“Pivoting strategy” is a term used by entrepreneurs and startups when a business model or idea is determined to be no longer sustainable, creating the necessity to switch the direction of where the organization is going. These switches can often be very radical — Twitter, for example, started from a company called Odeo, which was originally a podcast sharing service but ended up doing something very different to earn its success.
It’s a phrase that evokes ideas of change, reinvention and rebirth — part of what adds to the excitement and thrill of starting a new business. Entrepreneurs tend to look at “pivoting” with both reverence and dread, since they know that something drastic is about to happen in the near future.
In managing my band (OK Music), I’ve lost track of how many “pivots” I went through in my own experiences, so this is kind of a rendition of what that might sound like in musical terms — it involves periods of intense focus, followed by transitional periods that take things into different directions. (Since our group is working with technology to pursue our career goals, the music may have that kind of quality to it.)
I tend to conceptualize my ideas and experiences through the music that I make, so this is a continuation of that process. I think that the improvisation and the startup community have a lot in common, so the plan is to write more about the connections between the two. So far the journey has been very interesting, to say the least.
