Saint Louis University

Maryheights, Bakakeng, Bagui City

INNOVATIVENESS

Submitted by:
GROUP 7
LEAL, NICOLE
ESPERANZA, RAVENNE
SORIANO, SOPHIA
LOMASANG, NICOLE
ROCA, AARON

Submitted to:
MRS. GLORY DREQUITO

GENTREP TTH 1:00- 2:30

March 2020
 Entrepreneurial Orientation
Innovativeness

Innovativeness which adheres to the growth of a business. It is to showcase originality by

virtue of introducing new ideas.

Innovation refers to creating more effective processes, products, and ideas. For a
business, it could mean implementing new ideas, improving services or creating dynamic
products. It can act as a catalyst that can make a business grow and can help adapt in the
marketplace.

By innovation, it means changing a business model and making changes in the existing
environment to deliver better products or services. Successful innovation should be a part of a
business strategy, where it can create a culture of innovation and make a way for creative
thinking. It can also increase the likelihood of a business succeeding and can create more
efficient processes that can result in better productivity and performance.

For that, business owners need innovation and creativity to find new things. Try adopting
and creating new ideas that will help it grow beyond business’s competition.

About TESLA

Photo taken from TESLA

Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

Tesla was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers who wanted to prove that people
didn’t need to compromise to drive electric – that electric vehicles can be better, quicker and
more fun to drive than gasoline cars. Today, Tesla builds not only all-electric vehicles but also
infinitely scalable clean energy generation and storage products. Tesla believes the faster the
world stops relying on fossil fuels and moves towards a zero-emission future, the better.
 Photo taken from Harvard Business Research

Launched in 2008, the Roadster unveiled Tesla’s cutting-edge battery technology and
electric powertrain. From there, Tesla designed the world’s first ever premium all-electric sedan
from the ground up – Model S – which has become the best car in its class in every category.
Combining safety, performance, and efficiency, Model S has reset the world’s expectations for
the car of the 21st century with the longest range of any electric vehicle, over-the-air software
updates that make it better over time, and a record 0-60 mph acceleration time of 2.28 seconds as
measured by Motor Trend. In 2015, Tesla expanded its product line with Model X, the safest,
quickest and most capable sport utility vehicle in history that holds 5-star safety ratings across
every category from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Completing CEO Elon
Musk’s “Secret Master Plan,” in 2016, Tesla introduced Model 3, a low-priced, high-volume
electric vehicle that began production in 2017. Soon after, Tesla unveiled the safest, most
comfortable truck ever – Tesla Semi – which is designed to save owners at least $200,000 over a
million miles based on fuel costs alone.

All Tesla vehicles are produced at its factory in Fremont, California, where the vast
majority of the vehicle’s components are also made. To achieve their goal of having the safest
factories in the world, Tesla is taking a proactive approach to safety, requiring production
employees to participate in a multi-day training program before ever setting foot on the factory
floor. From there, Tesla continues to provide on-the-job training and track performance daily so
that improvements can be made quickly. The result is that Tesla’s safety rate continues to
improve while Model 3 production ramps.

To create an entire sustainable energy ecosystem, Tesla also manufactures a unique set of
energy solutions, Powerwall, Powerpack and Solar Roof, enabling homeowners, businesses, and
utilities to manage renewable energy generation, storage, and consumption. Supporting Tesla’s
automotive and energy products is Gigafactory 1 – a facility designed to significantly reduce
battery cell costs. By bringing cell production in-house, Tesla manufactures batteries at the
volumes required to meet production goals, while creating thousands of jobs.
 And this is just the beginning. With Tesla building its most affordable car yet, Tesla
continues to make products accessible and affordable to more and more people, ultimately
accelerating the advent of clean transport and clean energy production. Electric cars, batteries,
and renewable energy generation and storage already exist independently, but when combined,
they become even more powerful – that’s the future we want.

How does TESLA show INNOVATIVENESS?

Tesla’s innovation strategy — which focuses on transforming the auto industry as a

whole — offers enduring lessons for any innovator, especially in terms of how to win support for
an idea and how to bring new technologies to market.

To understand Tesla’s strategy, one must first separate its two primary pillars: headline-
grabbing moves like launching the Cybertruck or the Roadster 2.0 (which the company claims
will accelerate faster than any production car ever made) and the big bets it is making on its core
vehicles, the models S, X, 3, and Y. These efforts aim to achieve different things — winning the
resources to commercialize vs. actually commercializing the idea — but they come together to
achieve a central goal: bring a new innovation to market.

Let’s start with the first part of the strategy. In experts’ view, efforts like the Cybertruck
aren’t really about making money; they are about getting attention and proving that Tesla is one
of the world’s most innovative companies, specifically for the purpose of building Tesla’s ability
to win support from stakeholders — what we call innovation capital.

Innovation capital consists of four factors:

Who you are (innovation-specific human capital) — your capacity for forward thinking,
creative problem-solving, and persuasion
Who you know (innovation-specific social capital) — your social connections with
people who have valuable resources for innovation
What you’ve done (innovation-specific reputation capital) — your track record and
reputation for innovation
The things you do to generate attention and credibility for yourself and your ideas (what
we call impression amplifiers). Politicians with political capital can get others to join them in
pursuing their objectives; in a similar fashion, business leaders with innovation capital can attract
the resources needed for innovation to flourish.

Based on a case study of Tesla, there observed that Elon Musk is a master of building and
using innovation capital to win support for his ideas. Not only does he leverage his past success
at Paypal and Space X to win support for future projects, he also uses what we call “impression
amplifiers” to get stakeholders on board. For example, when Musk stands on stage and reveals
the Cybertruck, he doesn’t just talk about the new idea, he materializes it, putting it into physical
form to convince skeptics (he also did this when he parked a Space X rocket in front of the
National Air and Space Museum). He also broadcasts the idea through big media launches like
the demo for the Cybertruck, which gets third parties talking about the company and generating
buzz.
References:

https://hbr.org/2020/02/lessons-from-teslas-approach-to-innovation
https://www.tesla.com/about
https://medium.com/swlh/4-important-benefits-of-innovation-in-business-64ed0d78d150