Leadership

[lostpacket]

I like the leadership qualities displayed by RJ in fixing and owning the mistake.

This is the kind of characteristic that will make people even more inclined to follow him, work for him, and do their best work for the company.

Folks will be discussing how it could have been done better and rightly so -- but I like how they went about fixing things.

True leadership is fixing your mistakes, learning from them, and improving.

The way he did this gives me long term confidence in him and Rivian.

That's my $0.02 anyway (~$80k with inflation)

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[SoCal Rob]

I think that Rivian’s trustworthiness will be questioned by reservation holders prior to March 1st for a long time to come. We may forgive but I don’t think many of us will ever forget.

The end result is that they lost some customers for good, broke trust with those who remain, and didn’t realize a dollar of the price increase. I still think this will be discussed in business schools for a long time.

I’m generally not keen on the whole, “Someone should lose their job over this!” but I think that something needs to change with their leadership responsible for this debacle. For customers AND for Wall Street.

 

[crashmtb]

I think that Rivian’s trustworthiness will be questioned by reservation holders prior to March 1st for a long time to come. We may forgive but I don’t think many of us will ever forget.

The end result is that they lost some customers for good, broke trust with those who remain, and didn’t realize a dollar of the price increase. I still think this will be discussed in business schools for a long time.

I’m generally not keen on the whole, “Someone should lose their job over this!” but I think that something needs to change with their leadership responsible for this debacle. For customers AND for Wall Street.

They have eroded customer goodwill with me, quite severely.

Correcting a truly moronic business decision reinstates some of it, but they're going to have to work for the rest. If this is going to be the way of things - make a business decision that no one who's ever bought anything would be happy with, nevermind someone who didn't sleep through business school -only to reverse course for the more rational option.... it does not bode well. People don't like to be jerked around.

 

[SeaGeo]

I think that Rivian’s trustworthiness will be questioned by reservation holders prior to March 1st for a long time to come. We may forgive but I don’t think many of us will ever forget.

The end result is that they lost some customers for good, broke trust with those who remain, and didn’t realize a dollar of the price increase. I still think this will be discussed in business schools for a long time.

I’m generally not keen on the whole, “Someone should lose their job over this!” but I think that something needs to change with their leadership responsible for this debacle. For customers AND for Wall Street.

I'm still concerned about their management choices as an investor, and I am concerned that this was planned and not disclosed in the S-1.

As a consumer, I am very much still concerned about the company decision making and consumer interactions going forward. RJ still doesn't get it. It's not the price itself that pissed me off. I think most people realize they weren't price locked, but they also didn't expect Rivian to completely disregard people who have been with them for years, despite Rivian's issues with the rollout (and I'm not even talking about production). It's the shit show of a letter they sent out, the lack of respect for people who went in early with them an evangelized for them, and what that means for future interactions. Are they going to nerf trucks if you don't get the membership? Will the membership now be stupid expensive?

This helps for sure, but I still have a sour taste in my mouth, and am for sure at least cancelling one of our reservations.

 

[lostpacket]

I think folks who still have concerns have totally valid points and I share those concerns. I just like that they owned it fully. I edited my original post to be a bit less snarky on that

 

[SoCal Rob]

They have eroded customer goodwill with me, quite severely.

Correcting a truly moronic business decision reinstates some of it, but they're going to have to work for the rest. If this is going to be the way of things - make a business decision that no one who's ever bought anything would be happy with, nevermind someone who didn't sleep through business school -only to reverse course for the more rational option.... it does not bode well. People don't like to be jerked around.

I agree 100%.

I’m just an IT person but I thought a new company selling at low margins (or a loss) to establish market share and reputation is an established concept in business. I seem to recall that back in the day, Samsung, LG, Vizio were dirt cheap. As they demonstrated that they could make competitive products they were able to raise their prices.

Did the Rivian leadership see all of the reviews and think this would fly? They have a great product as far as I can tell, but as a startup this was completely disconnected from reality.

 

[Matt D.]

Expecting flawless execution from a 35 year old CEO with no previous business experience may be a bit much. I expected growing pains from a new company. This was one of them. They took immediate action after a misstep and that’s better than you’ll find in most of the “established” business community.

 

[SoCal Rob]

I'm still concerned about their management choices as an investor, and I am concerned that this was planned and not disclosed in the S-1.

As a consumer, I am very much still concerned about the company decision making and consumer interactions going forward. RJ still doesn't get it. It's not the price itself that pissed me off. I think most people realize they weren't price locked, but they also didn't expect Rivian to completely disregard people who have been with them for years, despite Rivian's issues with the rollout (and I'm not even talking about production). It's the shit show of a letter they sent out, the lack of respect for people who went in early with them an evangelized for them, and what that means for future interactions. Are they going to nerf trucks if you don't get the membership? Will the membership now be stupid expensive?

This helps for sure, but I still have a sour taste in my mouth, and am for sure at least cancelling one of our reservations.

Agreed.

As an investor, I am NOT amused by this because they left money on the table if only they’d handled this better.

As an example, a letter from RJ to reservation holders explaining that inflation is causing a 5% increase for existing reservation holders probably wouldn’t have gotten much push-back. He could have also explained that the costs even before inflation were off and that future reservations will be seeing price increases to reflect what they’ve learned. Then explain that Rivian values reservation holders who have been patiently waiting so only the inflation costs beyond Rivian’s control are being passed along. Reinforce that Rivian won’t pass along the cost estimate mistake they made onto their existing customers.

