Pivoting: “Go to your customers”

This short article is 5-star advice for any enterprise facing a threat — from veteran entrepreneur Norm Brodsky (Inc.’s Street Smarts).

Facing the giant disruption of a 1979 NYC transit strike in the first year of his start-up Perfect Courier, Brodsky goes looking for advice from a customer who’s been through strikes before. The dialogue he retells is priceless — a remarkable insight into adaptive enterprising.

By pivoting on a dime into providing a contingency car service during the strike, Perfect Courier survives and Brodsky gets wiser:

Aside from the additional cash and the new sales, I took away from the episode one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in business: When in doubt, go to your customers. They will tell you what they want and lead you to solutions you’d never come up with on your own. Indeed, just about every successful new initiative I’ve taken in business since then has come from listening to customers.

Topics: Adaptation, Customers, Opportunity, Pivoting, Survival