Is It Time to Pivot?
Ah, “the pivot,” much trumpeted these days as an integral component of business vocabulary.
The word itself is an interesting one.
For me, it brings to mind a long-ago term to describe a position in basketball (George Mikan, anyone?), a key technology that revolutionized irrigation in the West, the center pivot, or that marvel of spreadsheet science that thrills so many enthusiasts, the pivot table in Microsoft Excel.
I’ve been fascinated by business pivots for a long while now. Your strategy has you headed in one direction, and then you change of course. It's a big deal.
Perhaps my interest stems from my time as co-founder of a startup, Social Good Network. We pivoted from our original model twice in the span of little more than a year, chasing traction that would yield a Series A round as we crossed the valley of death with water supplies (seed series funds) running increasingly low. Regrettably, neither of those pivots worked quickly enough; perhaps I’ll write more about it in a future issue.
Or maybe I’m attracted to pivots because I love strategy and the attendant risk of taking a step away from the established path and into the unknown.
I thought it would be interesting to see how social entrepreneurs handle this delicate dance, so we’ll be interviewing and learning from leaders who have each made different types of pivots, in both the business and nonprofit sectors: a career pivot, a target audience pivot, and a product pivot. More to come on each of these soon.
And if you have examples of pivots you think may interest our readers, please let me know about them.
On another note, I decided to bring back Trivia and include it periodically in Godspeed, which I know will make at least one of you (Hello, Kara Odegard of Measure Meant in Spokane, WA).
Lastly, I just successfully wrapped up a branding assignment and so have capacity for another project for the fourth quarter. Any takers?
Godspeed, friends.
Russ
💬 Quote of the Week
“Persist, pivot, or concede. It’s up to us, our choice every time.” Matthew McConaughey
💥 Quick Hits
• Harnessing AI for Social Impact – The yin to the yang of AI.
• O Canada – There's an effort in Canada to adopt a stakeholder governance bill that would impact all federally incorporated businesses.
• "The Mad Men Fueling the Madness" – Clean Creatives just released its 2024 "F-List," a compendium of advertising and PR agencies working with fossil fuel companies. (My firm Oliver Russell has signed the Clean Creatives pledge not to work with fossil fuel companies. Has your agency?)
🤔 Trivia Time
Say a pound of beef 🐮 costs $5.34 at retail. What should its true price be if you factor in hidden environmental costs?
• $10.68
• $14.24
• $19.91
• $27.36
Today's trivia answer can be found at the bottom of this newsletter.
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Trivia Answer
If you guessed $27.36 a pound, you win this week's hidden environmental costs prize! Our source is this New York Times article, which also includes examples of hidden costs for cheese, chicken, tofu, and chickpeas.
We dig hearing from you! Do you have an example of a business pivot you'd like to share? Did you enjoy seeing Trivia come back? Need help in some way? Send your ideas, questions, or requests just by replying to this email. See you next week!