The role of media in today’s business world is significant. The competition in the market has continually increased forcing companies to invest in ways through which they can acquire competitive edge in the market and remain in business. To do this companies continually share or compare notes, seek and create knowledge for the purposes of learning new ways of doing business through various forms of media such as television, company publications and social media. This paper will zero in on critically evaluating the impact and the role of traditional media and social media on knowledge sharing, seeking and creation in relation to Tesla Inc, an American automobile company based in California. The company is famed on making electric cars and other machines that do not depend on fossil fuels.
Tesla Inc encourages her employees to communicate to anyone within the company in order to solve any problem or issue affecting the company. The employees can share the information amongst each other by communicating directly through face to face conversation or send an email. These traditional forms of communication plays great role in ensuring that the employees at Tesla share communication without any form of hindrance. The fact the employees at the company do not need to follow protocol such as talking to the immediate manager before who will then share with his or her immediate manger underpins the impact traditional form of media can have on Tesla’s knowledge sharing. For example, an employee could be having a good idea on how Tesla can further improve its technology on coming up with a more efficient electric car but his/her immediate manager may not see the sense in the idea being suggested by his junior staff. (Tesla motors vehicles, 2010)The junior staff is allowed by the company to proceed and talk to any other manager or the any of the founders of the company regarding this technology he/she feels can help the company solve some of the problems or challenges it is facing in the market. This sharing of information can also be done through sending of email or any other for of communication that the concerned employee deems most appropriate. Thus emails and company write ups act as a medium through which knowledge is shared in the company. (Albarran, 2013) The overall impact of these types of media is that it enables that company to leverage more on it human resources in terms of knowledge sharing without relying on external sources of knowledge such as research conducted by separate entities within the industry. (Larcker and Tayan, 2011) The shared knowledge can further undergo some changes or improvements based on the input from fellow colleagues at work whom the knowledge was shared with. The Actor-Network theory opines that no one person or individual is solely responsible for advancements that are realized as a result of input from a system or a network of both human and non-human factors. Thus according to this theory technological innovations are can be best realized through a chain of inputs that makes it more suitable and efficient in resolving challenges that the company might have been facing. (Haerens and Zott, 2014)
Tesla Motor website contain useful information about the company innovations and products which provides an opportunity to all the employees to learn from each other or share knowledge for the overall benefit of the company. To elaborate on this Tesla has information on it’s website on how one of its electric car brand is able to operate on an autopilot that is designed to make highway driving more comfortable, safer and stress free. (Bryfonski, 2012) Thus an employee in any of the Tesla’s branches can be able to gain this information without necessarily researching the whole topic or concept altogether. This platform therefore offers an opportunity to Tesla employees to concentrate their efforts in improving on the innovation as opposed to working on a technology that has already been discovered and implemented. (Doeden, 2015)
Tesla Company has heavily invested in Research and Development (R&D) by opening a number of R&D centers across the world. The company has an R&D center in Michigan US and recently (2017) another one in China. The research and developments centers act as the primary sources or points through which the company seeks more knowledge regarding the technologies and innovations that they have put in place. These centers employ various form of knowledge seeking methods such reading publications and other forms of secondary data regarding similar technologies or concepts. Thus the role of the traditional media and social media in these R&D centers is to act as points through which knowledge can be sourced. Through this source the company has been able to come up with innovative technologies that have transformed the entire sector or industry of sustainable energy. The experiments that have been conducted in these centers have resulted to new pieces of information discovered about the existing technologies that have made them better in terms of responding to the market needs and desires. (Tesla motors vehicles, 2010) Engineers and technicians in these centers seek information amongst each other through writing of emails and reading write ups about innovations developed in the center. (Bryfonski, 2012) Once they have sought information from their colleagues it makes it easier for them to advance on the innovations that had already been developed by the company. The engineers and technicians also leverage on the information available on the social media especially on pages that are dedicated in helping its followers to gain more knowledge on technological innovations and advancements. An example of the innovation gained through R&D at Tesla is the Silicon Valley innovation where much of its innovation stems from the commitment the company has on research and development. To put this into perspective the company in the financial year at the end of 2015, the company had invested 717.9 million US dollars on R&D alone since inception in the year 2003 setting a clear upward trend. (Williams, Calow and Lee, 2011)
The company also has presence in all the social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter through which it occasionally asked her clients to give response concerning a certain technology or innovation launched in the market. These social media interactions a times lead to generation of new information regarding the products that the company may not have been aware about. Thus providing an extra source where the company can obtain information. For example whenever Tesla launches new product the company request her social media followers to commend on the experience the get from the new product. These information are used to further improve the quality of the product as desired by the consumer preferences. The client engagement on social media enables the company to view the product from the customer or the user perspective thus providing new viewpoints that enable the technicians and engineers at the company to get more knowledge regarding the innovation. (Doeden, 2015)
The company also has big motor shows where customers across the world come to view the company innovations displayed for customers to sample and buy if they are interested. The galleries have Tesla employees who are stationed strategically to field questions from customers and receive feedback concerning company product. These social gatherings impact knowledge seeking in that it has the ability to change the company position or approach on certain innovation if a considerable number of customers do raise the same concern or question. The company also participates in other motor shows or events and gets an opportunity to interact with her customers who provide valuable information that helps the company to improve on the quality of its products. (Taras and Waddell, 2012) The feedback gathered from these social gatherings gives the company new dimension through which her innovations can be improved so as to gain more customers in the market. Social media has also made Tesla one of the most trending motor companies in the world despite its relative young age in the market. The company has been able to compete favorable against motor gains in the world such as Audi and Mercedes which started business way before Tesla was formed. This shows that social media and traditional media have been able to provide Tesla with a lot of information through commends and mentions in the social media. Each time a client or a social media follower of the company commends or mentions Tesla the company has the opportunity to learn from such tweet or any other social media interaction to better its pool of knowledge. (Tesla motors vehicles, 2010) The company CEO has been on the forefront in communicating through social media by announcing various company projects that the company ha already intends to roll out or launch. This can explain the reason why Tesla is doing well in terms of social media popularity compared to other companies that have been in business for long duration compared to Tesla. (Larcker and Tayan, 2011)
