Segment 9(17) - Pivoting (when the business model needs to change)

[Paul Terlemezian]

How does a company decide to shift its business model?

How have shifts been funded?

What lessons were learned?

What was right then - but perhaps not right now?

This BYOL Plus segment will feature 5 CEO's and a Remarkable Speaker that will respond to this topic.

Remarkable Speaker: Gordon Rogers https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonrogers/

Moderator: Jeffrey Martin https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-mart%C3%ADn-a753ab41/

Panelists:

• Steve Benfield https://www.linkedin.com/in/sbenfield/
• Bob Carr https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-carr-94499b22/
• Sharon Duke Estroff https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonestroff/
• Rusty Gordon https://www.linkedin.com/in/rustygordon/
• Jeff Venza https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffvenza/

[Jeffrey Martín]

Looking forward to meeting you all here 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1-_utH1j0c

[Jeffrey Venza]

Organizations pivot for many different reasons.  Those reasons are either reactive in nature or proactive. It took about 4 years for VENZA to complete our pivot from a traditional services based business over to a SaaS based business. I look forward to meeting everyone and hearing your stories, specifically around how long it took you and things you learned in the process.

[Rusty Gordon]

I am anxious to hear the panelists and the discussion around this issue.

Pivoting is part art and part science and interestingly key to both start ups and more mature companies.

At the speed of change we now experience in my opinion it is more of a required skill than a survival tactic.

Looking forward to the discussion!

[Paul Terlemezian]

Yes - think of Apple in recent history and IBM - what about Sears or Blockbuster?

What will autonomous vehicles mean to automobile dealerships?

Is education immune from pivoting?

[Steve Benfield]

Paul--looking forward to contributing to this and meeting the other panelists.

As Rusty Gordon said in his reply--pivoting is an art and a science.

If it was only business strategy it might be easy--but what is the capability of the organization for pivoting? We've all pivoted either formally or informally. Major formal pivots require organizational change and possibly reshuffling the organization. Inertia is hard to overcome and it requires real commitment from the leadership team. Funding--a big issue. Usually means milking the cash cow to plow into innovation. Easier if you are private because you aren't getting beat up for lower earnings and profit as you get your new pivot in place.

Should be a great discussion.

[Paul Terlemezian]

Thanks Steve - I also think about the time and debate it takes to make the decision to pivot - and then the people impact - especially since it not likely possible to give them time to debate the decision.