Episode 2241: Gary Shapiro on how to become a Pivot Guy
Gary Shapiro is my Pivot Guy. As the longtime CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, the organization that puts on Las Vegas’ annual CES, Gary knows a thing or two about pivoting. And now he’s put his pivoting wisdom into a pivotal new book, Pivot or Die: How Leaders Thrive When Everything Changes, a guide about how to pivot successfully. As Gary explained to me, he breaks pivoting down into four kinds of pivots: the startup pivot, the forced pivot, the failure pivot and the success pivot. A pivotal conversation about a pivotally important subject.
Gary Shapiro is CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® which represents over 1300 consumer technology companies and owns and produces CES® — the Global Stage for Innovation. As head of CTA for more than three decades, he has ushered the consumer technology industry through major periods of technological upheaval and transformation. Shapiro is also the New York Times bestselling author of Ninja Future: Secrets to Success in the New World of Innovation (HarperCollins, 2019), Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses (HarperCollins, 2013), and The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream (Beaufort, 2011). Through these books and through television appearances, and as a columnist whose more than 1200 opinion pieces have appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post, Shapiro has helped direct policymakers and business leaders on the importance of innovation in the U.S. economy.
Named as one of the "100 most pivoted men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's most pivotal broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the pivotal author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two cats, both called Pivot.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Dan Fesperman: On the Merging of Fact and Fiction in a Berlin Haunted By Its Grey History of Secrecy and Lies
Camper English: On the Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails
Howard Wolk: Why America's Greatest Strength Is Its Entrepreneurial Edge and How This Might Even Fix the Crisis of the Environment, Inequality, and Healthcare
Christie Hunter Arscott: On Begin Boldly and How Courage Will Enable a Woman to Launch a Brilliant Career
Jeff Lerner: Should We Celebrate Or Be Suspicious of Self-Help Books Promise to Unlock Our "Dream Life"?
Gerd Gigerenzer: What Machines Can't Learn and Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms
David Victor Has Good News on the Climate Front: Why Things Aren't Quite as Apocalyptic as Some Believe
Stefan Dercon on Africa As Las Vegas: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose in Gambling on Development
Touraj Parang: Can Tech Entrepreneurs Win the Start-Up Game Without Selling Out Morally?
Aggie Blum Thompson: Why It's So Much Easier to Write Good Fiction About Violence Than About Sex
Pablos Holman, A Message From a Deep Futurist: We Need Humans to Fix Things
Darrell M. West; How Seriously Should We Take the Paranoia Amongst Our Educated Elite About the Crisis of America?
Simran Jeet Singh: What the Sikh Religion Can Teach Us About Disrupting Bias, Building Empathy, and Seeking Wisdom