What Happens to Tesla After Elon?

In the last month, I have been closely studying Tesla as my featured company for a semester-long project in my Sustainable Marketing course. As I detailed in an assignment last week, the electric transportation company has been able to achieve high levels of interest and sales despite very low marketing expenditure. For such a new company competing against industry giants, this is very uncharacteristic and while the appeal may be partially attributed to Tesla's sustainability efforts, I firmly believe that the majority of attention is derived from its outspoken, entertaining, and brilliant CEO, Elon Musk.

Earlier tonight, I attended a career information session with some of Tesla's top recruiters. The event garnered a massive turnout with the announcement of "standing room only" quickly turning into a "we have no more room" declaration. I would go out on a limb to wager that at least half of the students in attendance were inspired by Musk's recent headline-creating antics or strong connection to Tesla's operations. With well over 150 students in the Perry Atrium at UMass Lowell, the Tesla staff outlined the firm's overall mission and progress toward its goals over the past decade - much of which was executed directly from Musk's public planning through company blogs citable from as early as 2006.

Thinking long term, I have to beg the question, what happens to Tesla after Elon Musk? This question may not be answered for quite some time, but I am genuinely fascinated by how tightly Tesla's brand is tied (or better yet infused) with their CEO. Many Founder-CEOs have strong connection to their companies, but from my point of view, Elon's goes much further than others. It seems as though Musk is dictating 100% of the vision behind Tesla's rapid growth and innovation in the transportation industry. Perhaps the brand will continue its trajectory and the reason for my question is simply because Musk is playing the dual role of CEO and spokesperson. However, I firmly hold onto the sentiment that much of Tesla's funding and popularity is based on faith in Musk's forward-thinking and sustainable nature.

While he is still relatively young at the ripe age of 47, I wonder if Musk will continue to invest as much time and effort on Tesla in coming years. It has been a time-consuming and stressful climb to propel the firm to profitability, but part of me believes that he may begin to direct his attention toward his other, less secure ventures such as SpaceX or The Boring Company. To be clear, I am contemplating that perhaps Musk's handoff of Tesla leadership could occur before retirement. While I do not have evidence of this happening any time soon, I see a pattern of Musk directing his time toward wherever his passion leads him at the present moment. While I am not the first to express concern, his intense dedication to his projects may contribute to a more accelerated deterioration of health. Certainly, I am in no way wishing this negativity upon him, as I avidly support and admire his projects, eagerly placing him on my "Mount Rushmore" of influential and inspirational business leaders. However, I have witnessed the effects of sleep deprivation firsthand on a small scale and believe that there is only so long that a person can go with inadequate rest.

As I often mention with my articles, I would love to have some healthy conversation inside of the comment section below. Please let me know what you thought about the article and how you feel about Tesla and Musk in general. I hope that I have provoked some thought about this particular case, as well as brand management and marketing strategy. It is always interesting for me to hear what others think about the topics that I feel passionately toward. Lastly and most importantly, I hope that you have a great day and thank you for reading this article.