The Tesla CaseYou are about to finish your MBA studies in Finance. The College has helped youget an interview with Tesla. You are elated at the prospect of being interviewed fora position at Tesla. Throughout your MBA experience, you have heard everyoneheap praise on Elon Musk as a fantastic entrepreneur and on Tesla as the wave ofthe future.You have been asking yourself what kinds of questions the Tesla interviewer mighthave. Off the top of your head, all you can think of is a bunch of clichs: Tesla is great Very rich company Musk is terrific They make a lot of money Ford, General Motors, Honda, Volkswagen, Toyota are finished. Electric charging stations? Sure, theyre on the way.Then it occurred to you that there might have been a few problems at Tesla FINANCIALLY. After all, that is your specialty and that is what they will askyou about. You are applying for a job in the financial department!Here is your task: Identify the three biggest FINANCIAL threats Tesla faces Also, write a credible response to how you would be able to deal with theseissues

Remember, Tesla is a big, demanding, successful company. They are looking forcandidates who would give credible answers.The business news is littered with stories about Teslas market capitalization,which has gone up and down as the company stumbles along. Avoid thegeneralized, waffling type of answer, such as:Interviewer: What would I do to deal with Teslas market capitalization, which hashad some issues?Unprepared student: Well, Id try to get their market capitalization back up. Youknow, sell more cars or something. They could offer significant discounts. Maybegive 25% off if someone bought two or three Teslas. Maybe have a marketingplan. Remember, everything should be affordable. Thats what they said when Itook marketing. Beyonce could do the ads....An answer of this kind would not impress the interviewer. As an MBA in Finance,you should be able to, Discuss why Teslas market capitalization dropped. Talk about what the company might do to restore its market cap. Give at least a general assessment of how far ahead of its competitors Ford, GM, etc. Tesla really is in terms of electronic technology. Are the competitors Ford, GM, etc. -- working with High-Tech companiesto catch up to Tesla?Go to credible sources The Wall St. Journal, Forbes, etc. Look for sound ideasfrom credible sources. Do not copy material from Wikipedia and Internet blogs.