Case Analysis: Tesla Motors: Disrupting the Auto Industry
Read the case, “Tesla Motors: Disrupting the Auto Industry” on page 576-588 use the case analysis format provided below to address to identify the problems and provide several suggested solutions that the Tesla Motors executive team can review for possible implementation.
Be sure to identify “identify 2 to 3 problems” and “develop 2 to 3 possible solutions to the problems identified”, and use this as the focus for making your case in the case format. Note: The case questions provided at the end of each case can be used as an insight to what the problems might be; so be sure to investigate the case carefully.
It should include this format: Case Format I. Write the Executive Summary •One to two paragraphs in length •On cover page of the report •Briefly identify the major problems facing the manager/key person •Summarize the recommended plan of action and include a brief justification of the recommended plan II. Statement of the Problem •State the problems facing the manager/key person •Identify and link the symptoms and root causes of the problems •Differentiate short term from long term problems •Conclude with the decision facing the manager/key person III. Causes of the Problem •Provide a detailed analysis of the problems; identify in the Statement of the Problem •In the analysis, apply theories and models from the text and/or readings •Support conclusions and /or assumptions with specific references to the case and/or the readings IV. Decision Criteria and Alternative Solutions •Identify criteria against which you evaluate alternative solutions (i.e. time for implementation, tangible costs, acceptability to management) •Include two or three possible alternative solutions •Evaluate the pros and cons of each alternative against the criteria listed •Suggest additional pros/cons if appropriate V. Recommended Solution, Implementation and Justification •Identify who, what, when, and how in your recommended plan of action •Solution and implementation should address the problems and causes identified in the previous section •The recommended plan should include a contingency plan(s) to back up the ‘ideal’ course of action •Using models and theories, identify why you chose the recommended plan of action – why it’s the best and why it would work VI. External Sourcing •2 to 3 external sources (in addition to your textbook) should be referenced to back up your recommendations or to identify issues. This information would be ideally sourced in current journals, magazines and newspapers and should reflect current management thought or practice with respect to the issues Identify. The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded: •Write between 750 – 1,250 words (approximately 3 – 5 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style, see example below. •Use font size 12 and 1” margins. •Include cover page and reference page. •At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing. •No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references. •Use at least three references from outside the course material, one reference must be from EBSCOhost. Text book, lectures, and other materials in the course may be used, but are not counted toward the three reference requirement. •Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) in the paper and list on a reference page in APA style.
Expert Answer
Most of us are at the present aware of the transformation Tesla Motors is carrying about in the automobile Industry. To some, what Elon Musk has attained for automobiles probably goes further than what Steve Jobs did for computers and cell phones.
Today, as we look about, electric cars are still a small/tiny division of the total automobile commerce sales. And many skeptics keep on to argue that Tesla is just too towering priced and does not have the construction capability to manage mass market status in the near future. Well, all of that may be correct, for now, but come across at how hastily the perception about electric cars has altered, all thanks to Elon Musk and Tesla.
As we review the pace of knowledge advancement and disturbance, it is safe to say that five years is the novel decade when it comes to technology acceptance, speed of innovation, transformation and disturbance. Think, for example, what Tesla was five years rear as well as the iPad that was open in the last five years or so and how much of an crash these developments have had. Going further than the tablet/computer industry, the iPad has transformed whole sectors like retail, media, healthcare, and teaching, to name a few. It has stroke upon nearly every aspect of a characteristic person’s life.
So if we go by the swiftness of the last five years and factor in that each five years, the rate of vary is only going to gather speed. The predictions, especially, for the automobile industry turn into pretty radical.
What is the statement that Tesla is creation? That you can have a super presentation engineered electric car for less than a part of the cost you would pay for a Bugatti or one of those foreign supercars? Some of these super cars are in excess of $500 K to up of $1 million!
Guess what we have been trial from some of these super car manufacturers lately? Aston Martin lately announces that in a few years they will start on a more powerful account of their own electric car that will fight with a Tesla. Audi just announced that they will start an all electric SUV that will have a greater pouring range than the Tesla Model X.
Now what will happen when Tesla launches the affordable $35 K, midsize, all electric dense car with a range of 250 to 300 miles per accuse (knowing Elon Musk’s track evidence, if he commits to amazing then one can rest certain that he will make it happen)? And the prospect is not very far…Going by Tesla’s product open dates, this could occur within a time span of three to five years!
