Until an innovation is tested by implementation, its outcome is unknown
The risk of inaction may outweigh the risk of implementation.
In a letter to JPMorgan shareholders, CEO Jamie Dimon stresses the need for major corporations to commit to societal-good innovation.
Societal innovation is the path to expedited societal advancement. Mr. Dimon emphasizes the civic obligation of Big Corp to serve society in this way.
However, people are people. Even if the world’s greatest innovation—societal or otherwise—is sitting on a CEO’s desk (as noted below in the Xerox example), the CEO may simply lack the grit to allow the company to implement it.
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The gut-wrenching trembling—going from a major innovation to the "risk" of real-world testing
In the letter, CEO Dimon stresses the need for all major corporations, not just JP Morgan, to commit to dedicated societal innovation.
And Dimon had taken action, committing an unprecedented $30 billion to provide economic opportunity to underserved communities, especially the Black and Latinx communities.
An aside: just months after announcing his $30 billion effort, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank triggered the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. In the federal response to contain the crisis, the respected JPMorgan was quickly awarded a valuable asset package through its acquisition of First Republic Bank—a welcome but unexpected opportunity in the context of the $30 billion societal effort.
The case of the Xerox CEO—who may live in infamy
A stunning example (perhaps the world’s top company suddenly free-falling to bankruptcy) is the risk avoidance by the Xerox CEO that destroyed his company. Rather than taking the risk to implement something radically new to the photocopying industry—and to the world—he punted. Instead of embracing the innovation, he sold what could have been Xerox’s golden goose: the desktop copier.
At the time, making copies meant driving to a copy shop or standing in line to use an office copier. But rather than take the risk of introducing compact copiers—smaller and seemingly inferior to the freezer-chest-sized machines that could print entire books—he shocked Xerox engineers and marketers by announcing he had sold Xerox’s desktop copier patents. The buyer? A tiny upstart company in Japan that, according to Xerox’s smiling CEO, had overpaid.
But as is often the case with innovation, the copying industry changed overnight. The tiny Japanese company soared. The mighty Xerox began a dizzying financial freefall—to bankruptcy.
“A Calamity of Souls,” by David Baldacci
“A great nation can never realize its full potential until all its citizens are allowed to realize theirs.”
In the ongoing NAEP tragedy: 50% of all K-12 students are left unable to read, write, and do math. K-12 student casualties increase by the millions each year.
There has been no rescue for these students—often described as America’s “have-nots.”
Implement the HSe4Metrics platform.
Left untested, the results of innovation are “unknowable.” Implement the HSe4Metrics platform.
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