Rivian

Rivian can do what any forward-looking U.S. corporation has the opportunity to do: help lift national K–12 student performance by sponsoring the HSe4Metrics platform—potentially in partnership with a federal agency, in the spirit of a public-private partnership (PPP).

Such a sponsorship would not represent conventional corporate thinking.

A powerful example of conventional thinking—and a consequential leadership failure—comes from General Motors. One striking instance: GM declined to invest in electric priming technology for automobile bodies, largely because of concerns that the short-term costs would negatively affect quarterly financial results. Instead, the world’s dominant automaker sold the patents to a Japanese firm. (If you’d like a refresher on how that decision ultimately played out, let us know.)

Today, as GM struggles to retain its remaining market share—and to recover even modest ground—one must ask whether the company has articulated a leadership-driven strategy capable of restoring its historic position in consumers’ minds and in market demand.

Another example of similarly conventional—indeed, remarkably risk-averse—corporate thinking is highlighted in the commentary linked from Jamie Dimon, which references the cautionary case of Xerox—a firm that famously failed to capitalize on its own transformative innovations.