Pivot or Die

Pivot or Die Plot Summary

Introduction

When COVID-19 swept across the globe in early 2020, Jamie Siminoff was at a crossroads. His smart doorbell company, Ring, was already successful, but as the pandemic reshaped how people lived, worked, and shopped, he faced a critical decision point. With more deliveries arriving at doorsteps than ever before, his product suddenly became not just a convenience but a necessity. Ring pivoted from marketing itself as a simple doorbell to positioning as an essential home security system. This subtle but powerful shift in messaging resulted in explosive growth during a time when many businesses were struggling to survive. In a world of constant change, the ability to pivot is perhaps the most valuable skill any leader can possess. Whether facing global disruptions like pandemics, technological revolutions, or simply the everyday challenges of running an organization, those who can adapt quickly and decisively are the ones who thrive. Throughout history, the most successful individuals and organizations have been those willing to let go of what isn't working, recognize new opportunities, and make bold changes when necessary. This journey through pivotal leadership moments reveals how strategic shifts, even painful ones, often lead to unexpected growth and success when guided by vision, courage, and a willingness to embrace the unknown.

Chapter 1: Forced Pivots: When External Events Demand Immediate Action

In January 2020, Delta Air Lines was flying high. As America's most on-time airline and the top revenue-generating airline in the world, Delta was beloved by both employees and customers. CEO Ed Bastian had just delivered a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, outlining his vision for the future of travel. But within weeks, this vision was shattered as COVID-19 spread globally. By March, Delta was facing a liquidity crisis, issuing up to $50 million in refunds daily and seeing passenger loads drop by 95 percent. Under Bastian's leadership, Delta's response became a masterclass in forced pivoting. With over 500 planes grounded, Delta repurposed aircraft to transport medical workers and critical supplies. The company converted its Atlanta museum into a vaccination center that administered doses to thousands daily. Most impressively, Delta managed to avoid mass layoffs by implementing voluntary leave programs that preserved health insurance for employees—prioritizing people even amid financial catastrophe. During the same period, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry faced a similar existential threat. Within days of the pandemic's onset, she pivoted the company to a curbside pickup model—something Best Buy had never offered before. Rather than furlough workers immediately, Best Buy paid all employees for four weeks, bridging them to federal stimulus support. The company also retained medical benefits for those eventually furloughed. This human-centered approach to crisis management preserved both company culture and customer loyalty. In the Ukrainian tech sector, forced pivots took on life-or-death stakes when Russia invaded in 2022. Dima Gazda, CEO of Esper Bionics, had to rapidly relocate his team while maintaining operations for a company that produces advanced prosthetic limbs. Alexander Sobolenko of Releaf Paper worked through blackouts and fuel shortages, pivoting from go-to-market plans to survival strategies. Both companies not only endured but thrived, with Esper Bionics winning prestigious design awards and Releaf Paper securing major grants for sustainable manufacturing in France. Forced pivots arise when external forces—economic downturns, technological disruptions, global crises—demand immediate action. The leaders who navigate these moments successfully share common traits: they remain calm amid chaos, prioritize people while making tough decisions, and see opportunity within crisis. Rather than clinging to pre-crisis plans, they quickly assess new realities and adapt accordingly. Their success stems not from predicting the unpredictable, but from developing organizational resilience that allows for rapid response when the unexpected inevitably arrives.

