Tesla’s mission statement and vision statement reflect the nature of the prominent electric automobile manufacturing business and related operations. Continuing business growth shows that the market is favorably responding to the company’s automotive and energy products. This condition highlights the appropriateness of Tesla’s corporate mission and corporate vision to the business organization and its market opportunities. The corporate mission statement guides the automaker’s strategic decisions to fulfill the primary business purpose. On the other hand, the corporate vision statement shapes Tesla’s direction of organizational growth. For example, the company aims for leadership as a multinational automotive business that focuses on electric vehicles. With a strong brand image and increasing popularity, the company is positioned to succeed in the global electric automobile market. This success comes with Tesla’s generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies, which are directed toward satisfying the business purpose, corporate mission, and corporate vision.
Electric cars and energy products are the focus of business goals based on Tesla’s corporate vision statement and corporate mission statement. However, changes and trends in the global market can prompt the company to modify these statements to ensure business relevance, possibly leading to new products in addition to electric vehicles, battery packs, and solar energy solutions. Tesla’s marketing mix (4Ps) may need to change as a result of modifying the corporate mission statement and corporate vision statement.
Tesla’s Mission Statement
Tesla’s mission statement is “Accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” It is worth noting that the company’s previous corporate mission was “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport.” Under Elon Musk’s leadership, the company changed its mission statement to reflect a strategic shift in addressing market opportunities linked to sustainable energy trends. The following are the key points of Tesla’s mission statement:
- Acceleration
- Global transition
- Sustainable energy
The “acceleration” component of the corporate mission statement establishes Tesla’s role in pushing the industry toward advanced technologies and products for sustainable lifestyles and businesses. This acceleration implies that one of the company’s goals is to increase market demand for sustainable energy solutions, instead of just satisfying existing demand. Tesla’s mission statement also mentions “the world’s transition” to indicate the global market, which is also referred to in the corporate vision statement. The third element of the corporate mission describes the nature of the business, encompassing a variety of products, such as electric vehicles, batteries or energy storage solutions, solar panels, and related systems. This detail of the corporate mission statement shows the potential diversification of the business and how it addresses the ecological and related trends examined in the PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of Tesla, Inc. Furthermore, the change from the previous corporate mission statement’s “sustainable transport” to the current mission statement’s “sustainable energy” offers a glimpse of possible future expansion and diversification of the business and helps address stakeholders’ concerns in Tesla’s corporate social responsibility and governance strategy.
Tesla’s Vision Statement
Tesla’s vision statement is “to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.” This corporate vision statement emphasizes the company’s focus on sustainable applications in transportation. The following points are in Tesla’s vision statement:
- The most compelling
- Car company
- 21st Century
- Driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles
In its corporate vision statement, Tesla aims to be the most compelling in the industry. This point indicates business leadership and excellence in the automotive industry. The vision statement’s focus on the automotive industry is specified in the term, “car company,” which refers to Tesla’s operations in the design and manufacture of electric cars and their batteries. On the other hand, the “21st century” component describes the company as a relevant, up-to-date, and advanced business that capitalizes on various technologies to provide sustainable transport solutions. The corporate vision statement’s fourth component, “driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles,” positions Tesla as a leader in the global market for sustainable solutions, especially sustainable transportation. Also, “world” indicates multinational operations, which make the corporate vision agree with the corporate mission statement’s specification of international market reach.
The global scope of Tesla’s business, as stated in its corporate vision statement, puts the corporation in competition with a variety of competitors. For instance, the company’s products compete with the electric or hybrid vehicles of Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, Honda, and BMW. In this regard, strategies based on the vision statement address the strong force of competition stated in the Five Forces analysis of Tesla, Inc. Thus, the company envisions itself as a strong player in the industry, competing with other large multinational automotive firms. The strengths and weaknesses enumerated in the SWOT analysis of Tesla influence the competitiveness of the business against such firms.
Recommendations for Tesla’s Mission & Vision
Tesla’s corporate mission statement is satisfactory in terms of presenting the company’s goals. It adequately covers the kinds of products that the company sells, the market scope, and the market position of the automobile and energy solutions business. However, the corporate mission does not provide adequate information about the general direction of Tesla’s organizational development. Thus, a recommendation for improving the corporate mission statement is to describe the electric car company’s operations in moving toward the fulfillment of its corporate vision. For example, the mission statement can specify that Tesla aims to provide advanced automation and autonomous technologies to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Tesla’s corporate vision statement effectively describes general strategic objectives. However, it does not cover current business endeavors, instead focusing on transportation. For example, the corporate vision does not accurately reflect operations in providing sustainable energy solutions for cars and homes. The corporate mission statement already encompasses sustainable energy solutions, but the vision statement remains focused on electric vehicles. A recommendation is to make Tesla’s corporate vision statement reflect the business organization’s increasing interests in products other than electric vehicles, such as solar energy products and batteries.
References
- About Tesla, Inc.
- Lüthy, A. (2023). From the Mission Statement to Value-Oriented Corporate Management. In Value-Oriented Leadership in Theory and Practice: Concepts-Study Results-Practical Insights (pp. 79-93). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
- Reid, S. E., & Crawford, C. B. (2022). Crafting the Vision Statement. In Entrepreneurial Vision (pp. 263-276). Springer, Cham.
- Tesla, Inc. – Form 10-K.
- Tesla, Inc. – Impact.