Assignment

Case Analysis With Discussion: Stakeholder Analysis of Tesla Motors and the Global Automobile Industry

To develop effective strategies, a business must thoroughly understand its ecosystem, and the stakeholders within it, that can affect its success. To this end, effective businesses often analyze the political, economic, social, and technological forces (sometimes called P.E.S.T. analysis) and perform a comprehensive stakeholder analysis. Businesses can use each analysis to survey opportunities for strategic action, as well as to evaluate threats to current resource capabilities and strategies.

You use a large-scale, industry-level case study to analyze critical forces and stakeholder interests and needs that shape the ecosystem of an organization and industry. You then examine the strategic implications of the critical forces and stakeholder analyses concepts as they apply to your Capstone Strategy Playbook.

Stakeholder Analysis of Tesla Motors

P.E.S.T. analysis is an important way to capture the general forces that affect industries and companies. Another way to obtain a more comprehensive perspective of the general ecosystem that a company like Tesla Motors works within, is to identify, as explicitly as possible, all the stakeholders that have an interest in a given business.

You might want to think about this from the "outside-in." That is, given each of the major P.E.S.T. forces noted above, ask yourself, "Who are the people (stakeholders) behind each major force and how must I relate to them strategically?" So, for example, it is clear that international and national political figures may be relevant stakeholders in any given case, as would government regulators at local, regional, national, or international levels. You can't change a local, regional, or national/international regulation directly-you have to know who to see and the action occurs among people-so a stakeholder analysis is, in many ways, a "personified" version of your P.E.S.T. analysis.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Review all required readings, including the Weekly Briefing, which provides additional guidance on how to complete the Assignment.
• Review this week's case study. You can, and should, scan it multiple times.
• Identify and review all relevant readings from the MBA Program Capstone Bibliography.
• Consider the elements of P.E.S.T. analysis that you learned earlier in the MBA program. These elements include:

o Political (Legislative) and Legal Elements (regulatory environment, market access, technology regulation, zoning restrictions, industry specific, company specific legislation, anti-trust laws, insurance/liability requirements, safety regulations, child workforce protection laws, immigration laws, etc.)

o Economic Elements (interest rate and equity market movements, capital liquidity, inflation prospects, exchange rate movements, workforce availability, discretionary income levels, etc.)

o Societal Values and Ethics (risk taking propensity, family dynamics and behavior, cultural "in" behaviors, taboo activities, media focus, religious behaviors, ethical limitations on business, etc.)

o Technology Elements (materials technology advances, electronics advances, communications advances, infrastructure access [communication, electricity, etc.], energy advances, etc.)

And an important and too often forgotten element:

o Demographic Changes (age distribution and trend, absolute population size and trend, birth and death rates, gender proportion and trend, ethnic mix and trend, location/mobility and trends.)

• Identify, as explicitly as possible, all the relevant stakeholders that have an interest in Tesla Motors, and how Tesla should manage them as part of a strategy.

• Research your stakeholder list initially this way, to ensure complete coverage:

o General Ecosystem Stakeholders (the ones that are behind the specific P.E.S.T. influences, includes the press, interest groups, the public at large, communities, shareholders, etc.)

o Industry Level Stakeholders (direct local competitors, potential substitute companies, other competitors or potential competitors outside your current markets, lenders, alliance or potential alliance partners, trade associations, suppliers in the entire supply chain, customers and their end-users, potential customers or end users, etc.)

o Internal Stakeholders (these are the people who influence the company from inside, including the board of directors, senior leadership, management, skilled employees at any level, other employees, contract workforce, outsourced workforce, potential new recruits, etc.)

o Potential New Stakeholders (at any level, but which may become stakeholders as you consider new strategic actions and activities)

• Then, reorder and rank the stakeholder list in order of "influence priority," where stakeholders at the top of the prioritized list require more of Tesla Motor's attention because they can/will influence your strategic choices for the future the most.

Post:

An assessment of the stakeholder environment for Tesla (and the U.S. automobile industry) that includes a comprehensive and prioritized list of stakeholders and explains who the key stakeholders are that Tesla Motors must pay attention to and why; and then offers specific strategies for how Tesla must seek to manage or otherwise, legally and ethically, influence these stakeholders.

Articles

1. Yesla Motors (in 2013): Will Spearks Fly in the Automobile Industru?

2. Strategic roads that diverge or converge: GM and Toyota in the battle for the top by Shamsud D. Chowdhury.

3. Stakeholder Analysis Tool.