What does 'pivot' mean in business?

What it means: A significant change in a company's direction, product, or strategy — often in response to evidence that the current approach isn't working.

"The startup pivoted from B2C to B2B after six months."
"We've decided to pivot our entire product strategy."

Where it comes from: Startup culture and the Lean Startup methodology. Eric Ries popularised it around 2011. The basketball term — pivoting on one foot while keeping the other planted — inspired the metaphor: you change direction while keeping some elements of what you have.

What it implies: Not random change — a deliberate, strategic shift based on feedback or data. A pivot keeps what works while changing what doesn't.

Overuse: Like many startup terms, "pivot" spread widely and lost precision. People now use it for any strategic change, however small.

Register: Business and startup contexts. Sounds natural in tech and entrepreneurial settings; slightly buzzwordy elsewhere.

Tags: business English, startups, strategy, jargon