This episode is about changing course. A disrupted trading period removes the option of waiting, and the businesses that came through one usually did something unglamorous early rather than something dramatic late. The conversation collects the lessons that kept showing up.
A pivot, as the episode uses the word, is not reinvention. It is keeping the capability the business already has and pointing it at a demand that still exists. The skill is in seeing which part of the operation was actually the asset.
What the episode works through
- Separating what the business does from what customers were buying.
- Moving early on cost decisions while there is still room to choose.
- Testing a new line small before committing the whole operation to it.
- Keeping customers informed while the offer is changing.
- Deciding in advance what would signal that a pivot has failed.
The part that is easy to put off
Writing down the two or three capabilities the business could still sell if its main line stopped tomorrow. It is a short exercise in ordinary conditions and an impossible one in a crisis.
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