HBR.

ORG

Interaction

Tesla’s Not as for less than $500. The same thing technology and how to classify it,
will happen with electric cars. I was disappointed with the narrow
Disruptive as You Golf carts are a substitute for view taken on its application. The
Might Think bicycles, not automobiles. People assumption is that Tesla is an auto-
INTERACT WITH US in China use golf carts because car mobile company—but what if it’s a
HBR article, May The best way to
comment on any registrations are very difficult to battery company that has placed its
To determine whether Tesla article is on obtain. In the U.S., however, towns technology in automobiles? What
is creating a new, top-down HBR.ORG. You can and cities are architected around if it also applied its technology to
model of disruption, Clay also reach us via
the automobile. For an electric our homes, as recently announced,
E-MAIL: hbr_
Christensen asked his HBS letters@hbr.org car to be a worthy substitute, it giving us the potential in the near
colleague Tom Bartman to FACEBOOK: must have a range of at least 200 future to unplug ourselves from the
conduct an in-depth study. facebook.com/HBR
TWITTER: twitter.
miles. At the moment, Tesla is national power grid using a battery
Its conclusion: Tesla isn’t com/HarvardBiz the only manufacturer producing charged with a solar cell?
a disrupter. It’s a sustaining Correspondence such a vehicle. Tesla may very well alter the way
may be edited for Todd R. Lockwood, writer/photographer we generate and consume power.
innovation—a product space and style.
that offers incrementally The disruption won’t be to the auto-
The article overlooks the rapid mobile industry. The tectonic shift
better performance at a changes in battery technology— that is starting to take place will
higher price. which increase the potential of elec- affect the major power generators
tric vehicles. Having heavily invested and energy companies. The effects
Christensen coined the term, so he in batteries, Tesla is poised to ride will trickle down through every
has every right to deliver such a ver- this wave. And the experience Tesla sector of the energy industry and
dict. Still, my opinion is that Tesla is has gained in EVs’ core electrical those involved with its distribution.
offering a totally different customer engineering and electronics technol­ Cameron Tipping, president, IIBD;
experience that car manufacturers ogies will help it stay ahead of the and president, Sabre Simulation
cannot copy or compete with. In our curve. When the demand for EVs
own research we’ve found that peo- picks up, the field will not be level Bartman responds: When evaluat-
ple are not buying “vehicles” when for all the players. Tesla may not be ing disruptions, it’s important to
they buy Teslas. They’re buying a disruptive innovation, but it has a analyze industry-level and firm-
into a futuristic experience—what smart strategy. level dynamics separately. The price
we call “the spaceship program.” Regi V. Mathew, professor of business of flat-screen TVs dropped because
Customers aren’t comparing Teslas analytics, Narsee Monjee Institute of low-end disrupters forced many
Management Studies
to anything at all. original high-cost manufacturers
Key elements of the Tesla experi- to exit the market. And while Tesla
Although I was impressed by
ence include the buying process, the may be an energy company, rather
Christensen’s theory on disruptive
lack of refueling costs (if you pay in than a car company, it doesn’t
advance when you buy), the lack of produce batteries—it purchases
HBR SURVEY
mandatory service checkups, the air industry-standard cells from
improvements, lower depreciation, It’s 11 pm. Are You Still Panasonic. Tesla’s innovations lie
and the driving experience. Tesla Checking Your In-Box? in the assembly of the battery pack,
has totally redefined the customer When we asked our readers about nighttime work e‑mails... but most of the potential future
experience, and it will be hard for technology and cost improvements
anybody to follow it.
Akos Tolnai, CEO, AbilityMatrix
78%
SAID THEY
63%
FELT THAT
56%
THOUGHT
59%
SAID THEY
reside in the cells. Therefore one
would expect gains from those
CAUGHT UP ON AFTER-HOURS LATE-NIGHT DIDN’T MIND
E‑MAIL DURING E‑MAILING E‑MAILING AFTER-HOURS improvements to accrue to the
AFTER-WORK AFFECTED MADE E‑MAILS.
A snapshot of Tesla in 2015 misses HOURS. THEIR CAREERS THEM LESS entire industry. Beyond its fantastic
OR WAS PRODUCTIVE
the point. You could have come NECESSARY THE FOLLOW­ brand, it’s not clear that Tesla has
FOR THEIR ING DAY.
to the same conclusion about flat- SUCCESS. a sustainable competitive advan-
screen televisions in 1997, when they SOURCE “SURVEY: HOW DOES LATE-NIGHT tage over other energy storage
EMAILING AFFECT YOU?” BY NICOLE TORRES
cost $15,000. Now you can buy one companies or utilities.

16 Harvard Business Review July–August 2015

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