Chapter 2: The Startup Pivot: Reinvention on the Path to Success

In 2011, Jamie Siminoff was working from his garage when he created a Wi-Fi connected video doorbell called DoorBot. His wife had mentioned she couldn't hear the doorbell when she was in the backyard or at the rear of their home. This simple problem sparked an invention that would eventually transform home security. But the path wasn't straightforward. When Siminoff appeared on Shark Tank, none of the investors bit. Mark Cuban told him, "I think you'll be successful. It will be worth $20 million. I just can't invest in something that's not going to be $70 million someday." After the show, orders increased, but customers complained about poor picture quality, muffled sound, and unreliable connections. Siminoff made a crucial pivot. He collaborated with manufacturing giant Foxconn to redesign the product, personally responded to customer complaints, and made a strategic naming change from "DoorBot" to "Ring." This wasn't just a cosmetic shift—it represented a fundamental repositioning from a convenience product to a security necessity, creating a "ring of security" around customers' homes. The pivot paid off dramatically. Richard Branson became an investor. The Los Angeles Police Department partnered with Ring in a pilot program that reduced neighborhood burglaries by 55%. In 2018, Amazon acquired Ring for more than a billion dollars, making it the largest company ever to have appeared on Shark Tank. What began as a rejection became a triumphant story of persistence and adaptation. Robbie Cabral's journey with BenjiLock follows a similar pattern of pivoting toward opportunity. After being laid off on the same day his daughter was born, Cabral spent time at the gym to lose weight. Frustrated with locker room combination locks, he envisioned a padlock with fingerprint technology. Despite having no engineering background, he secured a patent and debuted his prototype at CES 2017, where it won an Innovation Award. The lock barely worked when he brought it to the show, but Cabral was there primarily to learn and iterate. After appearing on Shark Tank himself, Cabral secured a deal with Kevin O'Leary and eventually landed his products in major retailers like Ace Hardware, Amazon, and Walmart. His success came not from having a perfect product initially, but from his willingness to learn, adapt, and persistently improve his offering based on feedback. For startups, pivoting isn't an admission of failure but a strategic necessity on the path to success. Research shows that around 40% of founders report pivoting to avoid failure, with those willing to pivot significantly improving their odds of success. The most effective startup pivots combine rational decision-making with gut instinct, creating a balanced approach that allows for both careful analysis and bold action when needed. The capacity to shift course—sometimes repeatedly—until finding the right product-market fit is what separates thriving startups from those that stagnate and disappear.

Chapter 3: Failure Pivots: Learning from Setbacks to Find New Directions

In April 1956, a young rock musician strode confidently onto the stage at the Las Vegas New Frontier Hotel. Despite having a #1 hit and a movie contract with Paramount Pictures, Elvis Presley bombed spectacularly that night. The middle-aged audience sat stone-faced through his performance, leading Newsweek to compare him to "a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party." The Las Vegas Sun panned "the brash, loud braying of his rhythm and blues catalog." The hotel was so embarrassed they moved his name to the bottom of the marquee for the remainder of his two-week run. This spectacular failure might have crushed a less resilient performer, but Elvis used this setback as fuel for his eventual transformation into the "King of Rock and Roll." His story exemplifies how failure often becomes a critical ingredient for future success. As Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla once quipped, "I probably have more experience screwing up than anybody in this room." His company was later acquired by Oracle for $7.4 billion. Nick Woodman's journey to founding GoPro followed a similar trajectory through failure. His first startup, EmpowerAll.com, never even launched. His second venture, Funbug, raised millions before crashing during the dot-com bubble, landing Woodman on a website called "f*ckedcompany.com" that listed the era's biggest business failures. Reeling from the loss, the then-26-year-old went on a five-month surfing trip to Australia and Indonesia. During this retreat, Woodman noticed that surfers couldn't capture quality photos of themselves riding waves. This observation sparked the idea for a wearable waterproof camera. With $200,000 borrowed from his father and selling shell necklaces from Bali to make ends meet, he launched GoPro. The company eventually went public in 2014, reaching more than $1 billion in annual revenue before facing challenges that forced another pivot back to simpler, more reliable products after a period of overly complex expansion. Melanie Perkins' path to creating Canva, the graphic design platform now valued at $40 billion, was paved with rejections. What began as a school yearbook design business eventually led to a broader vision for democratizing design. When seeking funding, Perkins and her partner faced over 100 investor rejections. Investors were skeptical about the company being based in Australia rather than California, concerned that the founders lacked MBAs, and worried that Canva's valuation was too high. Yet Perkins persisted, eventually securing $1.6 million from angel investors and venture capital firms, plus a $1.4 million grant from the Australian government. Today, Canva has over 60 million users worldwide and has raised more than $560 million in investments. These stories reveal a critical truth: failure is often the catalyst for innovation and growth, particularly in American business culture. While success can breed complacency, setbacks teach humility, creativity, and adaptability—provided we look backward to extract the lessons. As Megan Myungwon Lee, chairwoman and CEO of Panasonic North America, puts it: "It's okay to live through the mistakes and learn from the mistakes. Success, everyone knows. But when you go through painful mistakes, that's when you learn. That's when you test yourself. And that's when you grow."