The company has also invested in Call centers and channels, through which online queries can be raised. With this information clients can write emails, drop a message to the company or decide to call the company is the client deems fit to do so. The role of this form of commutation is to provide another channel through which the company can be able to seek information from the clients and other external sources for the overall benefit of the company. From these calls and online inquiries the company gains valuable feedback or information from the clients which have significantly affected the manner in which the company runs its business. (Lin, 2016) For example the company can receive complain from one of the client concerning a certain aspect of the car that does not perform as expected or contained in the car manual. (Tesla motors vehicles, 2010)The company might not be aware of such problems because testing does not always yield results that will ensure the car will fully perform as expected in the filed. The company can therefore make use of the feedback to change a few aspects of the car in order for it to be more responsive to the market needs. (Yu and Chen, 2015)
Tesla partnered with Toyota in the year 2010 to manufacture electric cars. This opportunity provided Tesla with the platform to create and/or acquire knowledge from Toyota that will go a long way in ensuring the company is able to produce quality cars in the market. One of the primary aims of the project was to ensure that Tesla produces Model S of the electric cars that will go for a price of 50,000 USD a price which is a great departure from 100,000 USD price of the electric Roadster brand. Tesla would therefore learn from Toyota’s lean production line to ensure that the company achieves the targeted price. This correspondence was done through various forms of communication such as company documents or write ups such as manuals, emails as well as one on one apprentice trainings. These mediums of commutation played the integral role of acting as a conduit through which the two companies acquired knowledge from one another. (Bardone, 2013)The email correspondence for example would provide an opportunity to the technicians and engineers from both companies to learn from each other without necessarily making arrangements for face top face meeting. For those innovations that could not be learned through sharing of company documents the two companies arranged for face to face trainings for their technicians to meet and acquire knowledge from each other. The social media of both companies also provided and opportunity to acquire knowledge from respective clients especially after the two companies announced joint venture. The clients through feedback written through various platforms such as social media and email provided extra information through which the two companies learned from. These impacted more on Tesla especially on the ratings it received on Wall Street due to consumer confidence on its products. The increased confidences or rating enabled the company to attract more researches by scholars and other interested parties which further provided avenue for knowledge acquisition. (Tansel, 2015)
In the year 2013 Tesla hired ex apple retail chief to build new model for distribution. With the vast knowledge and experience working for apple the new employee acted as a resource person through which other employees at Tesla would learn and acquire knowledge from. The resource person would write documents and manual through which the rest of the employees can gain knowledge and further their respective skills that would benefit the company. The resource person would also communicate by sharing his work through email or responding to inquiries from the fellow colleagues at work. Therefore the role played by traditional media as well as social media was central to the work and communication between the newly employed expert at Tesla and the rest of the employees with regard to knowledge acquisition. These forms of media improved the quality of communication between the new employee and the rest of the team at Tesla. The improved commutation can be attributed to the fact that with multiple forms the media available the process of communication is improved owing to the fact that more than one channel is available which increase the chances of quality communication. (Kallen, 2016)
The partnership between Panasonic Corporation and Tesla Motors where the two companies agreed that Panasonic will manufacture batteries for the Tesla’s electric cars saw skills and knowledge transferred from one company to another. The role of traditional media as well as the social media was such it allowed the two companies to share company documents such as manuals that would ensure that the batteries manufactured by the Panasonic were compatible to the electric cars manufactured by Tesla Motors. Thus the role of media was to ease the process of communications between the two teams in the joint venture. For example, through the use of emails the companies communicated with each other with ease without having to set up physical meeting that would have otherwise consumed time and resources. These mediums of communications also ensured that the two companies were in agreement on the level of production that each of the company envisaged in the plan. For example, Tesla Motors required supply of over 80,000 units of batteries over the next four years from the year 2011 so that it can be able to meet the demand of its market. On the other hand there was need to establish whether Panasonic was capable of meeting this demand. These forms of communication therefore ensure that the two companies are in sync with each other regarding all the details concerning the joint manufacturing process they were about to begin. Thus the main role therefore for these mediums was to provide a channel of communication between the two companies. (Tesla motors vehicles, 2010)The impact of these forms of media is that it leads to better understanding between the two companies. They also ensure that the workers or employees of the two companies get to gain valuable skills and knowledge from both companies for the overall benefit of the partnership. (Doeden, 2015)
Conclusions
In conclusion knowledge sharing, seeking and creation are most fundamental aspects of growth of any company. Tesla significantly invested in this area to boost its chances of staying in business for long period of time. The company also utilized various forms of media to ensure that it maximally leverages on the process of knowledge sharing, seeking and creation. The fact that Tesla continually sought ways through which it can reinvent itself showed that the company placed a lot of premium on the concept of knowledge management. The company utilized social media and the traditional forms of media such as company publications to communicate with the stakeholders within the industry. In particular, the company utilized social media to receive feedback from her clients which proved to be a reliable source of information as it emanated directly from the market. These communications resulted into changes that would have otherwise not be effected had there been no communication between the stakeholders.
References
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