What Does it Mean to be a Business Disruptor?

Think of the word ‘disruptive’. What does it bring to mind? Perhaps a request from a manager or a client that interferes with your schedule for the day. Or your phone ringing at an inconvenient moment. Perhaps even a difficult student causing trouble in your classroom.

In day-to-day life, the concept of disruption often has negative connotations. In business, however, disruption tends to be encouraged, lauded and actively desired. This is because some of the greatest success stories in business are also stories of disruptive businesses. Disruptors are businesses that shake up their markets – and, in some cases, create entirely new markets – by developing new products, embracing unconventional strategies and doing things that have never been done before.

So, what are the qualities that make a disruptor? Here are four that stand out:

1. They have a bold idea

Who would have thought that a style of shoes so unattractive that even their own inventors considered them ugly would end up becoming an iconic global fashion brand? Well, that’s what happened with Crocs. Originally intended as a boating shoe, the casual footwear brand was named after crocodiles on the premise that both were comfortable on land and in the water, strong and long-living.

They might not have been pretty, but thanks to their sheer practicality, Crocs were an instant hit. They generated $1.2 million in sales during their first full year on the market and were soon selling internationally. What’s more, the shoes’ quirky appearance proved to be marketing gold and the brand capitalized on it in an advertising campaign that used the strapline ‘Ugly Can Be Beautiful’. Crocs have been described as the footwear that ‘everyone loves to hate’.

The moulded-foam resin design of Crocs has proved to be the perfect blank canvas for the reinvention of modern footwear. Today there’s a style for almost every occasion, from clogs, slippers and sandals through to boots and trainers. In October 2023, the brand even launched the Crocs Classic Cowboy Boot, complete with spurs. Famous designers and celebrities have also experimented with Crocs, putting their own distinctive stamp on the shoes. This has enabled the brand to keep reinventing its bold idea again and again over time.

2. They execute a concept well

There’s a myth in business that the first entrant to a market tends to be the most successful. Certainly, early entry is an advantage, but it’s not usually necessary to be first. What matters is executing the concept better than anyone else.

Home-sharing platform, Airbnb is a great example of this principle. It wasn’t the first website in the US to offer short-term property rentals, but it managed to swiftly overtake its competitors by developing a better product and a more distinctive brand. Airbnb has focused on providing a user-friendly online experience and applying sophisticated algorithms to help guests locate the best accommodation to suit their needs. Furthermore, it has grounded its brand in the concept of community: a community of warm-hearted hosts and guests who live all around the world.

By offering high-quality, personalized experiences to guests, and enabling hosts to monetize their space, Airbnb has successfully disrupted the hospitality industry. It prioritizes trust, safety and positive human encounters, with confidence in the platform underpinned by the two-way review system. Airbnb has also invested heavily in educating hosts and will reimburse them if their property or belongings are damaged by guests. As proof of how well the concept has been executed, the platform now has more than 7 million listings and more than 5  million hosts while over 1.5 billion guests have used Airbnb.

3. They take an innovative approach to marketing

Great marketing can make all the difference to whether a business soars into the stratosphere or struggles to get off the ground. Entertainment company, A24 is best known as the studio behind arthouse hit Everything Everywhere All at Once, which dominated the 2023 Academy Awards. However, it also stands out for its innovative approach to marketing.

In 2015, A24 set up an account on the dating app Tinder for Ava, the lead female character in its science fiction thriller, Ex Machina. The aim was to encourage attendees at a Texan music and film festival to go and see the movie. Thanks to a chatbot, Tinder users who matched with Ava on the app were able to converse with her using text messages and she directed people to an Instagram page that promoted the film. This stroke of marketing genius generated a lot of excitement about the movie and secured free headlines for the A24 brand.

A24 has pioneered other marketing approaches to raise awareness of both its brand and its movies. One approach is sending gifts to bloggers, journalists and fans. For example, a gift set to promote the 2017 movie Ladybird contained stickers and buttons.

4. They solve big problems

Climate change is arguably the biggest problem facing the world today and many disruptive businesses are operating in the sustainability space. Plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat is a good example, since it is helping to combat climate change by specifically addressing meat consumption. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, livestock are responsible for 14.5% of all human-produced greenhouse gas emissions.

What’s more, climate change is not the only problem that Beyond Meat is addressing. Livestock farming can be blamed for a long list of other environmental ills, including land and water degradation, biodiversity loss and deforestation. In addition, there are strong animal welfare arguments for cutting back on meat.

By developing nutritious and delicious alternative meat products, Beyond Meat tries to encourage consumers to eat more, not less, of the kinds of traditional dishes they enjoy – such as beef burgers and spaghetti bolognese. The only difference is they’re opting for plant-based protein versions of these foods instead of farmed animal meat. As a result, Beyond Meat is simultaneously helping to feed the world’s expanding population while reducing the environmental impact of demographic growth.

The secret sauce of disruptive businesses

In addition to these four key qualities of disruptors, there are others. Technology tends to be a powerful enabler of disruptors and disruptive businesses are effective at using data in sophisticated ways to drive sales and personalize their services to customers.

Disruptors are also often the beneficiaries of timing. For example, the popularity of TikTok was galvanized by the Covid-19 pandemic, when people were stuck at home, bored and looking for entertainment.

But while disruptive businesses typically share many similarities, the business model of no two disruptors is ever the same. Each will have its own unique ideas, products, mission and strategy – essentially the ‘secret sauce’ that underpins its success.