Plan to Pivot

Planning to Pivot means creating a strategic shift in a business, career, or project's direction, often when the original path isn't working, to adapt to new information, market changes, or better opportunities often involving changes to products, target audience, technology, or revenue models. It's a calculated course correction, not giving up, but recalibrating to achieve long-term goals more effectively, like Netflix pivoting from DVDs to streaming. For leaders, building this capability into the entire organization is critical to stability and success.   

In the book Plan to Pivot, I describe how the increasing frequency of events like climate change and political unrest, along with globalization, technology, and communications are examples of businesses operating in volatile environments and how organizations are (or should be) building the muscle memory to prepare to Pivot away from the next crisis and toward sustainability and opportunity.

Organizations that embrace a continuous cycle of planning and management discover that strategy is no longer the domain of a select few—it becomes the work of everyone. In this way of operating, every individual is both a planner and a strategist, contributing to the creation and implementation of ideas that move the enterprise forward. The process is grounded in the proactive development and testing of new concepts, informed by customer feedback and market intelligence. Promising ideas are nurtured, while those that show little potential are quickly set aside.

This disciplined yet adaptive approach allows leaders and teams to visualize multiple possible futures, to weigh where investments should be made, and to recognize where resources should be withdrawn. By adopting cycles of rapid product and program delivery, followed by the collection of customer feedback to shape the next round of priorities, organizations establish what I call an agile strategic management process.

This is not simply a new technique—it is a new way of doing business. It is a way of coping with speed, ambiguity, technology, and global markets. It is a way of ensuring that strategy remains alive, responsive, and relevant.

Plan to look ahead. Plan to pivot. Plan to communicate. These imperatives will define the organizations that thrive in the years ahead.