Innovation Is The Way Ahead – Tesla Story

Innovate, a word said by many, understood by very few. What is innovation? Is it doing something that has never been done? If that were the case, the Wright Brothers can’t be called innovators, because there were various others thriving to make that one vehicle that could fly. Is innovation coming up with something no one has ever seen? Apple could then never have been called innovative.

Innovation is doing something better than the others in a way that has never been done by anybody else. Tesla just signifies this theory of innovation. Established in 2003, Tesla today is a 13 Billion$ company. If you do the math, it’s around a Billion$ a year. What has led to this monumental rise of the company in an automobile market filled with players having over a century of experience? Some say it’s the visionary founder, Elon Musk, who has revolutionised the market with his electronic car technology. Well, if that would be the case, the Tesla S series would never have remained the second largest selling electric-powered vehicle behind the Nissan Leaf.

Then what is it that differentiate Tesla from the pack? It’s the philosophy which is innovative and not the technology. Technology can be replicated philosophy is inherent. Tesla has single-handedly challenged the ideology of the automobile market. “Aluminium is not sturdy enough to build cars”, and boom an aluminium car that has one of the most incredible crash test performance. “Electric cars cannot be fast”, sure, 0-60mph in 3 seconds. They have challenged the status quo at every step.

This may be great but what is actually special about Tesla, is their approach towards marketing. It was unimaginable that something as involving as a car could ever be purchased online and in came Tesla calling to remove the middlemen by going online. They sent their service stations to the cloud by allowing over the air updates to the car, as and when better algorithms are found. They created bespoke cars by customising the driving experience for different drivers. These are those small things that made the big impact.

To be innovative, the thought process has to be innovative and innovative thought is never the baby of a single mind. Tesla realised the fact and invested heavily in QA and R&D bringing in innovations that have never been expected, let alone seen. The kept their technology open source, for everyone to help them develop that something which cannot be thought in boardrooms.

This is what has set Tesla apart and this is exactly what sets any innovator apart. To innovate does not mean to create magic out of thin air. Innovation means to layer the bricks of innovation and to set them together with the concrete of vigour. You can never innovate if you think inside the box, you will have to let the apple fall far from the tree.