Entrepreneur: New Terms for Old Wisdom
by Miki Saxon
A few weeks ago I was talking to “Carl,” an entrepreneur, about the problems he was having launching his product.
Based on feedback from his market I suggested that he needed to change some parts of his customer service. Carl rejected the idea of changing because the new approach wasn’t in his plan.
He called this week and said he was implementing what we talked about after hearing a discussion on the importance of knowing when to “pivot.”
“Pivoting” is the new term for a bit of wisdom that’s been around for more than the 30 years I’ve known it.
Pivoting refers to changing the plan, and usually the vision, of your company to reflect major changes in the market/economy or from customer feedback; Groupon is a good example.
Carl said he appreciated my help, but that he would have moved faster if I had explained that the customer feedback required him to pivot, instead of saying that he should change the plan.
I replied that he did change the plan, but Carl insisted he didn’t change it, he pivoted and that was different.
And before you condemn Carl as an idiot, please note that over the years I’ve had hundreds of similar conversations with all kinds of people in various positions and at all levels.
The point is that terms change, so it’s important to listen to what’s being said — not just the words used, but the meaning of those words.
May 5th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Miki–your post reminds me of a quote by one of the greatest strategists of all time:
“I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower
I have met people who were so enamored with their beautiful business “plan” that they rode the thing straight into oblivion. To me, formal business plans are of value for about as long as the daily newspaper.
Great post, but, semantics aside, if it “walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…it’s a duck.”
Bob
May 5th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Come on, Bob, biz plans have great value as long as they are done in pencil, but, as you point out, it is the act of planning that carries the real value, hence the pencil. (Is Eisenhower really the true source of that quote? I’ve heard it attributed to so many others.)
There are a lot of ducks out there, lame or not, but it is still amazing to me how often semantics blinds people to their actions.
Thanks for taking time to add your thoughts. I love all my readers, but those who comment have a special place in my heart:)
May 6th, 2011 at 8:17 am
Good Morning Miki!
I loved this post, so I tweeted a link to it yesterday – one of the twitter responses via @pcalentro was:
‘some of the best bar none, like today’s New Terms for Old Wisdom http://bit.ly/lD0Q1o‘
Best regards :-)
Elliot
May 6th, 2011 at 9:34 am
Hi Elliot, long time, I hope you are doing well.
Thanks for the tweet and please thank @pcalentro for me.
You must run into this all the time in IT; got any funny stories you feel like sharing?