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Faculty
Elon Kohlberg
Elon Kohlberg is the Royal Little Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His research is mainly in Game Theory, in particular the study of non-cooperative equilibrium. Professor Kohlberg has taught many courses in the MBA, Ph.D., and executive programs at Harvard Business School, including, Managerial Economics, Competitive Decision Making, Strategy, and Finance. He...
- February 2023 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Twitter Turnaround and Elon Musk
By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic
Late afternoon on Friday, October 27th, 2022, Elon Musk was the center of attention at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. The night before, Musk officially took the company private and became Twitter’s majority shareholder, finally ending a months-long acquisition...
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- January 2023
- Case
Elon Musk at Tesla
By: George Serafeim and Amram Migdal
This case gives an overview of Elon Musk’s career arc through the lens of the 2003 founding of Tesla and its growth through 2022. Background information is included on Tesla’s unique strategic decisions, its operational and reputational struggles and successes, and the...
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Keywords:
Business Ventures;
Decision Making;
Design;
Energy;
Renewable Energy;
Engineering;
Entrepreneurship;
Environmental Management;
Climate Change;
Environmental Sustainability;
Green Technology;
Values and Beliefs;
Governance;
Innovation and Invention;
Innovation Leadership;
Innovation Strategy;
Leadership;
Leadership Style;
Management;
Goals and Objectives;
Organizations;
Mission and Purpose;
Society;
Social Issues;
Strategy;
Transportation;
Value;
Auto Industry;
Transportation Industry
- July 15, 2022
- Article
Does Elon Musk Have a Strategy?
By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic
Does Elon Musk have a strategy? Or is he just out there winging it? Looking at Musk’s many companies, common themes stand out across three areas: what fits into his vision for problems to solve, how he designs an organization as a solution to those problems, and why he...
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- March 2022 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
Doubling Down: Elon Musk's Big Bets in 2022
By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
2021 was a banner year for Elon Musk. CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, the aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, and a few smaller startups, Musk became the richest person on Earth after Tesla reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion and SpaceX a private...
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Keywords:
Innovation and Management;
Competitive Advantage;
Competitive Strategy;
Information Infrastructure;
Applications and Software;
Transportation;
Strategic Planning;
Leadership Style;
Leading Change;
Goals and Objectives;
Aerospace Industry;
Auto Industry;
Battery Industry;
United States;
Europe;
China
- October 2021
- Background Note
How to Write an Action-Planning Memo
By: Ryan Raffaelli and Akshaya Varghese
The ability to communicate an action plan through writing is essential for advancing ideas, earning credibility, and garnering support. Research has shown that leaders who write formal plans are more likely to execute successfully—written plans help members of an...
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- April 2020 (Revised October 2021)
- Case
SpaceX, Economies of Scale, and a Revolution in Space Access
By: Matthew C. Weinzierl, Kylie Lucas and Mehak Sarang
From the time he transformed the world of online banking, Elon Musk established himself as a bold innovator. After selling X.com to PayPal in 2002, he founded a series of revolutionary start-ups, starting with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Hoping to "make...
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- February 28, 2020
- Article
How Tesla Sets Itself Apart
By: Lou Shipley
Tesla and its flamboyant, and sometimes erratic, innovator Elon Musk have turned the more than a century old industry upside down in a mere 16 years. Traditional automakers are ill prepared to compete in today’s software-centered world. Unlike nimble Tesla, they are...
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- June 6, 2019
- Article
Tesla's Advantage? 'It's the Software, Stupid.'
By: Lou Shipley
Without question, entrepreneur, innovator and engineer Elon Musk is a controversial figure, but there is no disputing that his first-to-market Tesla electric vehicles are not only revolutionizing the high-end driving experience, but also disrupting the automobile...
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Keywords:
Tesla;
Elon Musk;
Autonomous Vehicle;
Transportation;
Software;
Technology;
Disruption;
Auto Industry
- May 2019
- Case
Elon Musk's Big Bets Update, 2019
By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
This short case provides an update to Elon Musk's strategy and tactical moves with Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX from 2016-2019.
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Keywords:
Electric Vehicles;
Batteries;
Solar Power;
Execution;
Space Flight;
Tesla;
SolarCity;
SpaceX;
Elon Musk;
Information Technology;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Expansion;
Renewable Energy;
Strategy;
Investment;
Manufacturing Industry;
Green Technology Industry;
Auto Industry;
Aerospace Industry;
Battery Industry
- November 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Tesla, Inc. in 2018
By: Siko Sikochi, Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher
On August 7, 2018 Elon Musk, Chairman and CEO of Tesla tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private and had secured funding. Weeks went by without details about a deal and speculation grew that Musk had misled investors. He soon abandoned the idea, but the...
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- Editorial
Elon Musk's Unusual Compensation Plan Isn't Really About Compensation at All
By: George Serafeim
Earlier this year, Tesla shareholders approved likely the largest compensation package ever awarded to a CEO—for a CEO who clearly doesn’t need the money. Elon Musk is already incredibly rich and also doesn’t seem particularly motivated by further wealth. So why do it?...
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- April 2018 (Revised June 2020)
- Case
Tesla's CEO Compensation Plan
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Sarah Mehta
Tesla’s board of directors proposed an unusual compensation plan for the company’s CEO Elon Musk. The plan payouts were entirely contingent on achieving very ambitious market value, sales, and EBIT targets over the next ten years. If all the targets were achieved,...
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- April 2018 (Revised March 2019)
- Case
Tesla-SolarCity
By: E. Scott Mayfield and Emil N. Siriwardane
On June 21, 2016, Tesla Motors, Inc. announced its offer to acquire SolarCity, bringing CEO Elon Musk one step closer to completing his goal of moving the world from a hydrocarbon-based economy to a solar-electric one. Markets and analysts were mixed in their reaction...
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- December 2017 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Tesla: Merging with SolarCity
By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott
In 2016, electric car manufacturer Tesla announced that it was making an offer to acquire solar panel manufacturer SolarCity in an all-stock offer worth $2.6 billion in Tesla stock. Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, believed that the merger would generate...
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- November 2016 (Revised September 2018)
- Case
Elon Musk's Big Bets
By: David B. Yoffie, Eric Baldwin and Brandon Kaufmann
Between late 2014 and late 2016, Tesla CEO Elon Musk undertook several major, and risky, initiatives that would dramatically expand the scale and scope of Tesla’s business. In late 2014, Tesla began construction on a $5 billion “gigafactory” that would manufacture...
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Keywords:
Electric Vehicles;
Batteries;
Solar Power;
Strategy;
Execution;
Technology;
Space Flight;
Tesla;
SolarCity;
SpaceX;
Elon Musk;
Information Technology;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Expansion;
Renewable Energy;
Investment;
Manufacturing Industry;
Green Technology Industry;
Auto Industry;
Aerospace Industry;
Battery Industry
- October 2016
- Case
Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Sarah Mehta
The case is used to illustrate the place of ‘Purpose’ versus financial risk and returns in a founder’s objectives. It also addresses personal risk profile of different founders, and when paired with the Risk Tolerance Exercise, it enables evaluating one’s own appetite...
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- Research Summary
The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership
Since World War II, a handful of individuals have helped transform the face of modern-day leadership, making charisma essential to the role. In The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership, Richard S. Tedlow examines how pioneers like Steve Jobs, Oprah... View Details