I found the use of the verb pivot in a context I can't quite understand:
We will now pivot the company's effort to date and focus on becoming a comprehensive provider of ...
What is the meaning of the verb pivot in this context?
-
1Bear in mind that the phrase here is actually "pivot ... and focus on ...", not "pivot to ...". The phrase "to date" in this sentence means "until this moment," and is attached to "the company's effort."– StriplingWarriorCommented Jul 17, 2012 at 18:19
Add a comment
|
5 Answers
One specific connotation of the term "pivot" in this sense is that it is not just a "change of direction", but a "sudden, rapid change of direction and focus". Generally it implies that the company is essentially abandoning its previous efforts in order to make a concerted effort towards a new goal. Lessons may be learned from the old project, and parts may be salvaged and repurposed; but the original plan has been cast aside and everyone is working toward a new end.
-
I think this goes in line with what the article later mentions: that the company that was acquired was used for their new expertise.– 719016Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 8:10
-
The "Generally it implies ..." till the end of this answer is right, however personally I don't think the emphasis on "sudden, rapid" is necessary or even appropriate. I mean, the change of direction might be seen as a sudden move from the eye of outsiders, but such kind of strategic change would definitely require plenty of internal consideration for it to happen. So the focus would rather be the "change of direction", or even "completely change of direction", but not "sudden, rapid change of direction".– RayLuoCommented May 10, 2019 at 21:39
Steve Blank stated that Eric Ries chose the term "pivot" for the phase of a startup company that decides to change their goal:
I want to introduce the concept of the pivot, the idea that successful startups change directions but stay grounded in what they've learned. They keep one foot in the past and place one foot in a new possible future.
-
2+1. I like that this emphasizes that pivoting is not just changing directions: it specifically implies that one foot stays stationary. In basketball, someone cannot move across the court without dribbling, but they can pivot all they like. Commented Jul 17, 2012 at 18:15
To pivot means to turn. So the company in your example will now turn all its previous efforts, and work toward something else.
This doesn't mean that the previous efforts were wasted or even misdirected—it simply means that the company has decided that a change in direction would be more fruitful than staying on the same course.
Imagine a path with a bend in it. When you get to the corner, you pivot in order to keep walking on the path. If you stayed on the same course, you would get nowhere. Note that the walking you did before you pivoted was just as important as the walking afterward.
-
1I'd say turn rather than turn around, the latter being more indicative of about-face than is either turn or pivot. Commented Jul 17, 2012 at 17:44
The word pivot here is being used in the sense of (appreciable) "turn" albeit gently :) A fine example of corporate-speak, the sentence can be interpreted as the following:
We (I) screwed up. But we are going to try to scavenge something from this mess by focussing on this other related thing.
answered Jul 17, 2012 at 15:39
-
1It doesn't have to be a "screwup" per se; it can simply be that a company thought they'd be able to make a business out of fixing problem A; they talked to enough customers to realize no one would pay enough to solve A, but they got enough requests to fix problem B that they "pivot" to work on B instead.– Adam VCommented Jul 17, 2012 at 15:45
In business terms, a pivot means to modify the business model slightly.
A pivot is a fundamental insight of the Lean Startup. It says on day one, all you have in your new venture is a series of untested hypothesis. Therefore you need to get outside of your building and rapidly test all your assumptions. The odds are that one or more of your hypotheses will be wrong. When you you discovery your error, rather than firing executives and/or creating a crisis, you simply change the hypotheses.
What was lacking in the article was a clear definition of a Pivot. A Pivot is not just changing the product. A pivot can change any of nine different things in your business model. A pivot may mean you changed your customer segment, your channel, revenue model/pricing, resources, activities, costs, partners, customer acquisition – lots of other things than just the product.
Definition: “A pivot is a substantive change to one or more of the 9 business model canvas components.”
For example, a pivot can be changing the company's main revenue stream from advertising to subscriptions. Or it could mean changing the target market from youths to elderly people. It can also be a change involving costs and resources, such as changing a major partner from Boeing to Airbus, or moving the engineering center to India.
Pivots are common in small startups, which have an uncertain business model. The meaning is derived from rapid experimentation and changes, sometimes trying out several different business models a week.
However, larger corporations may rarely choose to pivot if a business climate changes. Unlike the non-business meaning of pivot, pivots for corporations may not be sudden.