Chapter 4: Success Pivots: The Courage to Change When Things Are Working

In 2003, a group of Amazon executives gathered at CEO Jeff Bezos's house for a strategic retreat. Though Amazon was already thriving as an online retailer, they were exploring the company's core capabilities beyond selling products. Through this exercise, they realized Amazon had built expertise in running reliable, scalable, cost-effective data centers—a capability that could itself become a business. This insight led to the creation of Amazon Web Services (AWS), transforming a retailer into a cloud computing pioneer. When AWS launched in 2006, market analysts were skeptical. One Piper Jaffray analyst dismissed the new product as "probably more of a distraction than anything else." But developers immediately saw the value, with 12,000 signing up on the first day. Within a decade, AWS reached $10 billion in annual sales, and today powers nearly a third of the cloud computing market. What began as a pivot from success has since become Amazon's most profitable business segment. Dr. Neal Kassell faced a different kind of success pivot midway through his career. As co-chair of neurosurgery at the University of Virginia, he had treated thousands of patients but grew increasingly frustrated by the limitations of existing treatments for patients with brain tumors in hard-to-access locations. When a colleague mentioned research using ultrasound and microbubbles, Kassell envisioned using multiple sound beams converging to destroy tumors without invasive surgery. When UVA administrators rejected his proposal for a Focused Ultrasound Center, Kassell made the bold decision to pivot from his successful surgical career to create a nonprofit foundation supporting focused ultrasound programs at other institutions. In 2016, after balancing both roles for nearly a decade, he left UVA entirely to focus on the foundation. "It was hard," he explained, "because I had the best job in the world. It's hard to describe how rewarding it was to challenge the most feared and devastating diseases." But, he continued, "It really became a moral imperative." As a surgeon, he helped hundreds of patients yearly; with focused ultrasound, he knew he could potentially help millions. By 2022, his pivot had enabled treatment for 100,000 people at 1,000 treatment sites, with projections to reach one million annually in the near future. Focused ultrasound now offers new approaches to treating conditions from tumors to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Sonos, the wireless audio company, offers another example of pivoting from strength. Founded by a team of successful internet messaging entrepreneurs, Sonos began with a vision of wireless, multi-room audio systems—well before streaming music was mainstream. After establishing themselves as hardware leaders, they executed another pivot in 2020 by launching Sonos Radio, expanding into curated content. This 45-degree pivot (rather than a complete 180-degree turn) complemented their existing products while creating a new revenue stream. Success pivots require perhaps the rarest leadership quality: the courage to change when things are working well. Unlike forced or failure pivots where the need for change is obvious, success pivots demand leaders who can see beyond current achievements to future opportunities and threats. They require overcoming organizational complacency and the natural human resistance to change when things seem fine. But as these examples show, the greatest opportunities often emerge not from desperation but from a position of strength, when leaders have the resources, confidence, and vision to reinvent their companies before market shifts force their hand.

