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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...

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  • November 2024
  • Article

Stakeholder Amnesia in M&A Deals

By: Caley Petrucci and Guhan Subramanian
Public companies have increasingly embraced environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the course of everyday business. However, these ESG considerations are virtually non-existent in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. Elon Musk’s recent acquisition... View Details
Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Governing and Advisory Boards; Mergers and Acquisitions
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  • July 2024
  • Teaching Plan

Elon Musk at Tesla

By: George Serafeim
Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 123-044. View Details
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  • May 2023
  • Case

Twitter Blues: Does Paid Verification Check Out?

By: Scott Duke Kominers, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman
Elon Musk proposes to offer verification status on Twitter to paying subscribers. Chaos ensues. View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Social Media; Technology Industry
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  • April 2023
  • Case

Twitter: The Freedom to Speak Freely and Be Heard

By: Randolph B. Cohen, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Mel Martin
In April 2022, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that he would be interested in purchasing the social media site Twitter for $44 billion. With more than 100 million twitter followers, Musk had historically leveraged the site to engage with the customers of his... View Details
Keywords: Values and Beliefs; Acquisition; Social Media; Power and Influence; Technology Industry; Communications Industry; Public Relations Industry; United States
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  • 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... View Details
Keywords: Elon Musk; Twitter; Acquisition; Revenue; Advertising; Social Media; Business or Company Management; Public Opinion; Job Cuts and Outsourcing
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  • January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
  • 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... View Details
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
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  • December 13, 2022
  • Article

What Elon Musk Can Learn from Steve Jobs’s Return to Apple

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic
Changing the strategic direction of an existing company is among the hardest management challenges out there. Most attempts fail. In trying to remake Twitter, Elon Musk has a daunting task ahead of him. There’s precedent, however, for dramatically reimagining a major... View Details
Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Strategy; Change Management; Transformation
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  • October 14, 2022
  • Article

The Challenges of Transforming Twitter

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic
Elon Musk may be an idiosyncratic leader, but if he buys Twitter he’ll face a familiar business challenge: how to transform a legacy tech company. Faced with this challenge, leaders should follow five principles: 1) prioritize an objective, 2) communicate the strategy,... View Details
Keywords: Transformation; Corporate Strategy; Change Management; Leading Change; Technology Industry
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  • 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... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Strategy; Vision; Resources; Organization; Platform; Closed Systems; Leadership; Complexity; Organizational Design; Vertical Integration; Problems and Challenges; Success; Auto Industry; Aerospace Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Energy Industry
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  • March 2022 (Revised November 2023)
  • 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... View Details
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
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  • 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... View Details
Keywords: Writing; Action Plan; Communication; Competency and Skills; Planning
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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... View Details
Keywords: Space Tech; Space Access; Vision; Economies Of Scale; Technological Innovation; Emerging Markets; Commercialization; Finance; Aerospace Industry
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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... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Information Technology; Transportation; Business Model; Technological Innovation; Disruption; Auto Industry
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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... View Details
Keywords: Tesla; Elon Musk; Autonomous Vehicle; Transportation; Software; Technology; Disruption; Auto Industry
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  • 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. View Details
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
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  • 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... View Details
Keywords: Disclosure Regulation; Board Independence; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Governing and Advisory Boards
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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?... View Details
Keywords: Tesla; Elon Musk; Innovation; Investor Communication; Investor Relations; Short-termism; Long-termism; Disruption; Executive Compensation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Communication Intention and Meaning; Mission and Purpose
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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,... View Details
Keywords: CEO Compensation; Compensation Committee; Corporate Governance; Executive Compensation; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Shareholder Relations; Auto Industry; United States
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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... View Details
Keywords: Tesla; SolarCity; Solar Power; Mergers and Acquisitions; Renewable Energy; Goals and Objectives; Finance
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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... View Details
Keywords: M＆A; M＆A Valuation; Investing; Equities; Equity; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; United States
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