General Motors

I think the government's doing the right thing by orchestrating a "friendly" bankruptcy process for GM. It may not be perfect, but based on all of the readily apparent options, the administration's actions seem like the best choice.

Moving the company forward, however, is going to require real innovation. The government has wisely sent signals that it does not intend to micromanage the company's product or operations roadmaps. That means that the future of the company is going to rely on the ingenuity of its private management to make smart choices.

Good.

What GM's management should do is recognize the unique opportunity it has been given. The company commands a strong brand that is deeply woven into the fabric of American industrial history. Millions of Americans have a direct stake in the success of the company. And more than just jobs and economics, the success of GM is connected to feelings of nationalism and patriotism.

GM's product roadmap and employee compensation/benefit model has been broken for decades, but that doesn't mean that the essence of what lies behind a behemoth American car company can't be made relevant.

Stop thinking about cars and trucks. Stop thinking about graying executives in office suites making poor decisions. Stop thinking about unions holding the future of the company hostage. Stop thinking about politicians bending laws to make the whole broken system last just a little bit longer...

GM should set up something akin to the X Prize where individuals and small companies are dared to come up with innovative ideas that would take advantage of what the company could provide.

In essence, GM should outsource its innovation, but not pay for it up front. Rather, they should provide prizes and rewards in the form of GM stock, which would be extremely cheap to offer but have tremendous upside potential if the right ideas are made real.

With GM, we've got a massive machine that is surely capable of creating something of value- or of changing itself into something that can with the right type of innovative leadership. And with its stock so low, why not incentivize the very best of America's innovators to chart its course? Doing so would help them, help the company, help the largest share of current GM employees possible, and help America.