Before We Pivot, We Must See Things in a New Way
Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, convinced us that sometimes we need to pivot to adapt to a changing business landscape. The problem is that we still suffer from a dearth of inspiration—how do we move from “stuck” to “Eureka” and start the pivot process working? Where do our ideas come from for what could come next? How can we move beyond traditional competitive mindsets and really accelerate growth?
Here is a practical way to start down the pivot path, with an example of where inspiration comes from. I’ll talk about how a job placement firm took clues from a DNA testing service and how a restaurant chain learned from Target to grow revenues.
There’s a great verb, “pivot”, made popular by Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup. Fast Company has a whole segment devoted to stories of how people have done it—pivot. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard many, many references to the need for companies to Continue Reading…
In the traditional telling of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell drank poison and fell into a stupor. In the story, Tinkerbell’s only hope for revival was for children to clap their hands to offer support and confirm that they did indeed believe in fairies. The community’s will resuscitated her and hand clapping did the trick. And, in its own low-tech way, the Tinkerbell story set the stage for what we all know to be true: There are times when our own capabilities and approaches benefit from more input, different ideas and more sets of hands. 
