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The Most Successful Business Pivots Ever
A pivot is when you make a massive change in your
business strategy.
Pivoting is sometimes crucial for business for:
• Keeping in-tune with the rapid pace of change• Pursuing new opportunities to expand revenue• Reinvigorating a business
Three signs you might need to pivot:• Your target customers are not praising your
product nor buying rapidly enough• Investors aren’t buying your product or your
company• You’re product is too broad or too limited
Below you will find a list of
some of the most successful
business pivots ever.
The most legendary pivot in social media history is the transformation of Odeo, a
network where people could find and subscribe to podcasts to a status-updating micro-blogging
platform called Twitter.
Catalyst: iTunes added podcast making Odeo obsolete
PayPal was initially an early application allowing PDA
devices to “beam” payments before it became
the preferred online payment system for eBay sellers then the internet.
Catalyst: A merger with a financial services company
X.com identified new opportunities.
The Point was a fundraising site that only
funded causes once donations reached a
certain number. A side project called Groupon was tested locally to see if the concept could be used in
marketing.
Catalyst: Need for new revenue.
Nokia made rubber goods, electronics, and
telecommunications devices. In 1992 they made their first mobile phone and decided to focus exclusively on mobile devices, selling
off all other divisions.
Catalyst: Projected market growth.
The online role-playing game “Game Neverending” had a
photo-sharing tool which turned out to be the most
popular aspect of the game. The company decided to
leverage this photo popularity and pivot to Flickr.
Catalyst: User feedback.
HP made electrical testing products, but in
1968 introduced the first large-scale PC. When the PC market caught fire in
the 1990’s , HP separated the testing equipment into a new company to solely focus on PC’s.
Catalyst: Pace of change.
Nintendo produced playing cards, vacuum cleaners,
instant rice, a taxi company and a short-stay hotel chain. In 1966 it started producing
electronic games and consoles and shortly after decided to focus solely on
that.
Catalyst: Need for revenue growth.
Burbn, a check-in app that included gaming elements and a photo element was rebuilt as a version of the app that focused solely on
photography called Instagram.
Catalyst: Burbn wasn’t getting traction.
Fabulis was a social network site targeted towards gay men. The
most popular part of the site was the highlighting
of products, so they decided to take a totally
new direction start selling those items on Fab.com.
Catalyst: Need for revenue.
Pinterest was born from the Tote application that allowed people to browse
and shop their favorite retailers. Users were mostly interested in building and sharing “collections” of their
favorite items.
Catalyst: Need for growth; user feedback
Suzuki was best known as the inventor and purveyor
of weaving loom machines that powered Japan’s silk industry. In
the interest of diversification Suzuki
prototyped a compact car, leading them to focus on the automotive industry.
Catalyst: Consumer demand.
Starbucks began in 1971 selling espresso makers and coffee beans. Later Howard Schultz decided to pivot the business to
resemble European-style coffeehouses.
Catalyst: New vision.
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