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Pivot Time

27 September 2020

Golfers make divots, when they miss a shot and slice up the green.

Business types make pivots, when they change direction in response to changing times.

Small shops have given way to out-of-town supermarkets, which in turn are now giving way to online shopping. Older pivots are being superceded by new ones.

Can you imagine Tesco or Next deciding that the internet is dead and investing heavily in new shops, instead of their websites?

I remember when Blackberry was the go-to gadget for business people. I loved mine for sure. I also remember when the first iPhone was launched and Blackberry’s response was largely to scoff. They made a big feature of their physical keyboards, confident in the knowledge that this gave them a competitive advantage for ‘serious’ phone users.

So sad.

Bye bye Blackberry.

They didn’t pivot. They clung on to what they knew and only belatedly entered the big screen smartphone market. There are no prizes for people arriving late to the party in such a competitive market place.

So what can we do to pivot?

The first thing is to recognise that the pandemic is changing habits. Once changed, they take a while to change back, if ever. Working from home, increased online shopping and reduced high street activity is slowly becoming set in stone.

The second thing is ask ourselves what are we hanging on to?

We might love our shop, office, treatment room, product, menu, equipment and so on. Humans love to hang on to things, and in the case of an old teddy bear that’s okay.

It’s less okay in business when we hang on and hope things will come good.

They might, but they might not and if habits are changing then the odds favour ‘might not.’

So, we need to pivot. Be thoughtful and be responsive and do it without delay.

Of course, we don’t have to pivot. We can be our own Blackberry.

Apple, or Blackberry?

Who are you now and which one do you need to be?

Maybe some of the divots are made by people who need to pivot and are avoiding the issue.

Happy pivoting and keep well.