F E AT U R E
Another way As organisations and individuals continue to struggle with disrupted circumstances, “pivot” may just about have been the most overused word over the past year. But as we attempt to recover from COVID-19’s wide-reaching impacts, Aurecon’s Scott Lemon wonders whether now is the time to, er, pivot towards a more sustainable future.
In 1999, “pivot” was not exactly a corporate buzzword. Rather, it was a memorable line from the sitcom Friends. The scene was fairly simple: three friends struggling to get a couch up a narrow staircase, with a frustrated Ross (David Schwimmer) incessantly screaming the famous line: “Pivot!” Fast forward to 2021 and you’re as likely to hear businesses talking about pivoting as you are to see a Friends pivot meme. The world is grappling with a pandemic and a paralysed economy as businesses struggle to recover and stay afloat. The onset of COVID-19 has forced organisations out of their comfort zones to explore ventures they had never previously thought of exploring, and quickly implement business practices that would otherwise have taken years to change.
In a short span of time, we’ve seen restaurants become ghost kitchens, a vodka maker create carbon-negative hand sanitisers, and a paper-recycling company turn to recycled plastics to make face shields. Would leaders and executives have had the courage to shift the same way that they have right now without a pandemic? Maybe not. Most businesses are not designed to change. To grow and expand, yes ... but change? No, at least not drastically. Businesses are typically designed to exploit their current business model and maximise it while they can. Their systems and processes are set up to achieve repeatability, quality control, risk mitigation, compliance, customer loyalty and a range of other factors that
have contributed to their past successes. Change rarely fits in. Or putting it another way, businesses are designed to resist change. However, the world outside of a business doesn’t stand still and wait for its five-year and 10-year plans to shape up. It changes constantly in response to new technology, macro-economic and geopolitical forces, consumer expectations and a once‑in‑a‑century biological threat that we now find ourselves extremely terrified of. There is no other choice but to shift gears, but where to? In a time filled with limited options and uncertainty, taking big leaps can lead to huge losses, which we cannot afford right now. So how can business leaders make sure they are pivoting in the right direction?