I think we can safely suppose that in the near future, with battery knowledge advancing, getting a 500 mile range on a single accuse will not be too difficult. Not only will the variety increase but the speed of charging will also approach down to minutes in its place of hours. That will likely comprise a shift in mindset for a lot of folks who are at present sitting on the sidelines, daunted by problems in captivating the electric car for long drives with family, etc.
So let’s look two skill decades ahead (10 actual years from now if we suppose five years is the new decade in tech terms). You will have an reasonably priced electric car with a range of 500 miles and sufficient super charging stations to cover you for all mixture of travel and exploration. A major aspect to believe is the effect this will have on the OEM suppliers, dealers, and repair networks to the automobile industry.
Electric vehicles do not have that loads of parts. For example, they don’t want pistons, blocks, seals, fuel injectors, spark plugs, transmission oil, radiators, fuel tanks…Can you envision the consequence this will have on additional industries? This is going to be a major distraction! What will happen to the service and trader networks? Electric vehicles do not need that much servicing or preservation either. What impact will this have on manufacturing jobs, service jobs, and meeting line jobs? If one were to take a look at the robots on the Tesla assembly line, it would be astonishing to see the level of automation they have achieved. The state of affairs will be scary as the folks who are needy on this industry are typically not young kids who can be with no trouble retrained for another industry very rapidly.
The coming disruption will so be deep and its outcome will be felt for decades and crossways continents. Combine the result of full automation in the electric vehicle/automobile industry with the crash of additive manufacturing—3D printing as it is commonly known. The combined result of these will be overwhelming for folks who get laid off from manufacturing jobs. As it will be hard to transition from, say, an automobile manufacturing industry to one more manufacturing industry as a number of industries will countenance the heat of this disturbance at the same time.
This trend will not be confined to western/developed economies. The effects will be equally drastic for developing economies. India and China are rapidly expanding their use of green technology and automation in manufacturing. For their economies the growing use of electric cars means less dependence on oil and fossil fuels and reduced oil import bills that run into the billions of dollars today.
Auto manufacturers are ever more looking at India and China as a base for increasing their markets. If you take a leaf out of the telecom book, the developing countries leapfrogged due to the general adoption of wireless/mobile phones. They did not have to go during the landline route; they in fact skipped over an entire age bracket and came in on par with the urbanized world. In fact today India and China have the prime user base for smart phones tablets in the globe and are the fastest growing markets for these services and tackle.
So what stops these countries from accept electric vehicles? Like in the case of the telecom industry fruition, these countries can go directly into electric vehicles instead of burning engine based ones. This will have a major result on the cost of manufacturing cars. Unit cost of series and other components, etc., will come downward as the adoption base increases. Maybe if the user base in India and China expands additional rapidly than in North America and Europe, it could in fact help the west too as it will minor overall costs across the plank due to a large base in Asia. This will have a optimistic outcome for everyone.
Both India and China are expenditure billions on communications and green technology.
Now the Asian economies will run into a better problem. On the one hand, from a reliance on fossil fuels perspective, electric vehicles will absolutely help the economy and reduce fuel bring in costs. Useful for the end customer and good for the planet/environment, they will improve the superiority of air in some of the worst affected cities due to drop in fossil fuels.
On the other hand, they will have a unenthusiastic impact on manufacturing jobs. The attack of automobile industry computerization for electric cars combined with preservative manufacturing and artificial intellect is definitely going to lastingly alter the way we live, work, and travel. So while Asia does advantage to a certain extent, how do the countries create sure that the economy can support job creation
While we can argue that western economies have direct with a whole lot of pain over the last quite a few decades of their changeover from agrarian to industrial to services to data/information driven economies, the problem for Asian countries gets compounded when you have such a huge labor force becoming unemployed. Though India may have had a slight advantage as its country was not so heavily export/manufacturing led. The huge domestic burning up market can help cushion the impact but still there is no getting gone from huge problems at give
The slowdown in the Chinese economy income they are likely to face an even larger problem. Even the western economies are not geared to handle the quick changes that will open out.
Unfortunately, the trend does not stop here. If you fast ahead four technology decades (20 actual years), you will see troublesome/nimble companies coming up that proffer fully customizable electric cars (we can already see several aspects of this with Tesla).