Chapter 5: The Tech Industry's Greatest Pivots and Their Global Impact

In 1975, HBO made television history by delivering the first continuous satellite signal broadcast of "The Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. This technological leap sparked a programming revolution in the cable industry, with networks like MTV soon changing how Americans consumed entertainment. But cable industry leaders recognized that content alone wouldn't secure their future. With competition looming from satellite and telephone companies, they made a strategic pivot toward broadband internet. To execute this transformation, cable operators did something unusual: they collaborated. In 1988, they created CableLabs, a nonprofit research consortium that developed shared standards for cable technologies. This industry-wide pivot enabled cable companies to offer high-speed internet access alongside traditional entertainment services, fundamentally changing how Americans connect to the digital world and positioning the industry for decades of growth. Nokia presents another remarkable transformation story. Few people realize that the company known for mobile phones began in 1865 as a paper mill in Finland. Over the decades, Nokia produced products ranging from rubber boots to military equipment to aluminum before focusing on telecommunications in the 1990s. This adaptability allowed Nokia to survive for more than 150 years across multiple technological eras. Perhaps no pivot has more profoundly shaped modern life than the commercialization of the internet. Until 1991, commercial enterprise on the internet was banned by the National Science Foundation, which saw the network as "an open commons, not to be undone by greed or commercialization." This created a fundamental problem: telecom companies had no path to monetization. The breakthrough came in 1994 when digital publication Hotwired invented the "banner ad," selling space to advertisers like AT&T for $30,000 for a three-month placement. Around the same time, Virginia became the first state to establish comprehensive internet regulations under Governor Jim Gilmore and Secretary of Technology Don Upson. Their Commission on Information Technology created a framework that allowed online contracts and electronic signatures while avoiding restrictions that would hinder growth. This policy approach, later adopted globally, enabled the explosion of e-commerce that has transformed how we shop, work, and connect. The GPS technology we rely on daily emerged from tragedy. After Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down in 1983 after straying into Soviet airspace due to navigation errors, President Ronald Reagan accelerated plans to make GPS available for civilian use. What began as a military technology for tracking submarines became the foundation for countless innovations, from turn-by-turn navigation to fitness tracking to precision agriculture. These industry-wide pivots demonstrate how technological shifts can transcend individual companies to reshape entire economies and societies. They required not just vision from individual leaders, but cooperation across competing interests, supportive policy frameworks, and the ability to imagine possibilities beyond current limitations. The impacts continue to ripple through our daily lives, creating new industries, eliminating others, and fundamentally changing how we communicate, travel, shop, and entertain ourselves.

Chapter 6: Personal Pivots: Leadership Decisions That Define Careers

In 1964, college track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman formed a handshake partnership with his former runner Phil Knight to distribute Japanese running shoes in the United States. The 50-50 partnership seemed fair, but Bowerman soon made a crucial personal pivot. He requested to change the ownership structure to 51-49, giving Knight the controlling interest. Bowerman recognized that equal ownership could lead to deadlock if they disagreed on key decisions. This humble act of putting the business ahead of his ego allowed Knight to make decisive choices that propelled their company—Nike—into a global powerhouse now valued at over $30 billion. Gary Shapiro, longtime CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, faced his own pivotal moment during the organization's annual Leaders in Technology dinner. As the pre-dinner reception was in full swing, he encountered a visibly angry senior elected official who threatened to leave because he hadn't been properly greeted and felt disrespected. With hundreds of VIP guests already arriving and the official scheduled to speak, Shapiro made an extraordinary pivot—he got on his knees and, with genuine tears in his eyes, begged the official to stay. This willingness to set aside his ego in service of the larger mission worked. The official remained and delivered his welcome address, preserving the event's success. As Shapiro reflects, this incident captures the importance of being willing to subordinate personal pride when larger goals are at stake. Michael Chasen, co-founder of education technology company Blackboard, executed a personal pivot when he spotted an opportunity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Watching his children struggle with virtual learning, he recognized that existing online meeting platforms weren't designed for classroom activities. This observation led him to launch Class Technologies, which adds teaching tools to Zoom for K-12, higher education, and workplace learning. When describing his approach to entrepreneurship, Chasen emphasized lessons from his Blackboard days: "I sat in that chair for 20 years because it always reminded me of our scrappy beginnings." This perspective helped him build Class Technologies as an almost entirely virtual company, cutting costs while tapping into global talent. By 2022, Class had raised over $160 million from investors including SoftBank, Salesforce, and even NFL quarterback Tom Brady. Adam Gross and Dr. Melissa Hunfalvay demonstrate how personal pivots can unlock unexpected potential. After meeting during a recreational tennis match, they partnered to develop RightEye—an eye-tracking medical device that can diagnose vision issues and concussions within minutes. The data they collected from millions of users eventually revealed patterns that could identify conditions ranging from Parkinson's disease to Lyme disease. In 2023, they pivoted again, launching HarmonEyes to expand their eye-tracking technology beyond medical applications into gaming, surgical training, and military operations. "I've learned that the flexibility and willingness to pivot is as important as your first go-to-market plan," Adam explained. "Identifying new opportunities based on market feedback is critical for long-term value creation." Personal pivots often require the hardest shift of all—changing our minds when new information arrives. As Jeff Bezos observed, being right more often requires a willingness to change your mind regularly. These moments define careers and legacies, separating those who become trapped by past success from those who continuously reinvent themselves and their organizations. The leaders who thrive aren't those who never fail or never change direction, but those who maintain their core values while demonstrating the flexibility to adapt their approaches as circumstances evolve.

