 2008). This theory deals with the risk taking aspect of entrepreneurship. According to this theory, entrepreneurship is the process in which the entrepreneurs need to take the risk all the time. This theory has been criticized as this does not consider the factors such as dynamic nature of market and context in entrepreneurial activities. After that the resource based theory has been introduced that discusses the ways in which the individual use the resources in order to conduct the entrepreneurial activities (Ketchen, Ireland & Snow, 2007). The resources that have been mentioned in the theory are the capital, social networks and human resources. It has been analysed that the mental and the emotional conduct of the individual also drives the person to be entrepreneur and to be innovative in his own ways. Thus, a theory called psychological theory has been introduced to justify this point. This theory suggests that the people with extreme focus and dedication influence the external world and it has also been analysed that these are the traits of the entrepreneurs (Braaksma & Meijaard, 2007). In addition to it, one more trait has been found in entrepreneurs that are to explore the opportunities. This is the most basic trait of entrepreneurship that is believed till now that entrepreneurs are the one who identify the opportunities and exploit the resources to take advantage of those opportunities available in the market. This theory is called opportunity based theory of entrepreneurship.

Aim

Innovation can be defined as the process of developing and creating new ideas in order to exploit the opportunities available in the market. It is mandatory for the businesses to be innovative these days so as to fulfil the dynamic demands of the market.

Innovation can be of different types and these types. There are no theories that have been given by the theorist which can explain the innovation but there are different types of innovation. The first type is disruptive. Disruptive innovation suggests that the innovation can be done by replacing the existing market. That is, the new idea should be generated in order to replace the existing process or functions in the business (Nambisan & Baron, 2013). The other type is incremental innovation. It is the type in which the already existing technology is added with the values. Architectural innovation is another type that deals with implementing the already existing technique to the different market. The last types of the innovation are the radical innovation that is about the totally new technology or the innovation.

Tesla is one of the companies that falls under the category of one of the most innovative companies in the world. The company has incorporated the innovation in all its processes. The first process that can be analysed is the hiring of the employees (Tesla, 2013). Most of the companies hire the people according to their previous experience but the company believes in the ability of the person and the manager of the company tries to observe the detailed ability of the person entire hiring the same. It has been analysed that the innovation process of Tesla is not that much brilliant and perfect but it is radical in nature (Inc42 Media., 2017). The company uses the radical innovation to change its process or to improve its processes. The main concept of the business that is using electricity in the cars is not the innovation that has been made by Tesla because it is the existing technology but the innovation that has been conducted by the company is in its processes and business strategies. This innovation in its strategies of business is called entrepreneurship. This is because as entrepreneurship requires the individual to take the risk, brining innovation to the processes is also a risk. Tesla car sales have brought sustainability in the environment and the resources (Burns & Stalker, 1961). This is because every tesla sold saves the investment of the country on gas lines as well as on petrol. However, this has increased the investment and payments in electricity. Most of the start-ups try to draw the attention of the customers by advertising, but tesla has not yet seen on television. Instead of using this method, the company has invested in more profitable technique that is sponsorship. Elon Musk, who is the founder of Tesla, is considered as the innovator, explorer and the true entrepreneur (Nikola Tesla | Biography, Pictures and Facts, 2017). This is because he has innovated something new implement it, explored the opportunity and made profit out of it.  There are many innovations that have been done by musk after introducing the company called Tesla. As discussed that the company has used the radical approach of innovation. That is, the company has used the already existing technology in other processes.

Scope

Tesla is considered as the company with innovative and entrepreneurial nature. The company still have the scope to use these contextual factors in order to improve its business practices. There are many department and functions of the company that can be improved by using innovative method such as hiring, training, recruiting etc. The company can make innovation in its processes as well it products in order to be sustain in the market. It has been analysed that Tesla is making innovation and showing its entrepreneurial strength in its products but the business practices of the company can also be altered so that the processes can be made sustainable. Entrepreneurship helps the company to take risks and to hire the people who are innovative in nature rather than assessing their experiences. This helps the company to get the innovative minds. Their business practices such as marketing can also be improved by using integrated marketing tools and customization so as to serve the whole market.  

Conclusion:

It has been concluded from the report that entrepreneurship and innovation is the most important part of the organization or the business. These are the contextual factors that affect the businesses and their processes. Entrepreneurship is defined by the activities that are performed by the entrepreneurs. The major task that an entrepreneur used to do is to take the risks in order to get the profit out of the investment they made in any of the business (Tidd,  Bessant & Pavitt, 1997). Innovation is the subset of entrepreneurship. This is because an entrepreneur needs to be an innovator in terms of creativity and in terms of development. This report discusses about the company called Tesla. Tesla is the firm that us a true innovators and follows entrepreneurship. This is because Musk, the founder of the company has used the radical innovation to innovate the process of the company. The innovation is not made in the manufacturing or the products by the company but the business strategies are also innovated in order to get success. Brining innovation in the strategies is an entrepreneurial spirit that is shown by the company.

As discussed, the company is considered as one of the most innovative companies in the world, but it has been analysed that it is not making that much profit and recognition as compared to its competitors (McFadzean, O'Loughlin & Shaw, 2005). Thus, it is require for the company to shift its focus from innovation to business as well. It is recommended for the company to invest less on innovations for some time and engage in some of the marketing tactics so that the customers can be aware of the products the company is selling. This is because making innovation is not enough, it is required to make the people aware about the same.

References:

Braaksma, R., & Meijaard, J. (2007). Entrepreneurship and innovation. Trends and patterns in the Netherlands. Zoetermeer: EIM.

Burns, T. E., & Stalker, G. M. (1961). The management of innovation.

Elon Musk. (2017). Biography.com. Retrieved 14 July 2017, from https://www.biography.com/people/elon-musk-20837159

Inc42 Media. (2017). Innovator To Entrepreneur: Journey From Being Tesla To Being Elon Musk - Inc42  Retrieved 14 July 2017, from https://inc42.com/buzz/innovator-entrepreneur-journey-tesla-elon-musk/

Ketchen, D. J., Ireland, R. D., & Snow, C. C. (2007). Strategic entrepreneurship, collaborative innovation, and wealth creation. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1(3?4), 371-385.

McFadzean, E., O'Loughlin, A., & Shaw, E. (2005). Corporate entrepreneurship and innovation part 1: the missing link. European journal of innovation management, 8(3), 350-372.

Morris, M. H., Kuratko, D. F., & Covin, J. G. (2010). Corporate entrepreneurship & innovation. Cengage Learning.

Nambisan, S., & Baron, R. A. (2013). Entrepreneurship in innovation ecosystems: entrepreneurs' self?regulatory processes and their implications for new venture success. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 37(5), 1071-1097.

Nikola Tesla | Biography, Pictures and Facts. (2017). Famous Entrepreneurs. Retrieved 14 July 2017, from https://www.famous-entrepreneurs.com/nikola-tesla

Tesla, N. (2013). My inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla. Simon and Schuster.

Tidd, J., Bessant, J. R., & Pavitt, K. (1997). Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and organizational change (Vol. 4). Chichester: Wiley.

Windrum, P., & Koch, P. M. (Eds.). (2008). Innovation in public sector services: entrepreneurship, creativity and management. Edward Elgar Publishing.