Op ed: the ricotta principle

Walk into any Italian kitchen and you’ll find ricotta cheese. The same ingredient transforms into a dessert cannoli when sweetened with sugar and chocolate chips, or becomes a savory calzone filling when combined with mozzarella and spinach. The ricotta doesn’t change—only its application does. Your business operates on the same principle.

You possess skills, experience, and capabilities. That’s your ricotta. But are you applying them in ways that create what people actually need? Or are you making cannoli when your market is hungry for calzone?

Core ingredient confusion

Most entrepreneurs and small business owners focus on refining their core offering. They perfect their product, enhance their service delivery, and invest in quality improvements. This matters, certainly—but it addresses only half the equation. A restaurant can source the finest ricotta available, but if they’re serving sweet cannoli to lunch crowds seeking savory meals, quality alone won’t drive success.

Your skills represent inherent value. Your experience matters. Your expertise is real. Yet none of this guarantees you’re creating your most impactful offering. Impact isn’t measured by what you can do—it’s measured by how effectively what you do addresses genuine needs in your market.

How to recognize the mismatch

The toughest business pivot isn’t changing your core competency—it’s recognizing when your current application of that competency misses the mark. A graphic designer skilled in print media possesses valuable expertise, but applying those skills exclusively to magazine layouts in a digital-first world creates diminishing returns. The design skills remain valuable; the application requires evolution.

Consider how you currently package and present your offering. Does it align with what your customers actively seek? Or does it reflect what you prefer to deliver, what you’ve always delivered, or what feels comfortable? These are different questions with different answers, and confusing them costs businesses their competitive edge.

Apply strategically

Creating your most impactful dish requires honest market assessment. What problems keep your potential customers awake at night? What solutions do they actively search for? Where do their expressed needs intersect with your capabilities?

This doesn’t mean abandoning your expertise or compromising your standards. It means recognizing that the same foundational skills can serve multiple applications—and some applications deliver dramatically more value than others. A consultant specializing in organizational efficiency possesses transferable skills applicable to operational streamlining, team productivity, or workflow automation. Each application uses the same ricotta, but creates different dishes for different appetites.

How to pivote

Pivoting isn’t about becoming someone you’re not. It’s about finding the optimal application of who you already are. Your ricotta doesn’t need replacing—it needs strategic deployment.

Start by listening more than promoting. What language do your best clients use when describing their challenges? What outcomes do they celebrate? What frustrations do they express? These insights reveal whether you’re making the dish they need.

Next, examine your service delivery through their lens rather than yours. You might love crafting comprehensive strategic plans, but if your clients need rapid tactical solutions, your most impactful dish isn’t the one you prefer making—it’s the one that addresses their immediate hunger.

The question of impact

Success isn’t about having the best ricotta. It’s about applying your ricotta where it creates the most value. Your most impactful dish emerges when your capabilities align precisely with market needs—when what you do best serves what they need most.

So ask yourself: Are you making cannoli or calzone? And more importantly, which one does your market actually want?