In the wild business world, failure isn’t always final – it can be a turning point. Struggling is a common story line behind many successful companies, but rather than accept defeat, they morphed. These pivots not only rescued their businesses but transformed them into global successes. Let’s look at how some brands used reversals as opportunities – and what we can learn from their experience.
1. Netflix: From DVDs in the Mail to a Streaming Giant
Netflix was initially a DVD-by-mail business, but it recognized that the internet would revolutionize how people consume entertainment. The company pivoted to online streaming before branching out into original content.
- Crucial Pivot: Moving from DVD rentals to digital streaming
- Challenge: Convincing people to give up their traditional TV and movie rental shops
- Outcome: Became one of the top streaming entertainment companies in the world
Takeaway: Being a first mover to technology trends could make the difference between becoming an also-ran and being a market leader.
2. Slack: From Failed Game to Workplace Essential
Slack was a failed online video game called “Glitch” before it became an app for communicating by computer. The team realized that their chat tool was more fun and engaging than the game itself — so they pivoted entirely.
- Turning Point: Transition from Games to Enterprise Communication
- Challenge: Crowded field of collaboration tools
- Outcome: More than 30 million daily users around the world
Takeaway: Sometimes addressing your own internal issues leads to your best product.
3. YouTube: How a Dating Site Became a Video Giant
YouTube started off as a dating site based around video itself. But when people began uploading all sorts of videos, the founders quickly saw a greater opportunity.
- High-Level Pivot: From “video dating” to videos in general
- Challenges: Innovating a content model in an up-and-coming field
- Result: Became the world’s most popular video-sharing service
Key takeaway: The user’s usage also brings to light the true potential of your product.
4. Instagram: Check-In App to Photo Sharing
Instagram started as “Burbn,” an app for checking in at locations. But users liked the photo-sharing aspect most of all. The founders streamlined the app and concentrated solely on that function.
- Main Pivot: Moved from check-ins to visual storytelling
- Challenge: Understanding Users Real Priorities They Decided To Ask Users what they Thought They Wanted.
- Result: Sold to Facebook for $1 billion in 2012
Takeaway: Don’t underestimate the power of a simplified idea.
5. PayPal: From Palm Pilot Payments to Mobile Banking
PayPal who began by transferring money between Palm Pilot machines. When people started using it to make eBay transactions, the founders started to see its broader potential.
- Pivotal Moment: Moving offline payments to online money transfers
- Challenge: Trusting the Web to carry out financial transactions
- Result: Among the world’s most widely used payment systems
Takeaway: Go where your users are adoption in the real world can direct better business directions.
6. Yes, Twitter started as a podcast platform.
Twitter emerged from a doomed podcasting start-up called Odeo. The founders quickly pivoted to a microblogging concept in which users were asked to share short updates.
- Key pivot: Shifted from podcasts to real-time messaging.
- Challenge: A new culture of communication ampfid adipisicing veniam, quis nostrar exercitation.
- Key success: Changed the concept of social media with short-form posts
Takeaway New ideas can grow from the demise of your original idea.
7. Nokia: From Paper Mill to Tech Powerhouse
Nokia traces its roots to the 19th century, when it established a paper mill in Finland. Over the decades, it evolved into rubber, cables and ultimately telecommunications.
- Pivotal Moment: Transitioning from industrial manufacturing to mobility technology
- Challenge: Keeping up with rapidly changing tech markets
- Result: A global mobile brand before smartphones changed the game
Takeaway: Business resilience is all about long-term adaptability.
8. Shopify: From Snowboards to E-commerce Dominance
Shopify was born when its founders attempted to sell snowboards online. Unimpressed by the e-commerce tools in existence, they developed their own platform eventually turning all its attention to helping people sell on the internet.
- Key pivot: From online snowboard shop to e-commerce platform
- Challenge: The established web platforms are being IMitated.
- Outcome: Emerging as one of the world’s leading e-commerce companies.
Takeaway: Solving one of your business challenges can open up an entire industry opportunity.
9. Wrigley: From Soap and Baking Powder to Chewing Gum
Wrigley started by peddling soap and baking powder, but its advertising chewing gum sold so effectively that the company shifted to an entirely different profession.
- Critical Pivot: From the cleaning aisle, to the candy counter
- Challenge: To create an identity for a new product
- Result: One of the world’s biggest brands of chewing gum
Takeaway: “Watch closely to what your customers are most excited about.
10. It Went From Online Game To Photo Sharing Site- Flickr
Flickr was initially a feature of a game, ʻGame Neverending.ʼ The photo-sharing app developed for players was more popular than the game it serviced.
- Pivot: Gaming to social photo sharing
- Challenge: Attracting a new audience beyond gaming
- Outcome: Became the most influential photo-sharing site of its day
Takeaway: If a better idea presents itself, don’t be afraid to abandon your initial concept.
Conclusion
Business pivots tend to spring from failure, but they also open a path to innovation. The trick is to know when it’s time to veer off in a new direction, heeding user feedback and acting quickly. And in each, the speakers demonstrate that obsession or loss of control can be transformed into an opportunity, and failures become amazing success stories.
FAQs:
Q1. What is a business pivot?
A business pivot is when you need to switch what and how you’re doing something, because it’s no longer working or there’s a new opportunity.
Q2. Why do companies pivot?
They pivot in order to stay relevant, meet customer demand or correct an unprofitable business model.
Q3. What is an example of a successful pivot?
One of the best known is Netflix’s pivot from DVD rentals to streaming.
Q4. How do start-ups know when to pivot?
Startups need to pivot when they receive feedback from real users, whether it is data or performance metrics and the results of their tests see no match between demand and what they have built.
Q5. Can a pivot rescue a floundering business?
Yes. Pivot, when done right and simply in sync with the market, can turn an ailing company around.
