David Cushman (HFS Research), reporting live from the AI Conference fireside — Ries on companies that are 'mission hopeful' and the challenge to become 'mission controlled'

Cushman is an executive research leader at HFS Research. His post from The AI Conference in San Francisco reports the Tim O'Reilly fireside and puts Eric's mission-hopeful and mission-controlled distinction to CEOs as a test of what their own machinery reveals.

“Ries describes too many companies as “mission hopeful”. They start with strong intent, but hope that founders, leaders and employees will somehow keep doing the right thing as investors, incentives, quarterly targets and leadership teams change. Sound familiar AI labs? (and Eric has advised Anthropic). His challenge is to become “mission controlled”. Build the purpose into governance, ownership, decision making, incentives and everyday operating practice so the organisation can resist the forces that gradually pull it away from what it was created to do.” — David Cushman on LinkedIn, reporting from The AI Conference