 

[lostpacket]

They have eroded customer goodwill with me, quite severely.

Correcting a truly moronic business decision reinstates some of it, but they're going to have to work for the rest. If this is going to be the way of things - make a business decision that no one who's ever bought anything would be happy with, nevermind someone who didn't sleep through business school -only to reverse course for the more rational option.... it does not bode well. People don't like to be jerked around.

This is totally fair but I think we also need to judge them against the backdrop of covid, supply constraints, and inflation. People always say manufacturing is hard, startups are hard, and now they have a triple whammy of 3 additional hard aspects to the current situation.

It very much seems like they were trying to reallocate limited resources by pricing. But they miscalculated how that pricing would be received. I think folks are correct to be concerned under what situations a bad decision like this could happen in the future, but we have to keep the context in mind too. I hope hope hope we wont see such a confluence of difficult situations again for a long time.

They definitely made the wrong call, but I just like how they walked it back.

 

[SeaGeo]

I think folks who still have concerns have totally valid points and I share those concerns. I just like that they owned it fully. I edited my original post to be a bit less snarky on that

I didn't take it particularly snarky. I was concerned about this topic before they decided to try and burn all their goodwill for longtime customers. I'm honestly nervous about letting my in-laws know if I get the truck now. lol. My wife's point last night "if we were to get one, they may write us out of any will." (which, to be clear isn't a trust by any means. SHe's just making a point that they'll think it's a F*n stupid financial decision.)

 

[SoCal Rob]

This is totally fair but I think we also need to judge them against the backdrop of covid, supply constraints, and inflation. People always say manufacturing is hard, startups are hard, and now they have a triple whammy of 3 additional hard aspects to the current situation.

It very much seems like they were trying to reallocate limited resources by pricing. But they miscalculated how that pricing would be received. I think folks are correct to be concerned under what situations a bad decision like this could happen in the future, but we have to keep the context in mind too. I hope hope hope we wont see such a confluence of difficult situations again for a long time.

They definitely made the wrong call, but I just like how they walked it back.

I appreciate what you’re saying, but it’s not like the adverse conditions all sprung up in the month of February. They’ve known about COVID since early 2020, supply chain issues since at least mid-2020, and inflation since at least early 2021 if they were, say, buying things.

To not adjust pricing throughout all of that made me infer that they are holding prices to build market share. To then say that they are raising the price on my build by 24% and attribute it to inflation only is silly. Do they think that customers who have enough money to buy a ~$100K vehicle got that money by being dumb enough to fall for that explanation?

 

[crashmtb]

This is totally fair but I think we also need to judge them against the backdrop of covid, supply constraints, and inflation. People always say manufacturing is hard, startups are hard, and now they have a triple whammy of 3 additional hard aspects to the current situation.

It very much seems like they were trying to reallocate limited resources by pricing. But they miscalculated how that pricing would be received. I think folks are correct to be concerned under what situations a bad decision like this could happen in the future, but we have to keep the context in mind too. I hope hope hope we wont see such a confluence of difficult situations again for a long time.

They definitely made the wrong call, but I just like how they walked it back.

I have seen the impacts of the pandemic on manufacturing first hand.
My company did not drop a 20% increase on customers with zero notice. That's just bad business, full stop.


Even in context it was a very poor choice. They could've at minimum put the price increase on a sliding scale based on preorder date, wether someone has chosen a launch edition etc.

Yes, the way it was reversed was good. RJ owned the mistake, even if he did not make it unilaterally. He did what a leader ought to do in this situation.

However, they shouldn't even be in the position of having to "walk it back".

 

[NorthernOak]

A concern I have that wasn't really addressed in the email is what they are going to do to address their continual lack of communication. RJ recognized to us 9 months ago that they had a big problem there and promised they would work to do better. Then radio silence from them. I would have liked to see a recommitment to "over communicate" with their reservation holders in that email.

Good on him for coming out and admitting fault. But the price increase was a calculated business decision. They calculated a smaller percentage would cancel, probably see the stock slip for a short while but ultimately rebound with shareholders excited for more profits. They just calculated wrong and were watching everything burn down in less than 24 hours. This was another calculated call to save the company and try to repair the brand.

 

[IlliniRivian]

As a pre-order holder, I am pleased by the reversal and may move forward with the purchase now. For two days, I was firmly in the keep the reservation until the last minute with the expectation I'd cancel and get something else.

As an investor, I am 110% in the camp that the Board should remove RJ as CEO. He should serve as Chief Product Office and Chairman of the Board. He's a great engineer and visionary of sorts on the product but the last 3 years has shown me he does not know how to hire or run manufacturing and supply chain to the level needed.

 

[crashmtb]

As an investor, I am 110% in the camp that the Board should remove RJ as CEO. He should serve as Chief Product Office and Chairman of the Board. He's a great engineer and visionary of sorts on the product but the last 3 years has shown me he does not know how to hire or run manufacturing and supply chain to the level needed.

Hard to say without knowing the involvement of the board in the change to prices. it is highly likely they were part of the decision.

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