Comparison of General Motors and Tesla in Terms of Fayol’s Functions of Management

Our world is made of competition and company managers are searching and applying strategies to increase their turnover (Tobak 2014). The organization we will study about is General Motors which shut down because of a dealing failure and Tesla, one of the most valuable auto manufacturers in the world. Those car brands are very popular worldwide, one has been successful and the other bankrupt because of a bad management. To resolve those management problems, Fayol created four functions of management which are: Planning, Leading, Organizing and Controlling. This essay will unveil that top managers at General Motors have unsuccessfully utilized the four functions against Tesla who succeed thank to those functions.

Planning is about searching what to do, how to do, what will be done and how it will be done. Tesla with his C.E.O, identified and adopted different strategies to exploit consumer demand, they identified how to convince consumers to buy their different car models (Musk 2006). The planning function is highlighted by tesla unlike GM who failed at it because GM, one of the biggest brands in the US previously, didn’t analyze the market resulting in bankrupt.

Everyone in a society wants the same goal to succeed. Organizing is about the reunification of resources: The human resources, physical resources, financial resources and information that the company needs to organize the tasks to have a good management. Tesla was advantaged with his leader Elon Musk who set a proper structure to organize all the work to facilitate the workers (Meyer 2018). Mary Barra took the responsibility at the slightest and had consequences on the business, instead of expanding the business, she did the opposite, which did not please consumers.

A manager has to be critical; he should have a clear vision and should be present for the them anytime; leading is about communication, objectives, actions taken by the leader. Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors had a proper vision how to lead his team, how to pursue with his team. The CEO of GM thought differently, she did not follow the rules adopted before, and she was overtaken by the competitors.

Controlling shows us how to keep in touch with the team, how to check the progress of the current project and check the correct functioning of the organization. Tesla had an objective and pursued it, they challenged themselves to succeed. GM did not really care about how to control the organization. The objective of GM was totally different against Tesla.

Fayol’s four functions of management are important to run a business properly, it allows a manager to plan, lead, organize and control all the action done by the workers team. Tesla is a big automobile brand which is involving nowadays, and GM who failed because of a big management problem.