Tesla Inc. which was earlier named Tesla Motors is a multinational company located in Palo Alto, California. The company deals with electric cars, manufacturing of solar panels and energy storage of lithium-ion. A group of engineers founded the company in the year 2003 who wanted to prove that electric cars were much more efficient than gasoline cars. Currently, Tesla builds electric cars as well as products for generation and storing clean energy. Tesla develops these products with the belief that the world should stop their reliance on the fossil fuels and should adopt a future which has zero emission (Tesla.com, 2018). The different products of Tesla are Model S, Model X, Model 3, Powerpack and Powerwall batteries, solar tiles for the roof, solar panels and various other products. The aim of Elon Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla, is to produce electric cars at affordable prices which will be available to the average customer. The company name was given after Nikola Tesla who was an electrical engineer and a physicist. Every vehicle that is built by Tesla is done at their factory which is located in Fremont in California, and the components of the vehicles are also developed.
Innovation trends
Robotic automation is a technology through which individuals can configure robots or software which acts as robots to interpret and capture their applications so that they could manipulate the data, trigger responses and communicate with other technological systems. Robotic automation is introduced to make the business administration process smooth, support the IT processes and the process of the workflow (Chen & Dong, 2013). Robotic automation strives towards making the work easier for humans and to increase the productivity and to take away tasks which are determined as boring or repetitive for the humans. The robotic automation technology is used to make changes in the corporate function and increase customer satisfaction as well. If successful they will be able to increase the profits of a company. Robotic automation is a technology which is of a very unpredictable nature and needs constant monitoring during its development stage so that it creates no harmful effect on the organisation (Bahrin et al., 2016).
Innovation concepts
Alignment of innovation strategy and organisation strategy
For the success of any innovation, it is necessary that the innovation strategy is aligned with the organisation strategy. This is because in cases where the higher management becomes an integral part of the innovation process, the project has seen success in many instances. However, when the middle management takes the initiative to lead the innovation projects, many new ideas are derived, but those ideas are often not aligned with the aims and strategic goals of the organisation. There have been many situations where organisations have developed innovation ideas randomly without much thought or plan, and they have been huge failures which have greatly impacted the organisation (Eesley, Hsu & Roberts, 2014). Thus why it is necessary that a proper innovation strategy is formed at the beginning of the innovation process. This strategy needs to be developed by keeping in mind the business goals and the strategy that has been formed for the development of the business itself. If this alignment is not done, then the innovation process will not be able to succeed in the long run as it will clash with the aims of the organisation. Moreover, any innovations that are formed by the organisation needs to be unique and different and in those aspects which have never been explored before. This would help them to develop a successful innovation which would be beneficial for the future of the organisation (Pisano, 2015). There are many ways in which an organisation could align their innovative strategy with their corporate strategy. Firstly, the middle management and the top management should communicate with each regarding the innovation idea or concept and the business strategies and how much they have been fulfilled. This way both levels of management could consult with each other regarding both the strategies and their alignment. Secondly, the communication will derive various challenges that come with the innovation strategy which needs to be faced and solved within a stipulated time but in a perfect manner which can help in eradicating the challenges (West & Bogers, 2014). Both of these stages are simple but important for the proper alignment of the innovation strategy to the organisation strategy.
Impact of innovation trend on the organisation
The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk have developed the idea of robotic automation in the cars and even the factories of Tesla with the aim to enhance their productivity and to develop better products which will give better results to the people. The factories of Tesla have been fully automated, and very less human resource is available for conducting more efficient and fast production of their Model 3 cars which were also enabled with the same innovative technology. However, both of these developments failed drastically making the company suffer a great (Greenblatt & Shaheen, 2015). First of all the idea to make the production plant fully automated backfired to a great deal as machines are unpredictable. Making the factories fully automated decreased their production and sales rate and gravely impacted the company in the eyes of the people. The company also developed the idea of fully automating their Model 3 cars which came with various criticisms from various car manufacturers as well, who have tried and failed the same technology earlier. Another impact that the robotic automation technology has created on the organisation is that the company have aimed to develop fully automated cars for Model 3 technology which was also a failure. This failure was due to the crash that happened in a Tesla car which had an autopilot feature in it (Nyholm & Smids, 2018). Even though there have been several debates regarding this which states that the technology might not be the actual reason behind the crash, however, this incident would leave a black mark on the automation process that was being developed by the company. Hence, it can be said that the innovation trend of robotic automation has created a rather negative impact on the organisation. Furthermore, the technology also possessed certain threats which are the abnormal behaviour of the robots which would occur if they were pressurised into producing more cars in a less term. Since robotic automation is a volatile technology, therefore, it cannot be trusted completely (Khan, 2016). On the other hand, this technology gave a good opportunity to the organisation to become more efficient in their production and also to produce quality cars which would make the lives of the people easy than it was before. Therefore, if the installation of the technology is properly planned and developed, then it could be a profit-making aspect for the country along with rejuvenating its position in the market.
Response of innovation strategy to innovation trend
The organisation should organise their innovation strategy in such a way that they are completely transparent to the people who have developed the idea and the people who will be funding the idea. Transparency of the innovation strategy is necessary so that all parties involved can determine properly if the process of innovation is moving forward in the right direction or not. Organisations should build different teams for different aspects of the innovation idea at the initial stage. In case of robotic automation, constant monitoring is necessary so that the technology does not backfire and create problems for the organisation. After the organisation of the innovation strategy, the organisation should develop additional capabilities which will help them to sustain the innovation. There are three capabilities of innovation which could be adopted by the organisation. First is creative abrasion which is the capability to form new ideas through the process of debate and discussion. Second is creative agility which is the capability to conduct experiments and tests by adjusting and reflecting on the idea of the innovation. Third is creative resolution which is the capability to make a decision which can have been formed by opposing or agreeing to different ideas from various sources (Hill et al., 2014). Other than the current innovative idea of robotic automation which has turned into a failure due to the overuse of robotic technology, the company could also explore different fields of innovative techniques. The company have also invested in various innovations regarding solar power which is reaching a new dimension because of the advantage that it is giving the people to reduce their use of electricity and finally decrease their electricity bills (Frankel, Ostrowski & Pinner, 2014). The company has developed this innovative technique regarding solar power to make the world a more sustainable place to live in. These various initiatives and innovations have been successful as they are beneficial to the people in the long run without creating any negative impact in the environment. However, the current innovative trend of robotic automation should be able to create and capture value for the organisation. For this to happen, the organisation have to make many huge changes in their innovation strategy which would ensure that the next strategy that they form is not a failure and would contribute to the betterment of the society.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be deduced from the above study that the use of robotic automation in Tesla has created a rather negative effect on the profits of the company. The technology has not been successful for the company as the heavy reliance on robots have not given the desired results that they have expected. This is why the company could change the strategy of their innovation and form a better strategy which would help them to use their innovative idea in such a way so that positive results are derived from it. Moreover, the innovative capabilities of the organisation must be optimally used to develop a compact idea. The strategy should be developed by keeping in mind that the new strategy should align with the corporate strategy of Tesla so that the project does not face failure for the second time.
References
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Camisón, C., & Villar-López, A. (2014). Organizational innovation as an enabler of technological innovation capabilities and firm performance. Journal of business research, 67(1), 2891-2902.
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Chen, Y., & Dong, F. (2013). Robot machining: recent development and future research issues. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 66(9-12), 1489-1497.
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Frankel, D., Ostrowski, K., & Pinner, D. (2014). The disruptive potential of solar power. McKinsey Quarterly, 2, 50-55.
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Khan, M. (2016). Automated Vehicle Control using Fuzzy Logic (Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Northridge).
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