Table of Contents
Assessment and analysis of his success. 4
Discussion of leadership theories. 5
Organizational leaders are the most important factor for a business organization in the setting up of strategic goals as well as motivating the employees for achieving and accomplishing the goals and objectives of the company. Elon Musk is a successful organizational leader who successfully carried out the goals and objectives set up by him and achieved through effective strategies. Organizational leadership is important for the communication of the mission, vision, establishment of strategic plans, and management of the employees as team members. This project will portray the success story of Elon Musk with effective leadership theory.
Elon Musk is renowned as the founder of PayPal as well as SpaceX. He is also involved with the success of Tesla motors. The businessman, inventors, investors, and leaders have a vision and passion for technology and consumer integration and have been involved with solar power, artificial intelligence, and high-speed transportation in products and services (Pisarchik, A.N., Maksimenko, V.A. and Hramov, 2019). The most innovative companies have been founded by Elon Musk portraying that he has strong team management skills and has innovative ideas that are executed by him with his strong and skilled team. It has been observed that Elon Musk uses a transformational leadership style in most cases and sometimes a transactional leadership style as well. Elon Musk practices a transformational leadership style and believes that there are better ways of performing everything (Musk, 2019). Constant improvement objectives and goals are set by him with the incorporation of big ideas and uniting his team with outrageous vision and mission.
Elon Musk has an innate entrepreneurial passion with innovative ideas and has been pursuing experiences as well as endeavors since the age of 12. The organizational leader is one of the most influential CEOs of the 21st century with effective leadership practices towards his team or organizational employees. He inspires his organizational team with his visions and strategies. Goals are set by him and his ways are paved by him by not following the trend. In addition, his practice of micromanaging and hiring smartly has resulted in talented, skilled, and capable employees in the organization. Elon Musk inspires and motivates his team and is a visionary leader with ambitions set up by him along with the execution process in each case. According to news articles, Elon Musk is ranked top among the most inspirational figures in technology as a new survey of global industry professionals is done (Muegge and Reid, 2019).
The co-founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX disrupted the automotive industry with innovation and technology. The leaders have implemented strategies and ideas for building the automotive industry with all-electric cars and achieved it. The founder and organizational leader of Tesla and SpaceX manages and organizes his team in the organization successfully with the accomplishment of the objectives and tasks set up by him (Kulshreshth, Anand and Lakanpal, 2019). Elon Musk has successfully transformed into a charismatic leader and practiced a transformational leadership style in the success of Tesla and electric cars in the automobile industry. The teamwork facilitated by Elon Musk among the team members with effective leadership contributed to the achievement of the objectives and capturing more opportunities. The strategies and ideas that have contributed to the decision-making process have influenced the working techniques of his team members in the organization along with improved inspiration and motivation of the organizational employees (Roach, 2017).
The organizational leader is exceptional in his leadership practices as he embraces failure and accepts them as experience for the next pillar of success. In addition, he uses feedback and communication practices for finding solutions and reaching goals with cooperation. The leader is adaptable with the ability to adapt to changes and different leadership styles in different situations. Elon Musk involved intelligence and creativity in his leadership practices and involved the contribution of the talents and skills possessed by the organizational employees as well (Md. Rahat Khan, 2021).
Elon Musk is a successful business leader and richest person in the world overtaking other business leaders like the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos. The net worth of this entrepreneur of SpaceX and Tesla has crossed £136bn or $185bn. This has been influenced by the increases in the share price of the electric car company, Tesla (BBC.com, 2021). The news related to the success of Tesla has increased and been influenced by its competitive advantage among its industry rivals. The most valuable automotive companies have incorporated effective strategies and ideas to surpass their competitors through technology and innovation in the manufacturing of products as well as services to the customer base (Goldstein, 2021). The success of Tesla has delivered the company to a new level and standard in the industry. The company has reached a gold standard by innovating reluctantly.
The growth of the company through the strategies and ideas of Elon Musk has managed to deliver the appeal and better success of electric vehicles. The success of electric cars is more appealing to the customer base than diesel or petrol cars. This good news and unique product from Tesla have improved the competitive advantage of this company among its competitors. This is all possible due to the strategies and leadership practices of Elon Musk as this improves the environment by a reduction in fuel usage and environmental pollution. Elon Musk has introduced the unique manufacturing process and products of electric, autonomous, and shared cars as electric cars with AI are beneficial for the customer base and the environmental factor as well (Forbes.com, 2021).
