startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. - Eric Ries

A cultura é memória muscular institucional, que não se baseia em como a organização aspira a atuar, mas em como realmente atuou no passado.

A famous example is the chain Potbelly Sandwich Shop, which today has over two hundred stores. It began as an antique store in 1977; the owners started to sell sandwiches as a way to bolster traffic to their stores. Pretty soon they had pivoted their way into an entirely different line of business.

Companies that cannot bring themselves to pivot to a new direction on the basis of feedback from the marketplace can get stuck in the land of the living dead, neither growing enough nor dying, consuming resources and commitment from employees and other stakeholders but not moving ahead.