Pivoting Your Business to a Higher Level

Business pivot | BCBusiness
Creating a formal business plan vs. no business plan at all – is one way better than the other?

A business pivot is an operational change driven by a combination of observation, information, and inspiration. With the pace of change today, it should be considered regularly by all businesses.

Recently in a LinkedIn group forum, several dozen people were involved in a very spirited discussion about the value of the business plan.

It was clear after a while that feelings about a B-plan were divided into two general camps: one camp believed a formal business plan was absolutely necessary to operating a successful business; another believed that a formal plan was a waste of time and effort and a business plan would form as the business gained more intelligence on its surrounding landscape.

My problem was that, although I lean to the iterative model, I believe both camps were right. I recognize the need for a formal business plan for some businesses, and also the need for an iterative plan for others.

Obviously, if you’re starting, you have to form some kind of plan. You can’t just open the shop doors and expect to sell much. You have to have some idea of what you’re selling, who you’re selling to, why they will buy, and how much it will cost you to sell it to them (less than they pay, we hope, or you don’t have a business).  

Once you’ve been in operation for a while you will probably already have some processes in place (I hope!) and so can take a more intelligent view. For an operating business, business planning usually morphs into regularly strategic planning.

But even for long-time operations, a regular pivot is usually necessary.

A pivot is when you examine your business assumptions, calculate the results of your efforts, and, if they’re found wanting, change course – either radically, or incrementally.

Usually, a pivot happens early in a company’s life when it’s still feeling out the business landscape it has chosen. But increasingly, mature businesses are also pivoting because markets and business landscapes are constantly changing. A service company may pivot to a product producer, for instance, or a product producer might add a very large service component, for example.

Like a business planning exercise, it involves deep research into the market and your business processes. The difference with a pivot is that some of the research comes from your own operational experience.

You may have noticed that some marketing techniques aren’t working, or that your target customers should change, or that your approach to those customers isn’t resonating. Or, some of your operational processes may be inefficient or ineffective and you need new ones.

Combine these observations with information and some inspiration, and you’ll probably take your business to an entirely new level.