Episode 498 – What’s Next? Stop Reinventing When You Can Easily Pivot?

Reinvention often means scrapping everything and starting from scratch, or trying to take something that someone has already created, and trying to do it better (the better mouse trap). Starting from scratch takes a lot of time and resources. But, sometimes it's worth it.

For example take Apple and how they went from a company that makes and sells computers, to a company that delivers content (music, movies, games, and apps) to a variety devices (iPods, iPhones, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and licenses that to cars, speakers and more!

Pivoting is a “structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth. Think of a basketball player that stops and can pivot 360° to send the ball moving in a different direction.

Groupon went from an advocacy business to a company that crowdsources coupons to drive traffic to businesses. It pivoted off of crowdsourcing to become a company that was valued at $1.35 billion (at one time).

In this episode, we will discuss how I have learned to keep what’s working, and remove what's not, that build on that. Pivoting can help you grow bigger and faster than reinvention when it makes sense, but as Kenny Rogers said the the song The Gambler… “You've got to know when to hold 'em… Know when to fold 'em!”