How Tesla Motors and Elon Musk Did the Impossible
Tesla Motors and CEO Elon Musk have pulled off plenty of “impossible” feats. They created an electric car people actually want to drive. They disrupted one of the largest and most entrenched industries in the world. And they laid the foundation for the first nationwide infrastructure for alternative fuel.
Impressive, no doubt about it. But guess what? Tesla and Musk recently pulled off a feat that we IT people would consider even more unlikely—they satisfied their Users, their Team members, and their business Stakeholders with one single move!
Sounds crazy, I know. Every day, IT’s choices embody that age-old saying you can’t make everyone happy. We have our Users, our Team Members, and our Stakeholders, and when we make one group happy, we usually piss off the other two. Best case scenario? We satisfy two out of the three, and only have one big group mad at us.
Well, Tesla and Musk have just shown it doesn’t always have to be this way. Sometimes, you really can make everyone happy.
The situation: Tesla Motors and their CEO Elon Musk always make big claims about how hard they work to produce a more reliable, better-performing car than anyone else in the automotive industry. So, recently, their users rightly asked: “If you make the best cars in the industry, then why do you offer the same standard 5-year warranty as all the other car companies?”
Now, we all know how most car companies would respond when faced with this challenge…they’d sweep it under the rug!
But that’s not how Tesla operates. Here’s the email they sent out in response to these complaints:
In short: Tesla told its users; “You guys are right. All our cars—past and present—now have an 8-year, infinite-mile warranty that’s better than any other warranty in the industry.”
This bold move, combined with some best-practices communication from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, addressed the needs of all three groups they have to answer to:
- Their Users feel listened to and valued. Tesla heard their concerns, followed their advice, and corrected the issue immediately.
- Team Members see their company sticks to its vision, and received confirmation that their work contributes to an organization who puts its money where its mouth is.
- And, in the savviest move, Musk’s announcement of the new warranty directly addresses where his Stakeholders would be most concerned—the financial ramifications of this move. Yes, he admits, it may hurt short-term financial outlooks, so expect that. But, he continues, making decisions like this positions Tesla for greater long-term success.
Wow. Who says you can’t have it all?
