Desperate times call for desperate measures and people got creative when it came to ideas for keeping their large and small businesses afloat during the pandemic. Some ideas were more likely short-term publicity plays than long-term business strategies. But it’s amazing what people can come up with when necessary for survival.¹

Short Term Pivots

1. Hot Yoga Igloos. LMNTS (elements) Outdoor Studio was a limited time Hot Yoga and Fitness pop-up event sponsored by 6 partner fitness studios. The $25 per person classes took place in various parks inside private clear geodesic domes heated to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. The Tiny Pub on Wheels. At a time when drinkers weren’t allowed in pubs, Emerson’s Beer chose to take the Tiny Pub on wheels to drinkers across New Zealand. Complete with bartender, bar and two bar stools, The Tiny Pub traveled about 900 miles with stops on its way from Auckland in the north to Dunedin in the south.
3. Food Automats. From Pix-O-Matic in Portland to the Dumpling Shop in Brooklyn, some businesses chose to use contactless automats to sell everything from French pastries to Chinese dumplings.
4. Bumper Tables. Fish Tales in Ocean City Maryland used fun inner tube tables to force social distancing and increase publicity for their restaurant.
5. Boat-in Movies. The Floating Boat Cinema, operated by Australian film and events company Beyond Cinema, offered screenings in several cities across the U.S. to customers who rented one of 12 to 24 boats.
6. Drive-In Concerts. The “Safe and Sound” live concert in the Hamptons last summer was followed by other screened concert events which received some bad press because people didn’t stay inside their cars.

Pivots with Staying Power?
Before the pandemic, business agility had already become essential for ever-changing tech companies. During the pandemic, it became necessary for almost all companies to become agile and pivot as needed. According to Mauro F. Guillen, a professor at The Wharton School, three conditions are necessary to make pivots work for the long term. First, a pivot must be profitable for the foreseeable future, not just in response to a specific event. Second, a pivot must be a complementary extension to existing products, not a competing product. Finally, sustainable pivots must offer ongoing profitability that enhances the existing brand. The following pivots seem to have a good shot at long term viability.²

1. Before Covid, Spotify music platform relied almost entirely on advertising for revenue. At a time when advertisers weren’t spending money, Spotify was able to switch their focus to the licensing of podcasts that they curated to create original content.
2. Shopify was already helping small business owners start and maintain their businesses before the pandemic. However, once restaurants and specialty stores started shutting down it was obvious local farmers and craftsmen needed to find a new distribution chain. Business bundles from Shopify allowed these companies to get their new distribution funnels up and running quickly.
3. Large companies such as Unilever found themselves shifting resources to the production of household cleaners and hygiene products and cutting back on items such as skin care products that weren’t as essential during the era of remote working. Now that workers are going back to the office, they have already begun a pivot back to personal care products.
4. Airbnb allowed some of their hosts to offer online events to customers such as virtual tours, cooking classes, meditation classes, and other topics of interest for a small join fee. They had already been making a transition to becoming a Lifestyle Platform with their “Experiences” product, so this was a natural pivot that worked well with the existing Airbnb branding.
5. Restaurants switched from in-store dining to new offerings such as subscription food services and recipe box meals.
6. In-person dating platforms such as Tinder and Bumble shifted to video online dating.

^{1. https://www.inc.com/joe-bargmann/smart-pivots-innovative-reopening-strategies.html}

^{2. https://hbr.org/2020/07/how-businesses-have-successfully-pivoted-during-the-pandemic}