#BusinessPivot: Not a euphemism for failure but an ingredient to success
Did you know that #AirBnB used to sell Cereals while #Nokia was a paper mill earlier?
#Twitter started as ODEO (a podcast subscription company) while #Netflix famously was a DVD rental business.
Businesses should do Pivot when:
🛑 Business model is obsolete
🛑 Business model is not sustainable with depleting customer base and revenue
🛑 New model provides an immediate solution to a large business gap
🛑 Threat of major and long-term disruption in supply chain and customer base (upstream & downstream)
🛑 Major Socio-politico-legal issues with the business
🛑 New customer, old tech / Old customers, new tech
Major pivots that are super successful:
🚀 #Netflix: From DVD rental to streaming giant (#Businessobsolescence)
🚀 #IBM: From personal computing to IT Solution giant (#Depleting customer base)
🚀 #WesternUnion: From telegram to Money transfer (#Businessobsolescence)
🚀 #Nokia: From Paper Mill to Mobile Giant
🚀 #Playdoh: From wall cleaner to kids craft. (#Newusage)
🚀 #Nintendo: From playing cards to taxi services, Ramen Noodles, and back to Game consoles. (Pivot-repivot)
🚀 #Starbucks: Business expansion from Selling coffee beans to the coffee retail giant
🚀 #Twitter: From #odeo podcast to the microblogging giant
But not all pivots turn out to be successful: Pivots fail because of:
➡️ Pivoting very late
➡️ Incompetent manpower or limited resources
➡️ Me too strategy without a defined product market fit
➡️ Pivot is half-hearted and the extent of change does not match with requirement
Everyone fails at some point in time and while perseverance is good, it shouldn’t be at the cost of continued bleeding financials and survival of business. The stigma and ego associated with failure lead many to carry the burden of failed initiatives for far too long than required.
This was first published as a post on LinkedIn by the Author
