BUSINESS SURVIVAL

How Small Adjustments In Your Business Strategy Will Keep You In The Game

You don’t need major pivots to see results

Jill Ebstein
The Startup
Published in
5 min readApr 3, 2022

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Photo by William Warby on Unsplash

Our disheartening news cycle has turned me into an escapist who thrives on NCAA Men’s Basketball’s March Madness. There are so many good stories to follow, so many coaches that lead in different ways, and so many young athletes that are fully invested.

But I had an interesting take-away in a recent game that had nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with business. The tenth-seeded Miami Hurricanes were taking on one-seeded Kansas Jayhawks, and as one would expect, Miami was a huge underdog. At half-time, though, Miami was leading by 6 points, which made me, a fan of all underdogs, quite happy.

Not so fast, though, because the second half told another story. Kansas, a solid and perennial contender, used its experience to make some small adjustments. After half-time, the Jayhawks came out raging, going on a 14-to-5 run, and they never looked back. Final score: 76–50.

Their small adjustments related to doing the basics better: defense, rebounding, picking up the game tempo, and deploying their biggest players — nothing fancy or even highly strategic, but solid game-changers.

And so I thought, “Small adjustments are key to everything,” but as is usually the case, my mind drifted to business — my business.

Small adjustments versus pivots

Small adjustments are different than pivots. Pivots are typically dramatic and set you off in a different direction. Adjustments are small, incremental, not seeming particularly impactful, and yet they are.

Here are some examples of pivots that were large and critical during the time of Covid:

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Jill Ebstein
The Startup

I’m about dogs, our lovable and peculiar families, business, and writing in a wide lane, including fiction. I’m a positivity washer too. www.jillebstein.com