Chapter 7: The Future of Pivoting: AI, Sustainability, and What Comes Next

At CES 2024, the world's largest technology event, artificial intelligence dominated every conversation. What once seemed like science fiction has become ubiquitous—AI chips in TVs and keyboards, machine learning platforms powering e-commerce and software development, digital twins creating virtual testing environments, and smart assistants helping people shop, drive, and even sleep better. As Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai observed, "The desire for people to make their lives better by gaining access to technology is what compels me to go beyond." This AI revolution represents perhaps the most significant pivot point in modern business history. By September 2023, venture capitalists had invested $14.1 billion in generative AI alone, with projections that the market for AI hardware, services, and software will reach $300 billion by 2026. Organizations not already integrating AI into their operations risk being left behind in what Gary Shapiro calls "the age of the AI pivot." Equally transformative is the sustainability pivot reshaping how companies operate. In response to growing consumer demand and climate realities, businesses are fundamentally rethinking their environmental impact. Technologies to remove or reduce carbon emissions were valued at $905 billion in 2022 and are projected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2027. From Panasonic's cobalt-free batteries to Schneider Electric's power sockets made from recycled fishing nets to Goodyear's tire composed of 90% sustainable materials, innovation is driving rapid progress toward a cleaner future. The digital health sector is experiencing a similar transformation, with a market value exceeding $240 billion in 2023 and projected to reach nearly $800 billion by 2030. Abbott's Lingo continuous glucose monitoring device, Withings' BeamO vital sign sensor, and wearables like Movano Health's Evie Ring (the first consumer wearable that is also an FDA-cleared medical device) are revolutionizing how we monitor and manage health conditions. As populations age globally, these technologies will become increasingly critical for managing chronic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Perhaps most exciting is the accessibility revolution making technology more inclusive. At CES 2024, XRAI Glass debuted AR smart glasses that allow hearing-impaired wearers to see conversations as real-time subtitles. EssilorLuxottica's Nuance Audio glasses pair prescription lenses with advanced hearing technologies that help those with mild hearing loss. L'Oréal's smart makeup applicator helps disabled users more easily apply mascara or lipstick by distinguishing between intentional and unintended hand movements. These innovations reflect a profound shift in how technology is designed and developed—moving beyond the "cool factor" to address fundamental human needs. As United Nations Development Programme Associate Administrator Usha Rao-Monari observed, technology has become "critical as a force multiplier and accelerator to lift people out of poverty and support fundamental human rights." The future belongs to organizations and leaders who can navigate these converging revolutions—embracing AI's transformative potential while ensuring technology serves humanity's greater needs. The most successful pivots will be those that not only drive business growth but also contribute to a more sustainable, accessible, and equitable world. As we stand at this inflection point, the opportunity is clear: those who can pivot thoughtfully, ethically, and boldly will shape not just the next business cycle, but the next chapter of human progress.

Summary

Throughout these leadership stories, one truth emerges consistently: the ability to pivot—to change direction in response to new information, emerging threats, or unexpected opportunities—is what separates thriving organizations from those that stagnate and fail. From Ed Bastian's transformation of Delta Air Lines during the pandemic to Jamie Siminoff turning Shark Tank rejection into a billion-dollar acquisition; from Neal Kassell leaving a prestigious surgical career to pioneer focused ultrasound therapy to Jeff Bezos expanding Amazon from books to cloud computing—these leaders demonstrate that success comes not from rigidly adhering to plans but from the courage to adapt when circumstances demand it. The future belongs to those who embrace pivoting as a continuous practice rather than an occasional necessity. As artificial intelligence reshapes every industry, as sustainability becomes business-critical rather than optional, and as technology creates new possibilities for accessibility and inclusion, leaders face a clear choice: pivot or die. Those who develop the skills to recognize pivot points early, who build organizational cultures that welcome change rather than resist it, and who maintain core values while adapting strategies will navigate these transformations successfully. The rest will join the long list of once-dominant companies that failed to evolve and faded into history. In this era of unprecedented change, the greatest leadership quality isn't having all the answers—it's having the humility, curiosity, and courage to continuously ask new questions and change direction when better paths emerge.

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Gary Shapiro

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