Elon Musk said that he is using the feedback and solutions from his teammates as well as the value of those ideas in the marketplace for developing ideas on technology and innovation. His leadership approaches as well as his solution in technology and innovations are working in the customer market and industrial competitors are surpassed by the performance of Tesla cars. Elon Musk presented his passions and ideas of thinking big along with the courage of taking risks in the application of his ideas. He kept on pouring money even during the financial crisis when business companies hit, ignored the critics, and made decisions on his beliefs. The electric cars of Tesla have delivered an improved success rate of Tesla in the financial year 2021 with a profitable quarter. The net income of the company is $438 million with a recorded $10.4 billion in revenue (CNBC.com, 2021).
The success of Elon Musk has been effective due to the strategic application of leadership theories. It has been observed that Elon Musk has applied the transformational leadership theory in most cases. However, the use of transactional leadership style has been done by him as well in some cases.
Transformational leadership theory: This is a leadership theory that is used by the leader in working with teams. Changes are identified along with effective leadership and business practices by the leaders with the effective contribution of the followers as well in the decisions making process. A vision is created by the leader guiding and influencing the team members or followers in the organization. The leaders are responsible for motivating, influencing, and inspiring the employees with the appropriate application of leadership theory and practices. Elon Musk used this leadership theory for the execution of his strategies ideas related to technological disruption and innovation in the car industry for the better (Asbari, 2020).
The implementation of changes in the decision-making process in tandem with the commitment of the employees in the organization has been seen in the case of Tesla cars. Elon Musk incorporated all the I’s of Transformational leadership in his leadership practices. This included the important factors of inspirational motivation, Idealised influence, individual consideration, and intellectual stimulation. The use of these approaches by the organizational leader has been observed in the workplace and improvement of organizational performance in the industry.
Transactional theory of leadership: This is used by Elon Musk in some cases. He incorporated and implemented some changes as well as some rewards to the employees as team members for achieving the tasks and objectives set by him. In addition, deadlines and SMART objectives have been maintained by the organizational leader and team for effective delivery of the products and services on time. These leadership practices have been practiced by Elon musk for improvement of the employee performance in some cases when the employees performed in a poor way (Cho et al. 2019).
From the above discussion, it can be observed that the success of Elon Musk has been effective due to the appropriate practicing of the right leadership style. Elon Musk majorly used the Transformational leadership style for effective delivery of innovative ideas. In addition, the success of Tesla Motors has been facilitated by Elong Musk through the application of technological innovation and ideas related to environmental pollution. The success of Tesla Motors electric cars have gained a competitive advantage in the automotive industry through the application of innovative ideas and technological disruption by Elon Musk.
Academic
Asbari, M., 2020. Is Transformational Leadership Suitable for Future Organizational Needs?. International Journal of Social, Policy and Law, 1(1), pp.51-55.
Cho, Y., Shin, M., Billing, T.K. and Bhagat, R.S., 2019. Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and affective organizational commitment: a closer look at their relationships in two distinct national contexts. Asian Business & Management, 18(3), pp.187-210.
Goldstein, M.J., 2021. Elon Musk: Tesla Founder and Titan of Tech. Lerner Publications™.
Kulshreshth, A., Anand, A. and Lakanpal, A., 2019, October. Neuralink-an Elon Musk start-up achieve symbiosis with artificial intelligence. In 2019 International Conference on Computing, Communication, and Intelligent Systems (ICCCIS) (pp. 105-109). IEEE.
Md. Rahat Khan (2021). A critical analysis of Elon Musk’s leadership in Tesla motors. Available from: https://journal-jger.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s40497-021-00284-z [Available on 21 July 2021]
Muegge, S. and Reid, E., 2019. Elon Musk and SpaceX: A Case Study of Entrepreneuring as Emancipation. Technology Innovation Management Review, 9(8).
Musk, E., 2019. An integrated brain-machine interface platform with thousands of channels. Journal of medical Internet research, 21(10), p.e16194.
Pisarchik, A.N., Maksimenko, V.A. and Hramov, A.E., 2019. From novel technology to novel applications: Comment on “An integrated brain-machine interface platform with thousands of channels” by Elon Musk and Neuralink. Journal of medical Internet research, 21(10), p.e16356.
Roach, C.R., 2017. Simply Electrifying: The Technology that Transformed the World, from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk. Benbella Books.
Non-academic
BBC.com (2021). Elon Musk's six secrets to business success. Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55554343 [Available on 21 July 2021]
CNBC.com (2021). Elon Musk is the most inspirational leader in tech, new survey shows. Available from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/17/elon-musk-named-the-most-inspirational-leader-in-tech.html [Available on 21 July 2021]
Forbes.com (2021). Tesla's Success Is Good News For Everyone. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2020/07/06/teslas-success-is-good-news-foreveryone/?sh=67dc7f9f5ceb [Available on 21 July 2021]
