Council Post: Snooze And Lose Or Win: How To Successfully Pivot Your Business During Challenging Times

Founder and CEO of FanFood.

In February, there was hope. Fans were filling stadiums to see their favorite sports teams or performers. Restaurants were overflowing with guests. According to Crunchbase News, in Q4 2019, VCs invested in nearly 2,500 early stage deals, coming in at a total of over $29 billion. Businesses had missions that were set in stone for years. For example, my company’s mission was to deliver the ultimate fan experience and make the ordering experience as frictionless as possible. What we had built was a marketplace that connected fans to concession stands by offering three key services: order ahead, express pickup and delivery.

Then the pandemic hit, and for any business that has been affected, revenue streams virtually went from 100% to 0% overnight. Many business owners asked themselves the same question: “What do I do now?” They were forced to make a decision on a strategy, and the options they were given were limited to an offensive or defensive approach. Some companies immediately chose the defensive approach, refusing to pivot their mission, fearing such a change could result in a long waiting period and lost capital and revenue. This option could have ultimately resulted in furloughs, layoffs and other tough company decisions. The second option, the offensive approach, was a company pivot. This option could have still resulted in tough decisions, but there was a higher chance of keeping the business afloat — and an even higher chance you would perform better than your competitors at the end of it.

In the military, you are taught the importance of building structures and processes to obtain the objective of the mission. These innovations are necessary for businesses to succeed in the offensive approach. When building structures and processes for a pivot of your organization, members have to constantly ask themselves, “How is this moving the needle for my company?” These decisions can force your business to switch that mission that’s been set in stone, but that’s OK if you are still adding value.

It’s important that organizations get creative in order to find where they can add value. For us, the vision stayed the same, but the mission changed from “delivering the ultimate fan experience and making the ordering experience as frictionless as possible for fans” to “providing the quickest and easiest contactless services for businesses.” To put this in perspective, we still carry out the previous mission, but we also offer our other services to anyone who needs them.

Businesses are ultimately here to make people’s lives easier, and they need to know how to make those accommodations as they pivot. Organizations can do this by making everything as frictionless as possible. We are seeing businesses take away unnecessary processes to make their customers feel safer and satisfied in the restaurant space by offering mobile and online ordering. It is even more important for businesses to build their processes to make their employees’ lives easier with better technology.

Pivoting a business when your revenue goes from 100% to 0% is definitely not an easy task, but it can be done. Organizations have to home in on building structures and processes so they can still add value. The value they provide can open up their business to new markets and new customers. When everything goes back to normal, businesses can build on this as a whole new revenue stream for the organization. The offensive approach to pivoting may not be the easiest, but it will certainly set your organization up for the success that is needed during these tough times.

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