Don’t PIVOT, just rethink the plan

Troy Hazard
April 12, 2021

Troy Hazard

Entrepreneur / Author / TV Host

 

It’s no secret the world has been put on its head!  Business leaders everywhere are just trying to work out how to get things done as efficiently as they can, and not go broke in the process. 

And everyone is hammering the concept of a need to ‘PIVOT’! 

In reality, that’s the worst thing a business leader can do.

To your team, and your customers, ‘pivoting’ conjures up images of heading in one direction and then all of a sudden doing a 180 degree turn to the opposite direction. The net result of implementing that strategy is that it will simply frighten everyone.

  • You frighten your team as they add even more uncertainty to their day with new roles and responsibilities.

  • You frighten your customers, as you lose your company identity and your product or service positioning.

  • And you frighten yourself with your own decisions.

We all have enough fear to live with right now, so don’t pivot, just rethink the plan.

Start by pulling your business plan out of the draw. Yes, the one you’ve not looked at for the last year in amongst the chaos. And have every line item in that document fight its way back into the document.

The simple exercise we do in our businesses is to draw three columns on a page and list every strategic item under one of those columns.

In column 1 – Write down the things you should STOP doing. The strategic items that simply don’t work in the current business landscape. And it might not be because the concepts are out of date, they just don’t work, for now.

In column 2 – Write down all the things that you should START doing. Things you may not have through were important pre COVID, or things that have simply landed on your desk as good ideas or new business efficiencies as you’ve continued to rethink your business model in the last 12 months.

In column 3 – Write down the things you should CONTINUE to do. These are the strategic backbones of the business, the things you know to be the drivers that should remain part of the plan to give your business some consistency for both your staff, and your customers.

However, before you put pen to paper, stop for a moment of introspection. Because It’s times like this that you find three groups of leaders in your business.

  1. Those that are seeking to protect the past – they just want it all to be the same as it used to be.

  2. Those that are proactive in working it out – they ‘get’ that they have to change and evolve, or the business will wither and die.

  3. And those that are simply paralyzed by the pressure – they are probably never going to get it and need to find a new way to operate with less anxiety.

All three personality types have a contribution to make to your new strategic plan, you just need to find a way to organize their thoughts and include them in the conversation.

This process gives everyone an equal share of voice and helps you identify what should be in your plan moving forward and what should not.

It’s not about PIVOTING, is just about rethinking the plan.

Troy Hazard is a keynote speaker on business strategy, growth and change. He is an Amazon business books best-selling author and television host. He has owned 13 companies over 30 years and has consulted to 300+ companies in 16 countries. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related Media - Troy Hazard television Interview, ‘Don’t pivot, just rethink the plan’ - on The Big Biz Show, on the Youtoo America Network, BizTV Network into 80 million homes, and 150 radio stations across America https://vimeo.com/532615824 

Troy Hazard

Want Troy Hazard for your next event?

Find out more information, including fees and availability.
Find Out More
Keep Reading
Is the customer you have, the one you want, or need?
Troy Hazard
Troy Hazard
November 04, 2021
For sure the world has changed, so too has the way we interact with our customers. And as ...
Don’t PIVOT, just rethink the plan
Troy Hazard
Troy Hazard
April 12, 2021
It's no secret the world has been put on its head! Business leaders everywhere are just trying to work ...
Leading a Decentralized Workforce
Troy Hazard
Troy Hazard
July 01, 2020
In recent months, leaders all over the world have had to find a new way to lead a somewhat scattered ...
Is the customer you have, the one you want, or need?
For sure the world has changed, so too has the way we interact with our customers. And as we try and work through what that customer engagement looks like in the future, now is the perfect time to look at your customer base and ask yourself the question - 'Is the customer I have the one I want, or in fact the one I NEED to grow my bus...
Read More
Don’t PIVOT, just rethink the plan
It's no secret the world has been put on its head! Business leaders everywhere are just trying to work out how to get things done as efficiently as they can, and not go broke in the process. And everyone is hammering the concept of a need to 'PIVOT'! In reality, that's the worst thing a business leader can do. To your team, and ...
Read More
Leading a Decentralized Workforce
In recent months, leaders all over the world have had to find a new way to lead a somewhat scattered workforce. For some of us, working from home or having part of our teams work from home, was not unusual. What was unusual was to have ALL of our teams work from home, with the added distraction of the rest of their family being at home with t...
Read More
THE SMALL BUSINESS ANTIVIRUS
THE SMALL BUSINESS ANTIVIRUS Small business owners and leaders need to get busy to protect their business against the impact of this virus, as unfortunately it has the potential to bankrupt more people than it kills. I'm no doctor, but I have got a pretty good prescription for any small business owner or leader to survive this rollerc...
Read More
A 2020 Vision For Business
As we head into a new decade, the holidays will no doubt be a time for reflection on the last ten years, and a time to consider the next ten. So, what will the next ten years hold for business leaders? Well, for many of us we turn to 'experts' for advice on 'what's next' as we try and navigate our way through business and life. How...
Read More
It’s The Bottom Of The 9th!
With only a few weeks to run until the end of the year, for many business leaders, it's starting to feel like the bottom of the (never-ending) 9th! It's also about this time your focus on winning the game shifts to a focus of just finishing the game, win or lose. And in one of those moments a very long time ago I developed a simple pro...
Read More
5 Business Rules You Should Break
For years we've lived by a number of standard business rules, but as the landscape of business changes, so to do the rules. Here are the top 5 rules you knew and lived by, but that you should now be breaking: Growth is Good:Not all new business is good business.After a period of fast growth in one of our businesses, I analyzed our $6 milli...
Read More
It's Halftime!
It's about this time of the year that you can feel the halfway mark approach. It's a time of reflection, a time of anxiety, and, for some, a time when we start to fear we are not going to get the things done this year that we would have liked to…. THIS is the moment in time when our New Years resolutions and goals go out the window as - it's ...
Read More
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR DAY
I am often asked about how I get so much done in such a short period of time, so I only have to work 3 days a week. It's not rocket science it's just a series of habits that I follow every day. THE 'CAN DO' LIST First up I spend 20-30 minutes organizing my head. I make three lists, things I can change, things I have changed, and t...
Read More
What goes around comes around - are you ready for the next financial correction?
It's a clear day, the sun is shining, birds are chirping, dogs and cats are playing together, a unicorn just danced for you on your front lawn. Life is goooood. There are clouds in the distance, but they will pass. There is too much good energy around you, what can possibly spoil this perfect day? (Insert deep joyous sigh and blissful smile)....
Read More