Goldman Sachs is divesting consumer-facing businesses like Marcus and its credit card to refocus on high-margin corporate advisory. Its stock is at an all-time high, validating a strategy where earning a small percentage (e.g., 0.2%) on multi-billion dollar transactions is far more profitable than serving millions of smaller retail customers.

Before a major business pivot, first identify what can be let go or scaled back. This creates the necessary space and resources for the new direction, preventing overwhelm and ensuring the pivot is an extension of identity, not just another added task on your plate.

Aviva CEO Amanda Blanc believes superior execution of a good strategy is better than a brilliant one with poor follow-through. Her method involves cascading clear objectives to every employee, conducting relentless performance reviews, and embedding customer feedback at the highest levels to ensure actions consistently align with stated goals.

When a business is struggling with multiple revenue streams, the best strategy is to simplify. By cutting underperforming or noisy channels, you can amplify your focus on the one or two profitable areas. This distillation creates the clarity needed to stabilize and eventually rebuild the business.

Corporate leaders are incentivized and wired to pursue growth through acquisition, constantly getting bigger. However, they consistently fail at the strategically crucial, but less glamorous, task of divesting assets at the right time, often holding on until value has significantly eroded.

Contrary to the trend of specialized 'monoline' companies, Aviva's CEO asserts that diversification offers significant capital benefits. It also allows for the efficient scaling of major investments, like generative AI, across numerous product lines—a strategy that has proven more resilient and successful over the last five years.

Eliminating a popular and profitable product line can be a wise long-term strategy. If a product, even a bestseller, creates brand confusion or pulls focus from your core vision, cutting it can strengthen your primary brand's identity and lead to more dedicated growth.

Numi launched a line of silk blouses that developed its own cult following. However, it created a second, competing brand identity and diverted focus. They phased it out to double down on their core competency—women's undershirts—where they were the undisputed market leader.

While culturally challenging, leading Aviva's turnaround during COVID proved beneficial for execution. The remote setup was a 'blessing' that eliminated travel and streamlined meetings, enabling leadership to focus intensely and accelerate major decisions, such as divesting multiple businesses, far more quickly than would have been possible otherwise.