Why don’t they just pivot?

I’m referring to oil companies, car companies making internal combustion engines, and other industries facing paradigm shifts.

Oil companies can pivot to clean energy companies.

Internal combustion engines can start making electric motors.

Except, here’s the thing, they can’t.

They are too big. They would need to let nearly everyone go and hire entirely new skillsets. Along with that, these aren’t small companies led by pioneers. They are large, well-established companies led by glorified accountants. They have no idea who would need to be put in place, what systems would need to be rebuilt from scratch, and how an entire workforce could be retrained. These industries are entrenched. That’s why rather than pivoting, they would rather destroy technologies that may be successful to society.

At the end of the day, the CEO has a fiduciary duty to protect shareholder value. If they can’t produce new technologies, and they can’t pivot, the last ammunition is to destroy the others.

As a kid, I always wondered why can’t these companies see the opportunities?

After getting a peak behind the curtain at hundreds of different companies, I finally understand why.

So what’s that mean for you?

It means that if you have that big idea, it’s imperative to act on it. The big companies aren’t going to. Only you can do it, no matter how beyond your comfort zone the size of the idea is.