There’s been a big change in the way companies tell their origin stories. The old emphasis was on heroic narratives, in which the idea for the company burst upon the founders fully formed, the market responded immediately, and the product began its inevitable ascent to market domination. But that story was never very helpful to students of business strategy, since it papered over the change, learning, and “good mistakes” that occur inside all successful companies. On top of that, the heroic arc just isn’t an accurate representation of the way things usually happen. Look at PayPal, which started out as a secure mobile payment system for Palm Pilots; Flickr, which started out as a massively multiplayer online game; Twitter, which grew out of a failed podcasting platform; or Groupon, which started out as a community organizing tool (and maybe should have stayed one).
To read the original article: The Power of the Pivot: A Primer | Xconomy
