--- title: Are you prepared to pivot your business dramatically? url: https://www.grahamjones.co.uk/2026/blog/web-business/are-you-prepared-to-pivot-your-business-dramatically.html date: 2026-11-07T09:00:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-06T14:42:21+00:00 lang: en_GB --- # Are you prepared to pivot your business dramatically? ![Business Pivot Concept](https://www.grahamjones.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Business-Pivot-Canva-AI.png) This week I spent a fascinating evening learning about industry in nearby Reading during the Victorian era. I had been invited to attend the local history group, where an Oxford academic, [Dr Richard Marks](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-marks-091648220/), gave a robust defence of Reading as an industrial town. You might not have thought that from the description of the town on the [Reading Borough Council](https://www.reading.gov.uk/about-reading/profile-of-reading/) website. It describes Reading as “a compact service economy which specialises in business and insurance services, and has some of the finest high-tech business parks in the South East”. That’s an entirely different image compared with the insights provided in the talk I attended. Indeed, I’d hazard a guess that, like me, you had no idea that Reading was once the home to over 50 shoe factories. It was also a centre for chalk mining, with several mines lurking beneath the surface. In fact, one of those local mines is used today by a Berkshire [wine company](https://www.miltonsandfordwines.com/the-old-chalk-mine) to keep its products at the right temperature. Nowadays, though, there isn’t a single shoe factory based in Reading. They all disappeared in the Victorian era. The reason was that following the opening up of the canal and rail networks north of Reading, it was straightforward for traders to get to Northampton, which is still regarded as the centre of shoemaking in the UK. Cheaper transport let Northampton’s bigger, cheaper factories sell into Reading’s markets. The Reading-based factories failed to respond to this change and so, inevitably, lost business and their companies collapsed. Which will probably remind you of companies like Blockbuster, which did not face up to digital change and ultimately died as a result. The world changes and if you do not respond to that change your business will almost certainly disappear. ## Change, or just a fad? In the world of education, there is a widespread debate about how universities ought to respond to AI and the fact that students can learn at home online. I’ve been to meetings where people have said “we need to change” and others who disagree saying “it’s only a fad”. I expect the Reading shoemakers thought the canals were just a fad. [Professor Dorina Buda](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorinabuda/) summed up the education debate in a [recent post](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7523309778681356289/) about universities. In it, she said that “Change does not kill universities. Refusal to adapt does”. That could have been said about High Street video stores that collapsed, or Victorian shoe factories in Reading. What we do not want is for the same to be said about our businesses. It’s no good getting to this time next year to discover your business has collapsed because you did not change. To be fair to the “it’s a fad” camp, they have a point. Not every change sticks. When Facebook renamed itself Meta and bet heavily on the metaverse, its Reality Labs division went on to lose tens of billions of dollars. Pivoting too early, or towards the wrong thing, can be as damaging as not changing at all. That is why the decision needs to rest on evidence rather than enthusiasm or fear. There are two questions that we need to answer if the discomfort of change is to be reduced. The first question is, “when do I have to change?” The second is, “what do I have to change to?” ## When should you change? Deciding when to change needs data. Tracking what is going on in our particular markets can help us see early warning signals about potential difficulties. Equally, talking to our customers is essential. I wouldn’t mind betting that those Reading shoe factory owners didn’t have much of a discussion about the canal system with their clients. These days, businesses appear to have fewer simple “ear to the ground” conversations with customers. Going out and meeting your customers is fundamental to gathering “intel” on the market which could help you decide whether you need to remodel your business in some way. ## What should you pivot to? The next question about what you should pivot to can be more daunting. If you are a computer coding company, what are you going to do now that AI is increasingly capable of writing complex code? Or what if you are in the risk management business, and you are facing the increased automation of risk analysis? What can you do? One way to find out is to look at where people will be spending their money in the future. Each sector has trends published regularly that can give you clues. For example, if you are in the consumer sector, the [Consumer Outlook: Guide to 2027](https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/report/2026/consumer-outlook-guide-to-2027/) produced by the market research firm NIQ shows that spending on “out of home” activities, such as eating out or entertainment, could be cut back significantly in the year ahead. However, the report strongly suggests that people are planning to spend more money on education, groceries, and healthcare. Looking at data like this, if you were a restaurant, you might think it will be a bad year in 2027. But you could pivot your business into one focused on education. Books, online courses, lessons from your chefs and other educational activities could save your business, for example. Similarly, if you are in a computer coding or risk management, considering how you could change your business into something that is more educationally focused might be worthwhile. The world is undergoing rapid change and unless our businesses respond we’ll be like a Victorian shoe factory, consigned merely to history. If you don’t want that, it is time to focus on answering those questions on what to change and when. So this week, you could do two things. Book conversations with three of your customers and ask what is changing in their world. Then find the latest trend report for your sector and look at where the money is moving. Together, those tell you when to change and what to pivot towards. The Reading shoemakers had neither. You have both.