Pivot to the Future: Discovering Value and Creating Growth in a Disrupted World

by Omar Abbosh, Paul Nunes, Larry Downes

The proven, effective strategy for reinventing your business in the age of ever-present disruption

Disruption by digital technologies? That's not a new story. But what is new is the "wise pivot," a replicable strategy for harnessing disruption to survive, grow, and be relevant to the future. It's a strategy for perpetual reinvention across the old, now, and new elements of any business.

Rapid recent advances in technology are forcing leaders in every business to rethink long-held beliefs about how to adapt to emerging technologies and new markets. What has become abundantly clear: in the digital age, conventional wisdom about business transformation no longer works, if it ever did.

Based on Accenture's own experience of reinventing itself in the face of disruption, the company's real world client work, and a rigorous two-year study of thousands of businesses across 30 industries, Pivot to the Future reveals methodical and bold moves for finding and releasing new sources of trapped value-unlocked by bridging the gap between what is technologically possible and how technologies are being used. The freed value enables companies to simultaneously reinvent their legacy, and current and new businesses.

Pivot to the Future is for leaders who seek to turn the existential threats of today and tomorrow into sustainable growth, with the courage to understand that a wise pivot strategy is not a one-time event, but a commitment to a future of perpetual reinvention, where one pivot is followed by the next and the next.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Technology

288 pages, Hardcover

Published April 23, 2019

Reviews

[Pallavi Kamat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book that talks about different industries and how technology is changing them forcing them either out of business or to adapt to new ways of working. Mentions the companies which survived and those that didn't. Features biggies like Amazon, Netflix, Google, Reliance Jio, etc.

A worthwhile read, if only to reiterate that change is the only constant - more so in this day and age.

[Guthrie C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book on strategy with some good frameworks and excellent case studies to chew on. I gave this book 3 stars because there are absolutely no footnotes or references cited although they lean heavily on “research” and external idea throughout the book and a lot of it reads as a lengthy content marketing piece for Accenture. If they only added references (I trust no author), I’d be at 4 stars with hesitation be because of the incessant selling.

[Isha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing style: some chapters offer a compelling writing style (the last two), others could be better. I wasn’t ‘taken’ by the book, especially by its set up, which explains why it took me so long to finish.

Content: as someone who invests in reading up on business books, I like the focus on a ‘wise pivot’ specifically for incumbents in different industries. Incumbents usually don’t seem to know where to start or set up an independent ‘innovation department’ within their company structure. This department usually spins off or operates isolated, not impacting the bigger picture.

There are some key insights here, nothing exotic or things you’ve never heard about, but topics you usually don’t see lined up in this context.

[Rosemary Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about how businesses should prepare for the present and ongoing disruption caused by new technologies. Pivot to the Future is well-written, although it is Accenture-centric. No surprise there, as they author it.

There were great insights gained from stories of business successes and failures - the results of good or not-so-good responses to what they call big bang disruption and compressed disruption.

The "wise pivot" is an especially useful idea - and not just for business success. It's good life advice. The authors want us to extract full value from all that was, all that is, and all that is yet to come. They touch on old styles of leadership no longer being relevant in a maker's world that is constantly scanning for the net big thing, eager to seize the moment. The old corporate culture must be prepared to leave the safe harbor of today in its quest for the future.

The most succinct advice offered in the book: "Look to the future without being beguiled by it." I guess if you are doing this, never taking your eye off the ball, while working hard to release all of the trapped value in your current gig, you are bound to grow in the right direction.

[Anthony Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

With my background in chemical engineering and as a prospective consultant at Accenture, I chose to read this book to give me insight on some strategies that are practiced at the firm. Pivot to the future discusses techniques on how some companies may release trapped value within their organizations by utilizing "pivot" strategies to enhance old, present, or new products/services that are offered. I enjoyed reading about big name companies from different industries and how they approached staying relevant in today's market. I would recommend to other readers who work in the consulting and/or technology related industries.

[Ronald J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors are all from Accenture, which in the early 2010s recognized that professional services and outsourcing would eventually become commoditized. It invested in five up-and-coming digital capabilities with the potential to deliver major value to its clients and high growth for it: interactive, mobile, analytics, cloud, and cybersecurity. By the end of fiscal year 2017, revenues in those five areas had increased to more than 50 percent of Accenture’s total revenues, and by the end of fiscal 2018, above 60 percent. Much of the strategy delineated in this book is not new, such as: “the only solution to continuous and potentially devastating change is constant reinvention, rearchitecting the business in a way that allowed us to pivot from one opportunity to the next, quickly and efficiently.” They do break down this pivot from the old, the now, and the new, and call the approach a wise pivot due to the value creation potential—"a strategic approach that doesn’t fight the tide as much as it surfs waves of disruption.” They do give example of each wave, and companies that failed and succeeded in implementing a wise pivot. I would have liked to read more specificity with respect to Accenture’s own pivot beyond the obvious. Not a disappointing work, but I don’t believe it will have a very long shelf life.

[Max Lapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Книга разбирает рецепты, почему отдельным компаниям удается «переобуться на бегу» и подстроить свою бизнес-модель под новую реальность. Пример — Netflix начинал с рассылки dvd, затем добавил стриминг, а теперь является крупной киностудией. Еще пример — что Apple к линейке компьютеров добавили музыку и айпод, а затем расширились на планшет и смартфон с экосистемой приложений. https://maxlapin.com/2020/07/24/b269/

[Rohith Sreeramulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book... shape your old, now and new of your business. Lot of recommendations and real time examples.

[Stephen Mcgarry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish

[Terng · Rating 3 out of 5]

มี key word ที่น่าจดจำไม่มาก และเนื้อหาเคสที่ยกมายังไม่โดนใจมากเท่าที่ควร แต่ก็ได้ข้อคิดหลาย ๆ อย่าง