Will be interesting to see how Elon Musk and Tesla go forward – what changes, if any, getting strategy right. On the face of it looks tricky: slowing global economies, higher finance costs for consumers, significant additional capacity coming on line, competitors catching up, Tesla cars more expensive than previously.
Musk has attracted mixed coverage for his Twitter take over – at the same time as his car company is experiencing these challenges. How much does the Twitter acquisition impact sales of Tesla cars? Are current/ potential Tesla owners concerned that the founder may be distracted? Are Tesla shareholders concerned?
But Musk and Tesla have been and continue to be innovators – and competitors should not underestimate this commitment to getting the tech right, creating new experiences for drivers. Why would Tesla not continue to deliver new ideas, innovations, enhanced experiences?
In some ways reminds me of Ryanair and Michael O’Leary. O’Leary has been the people’s champion – low cost flights, enabling travels for the masses. He has not always been popular – and some of his PR stunts have not always been well received. But he has stayed focused, he seems to have used each recession as an opportunity to strengthen his business. He has created capacity heading into (or during) downturns – only to accelerate in the upswing. He has weathered economic downturns and COVID19.
Will be interesting to see how Tesla moves forward. Reminded me of Rumelt’s ‘Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors. A leader’s most important responsibility is identifying the biggest challenges to forward progress and devising a coherent approach to overcoming them.
