When disruptor brands succeed, it’s by fundamentally reshaping or redefining a business model or market segment. And while there are plenty of success stories — from Amazon and Netflix to Uber and Airbnb — there are almost 10 times as many tales of failure. And that’s because more often than not, hyper-fast growth brands end up disrupting themselves before they have a chance to disrupt their competition.
Hyper-growth startups subscribe to the “move fast and break things” business philosophy. Speed of movement, thought or action is associated with intelligence and quick thinking (and therefore, being a strategic advantage). For that philosophy to succeed, moving at a comparatively glacial pace — a business approach typically associated with incumbent brands weighed down by legacy systems or a corporate culture steeped in tradition has to be positioned as the path to failure, or at least obsolescence.
But nothing in business, other than the technology underpinning it, is binary. Acting in a reflective and methodical manner can be equally beneficial and is often the preserve of those brands able to draw on decades and, in some cases centuries, of accumulated experience and wisdom in moments where the environment becomes disruptive.
Five common disruptor missteps
And this is the point because strength and weakness are essentially two sides of the same coin. Disruptors’ speed and agility can lead to any number of critical missteps that could ultimately undermine long-term sustainability.
1. Overextending resources
Moving too quickly will test the elasticity of financial and human resources and in the pursuit of growth or critical mass over all other metrics, disruptive brands can burn through cash or drive employees to burn out much faster than they can achieve their expansion objectives.
2. Failure to build scalable systems
Agility and scalability are not the same thing. Without the ability to scale up systems and support operations, there will be insufficient infrastructure to support customer growth and insufficient quality or consistency in products or services to maintain customer loyalty.
3. Poor talent management
Headcounts need to scale in line with growth and while people queue up to join fast-growth startups on the ground floor, those same companies will find it hard to hold on to existing talent or attract new hires if systems aren’t in order, there is insufficient cashflow or the firm has earned a reputation for pushing its people too hard. Likewise, at a company where every aspect is growing and changing simultaneously, there are no clear career paths and company culture will still be in its embryotic stage, which can be a distinct disadvantage when competing in the job market with other established organizations in the same sector.
4. Missing market feedback
Innovation needs to be backed up by iteration and that’s only possible with a close, reciprocal relationship with customers. Often an inability to capture the voice of the existing customer and a tendency to place too much value on an ability to decode the needs of potential new customers can result in products or services that fail to fully hit the mark, or require a level of ongoing support a disruptor is ill-equipped to deliver properly.
5. Insufficient data management
As a disruptive business grows, so does the amount of data at its disposal. However, just as with other systems, fast-growth startups can struggle to keep on top of its collection and analysis which can result in the organization falling one step behind its customers rather than staying ahead of their needs, expectations and the influence of other external market forces. The ability to leverage structured and unstructured data is key to strategic decision-making and continued product or service innovation and for aligning goods and services with a bigger and more diverse customer base.
Missing the point of partnerships
But perhaps the biggest mistake disruptive brands make is failing to recognize the value and strategic advantage of forming business partnerships. Because with the right partner, all of the other common mistakes that disruptors make can be easily avoided.
As well as moving fast and breaking things, there can be a tendency among hyper-growth startups — especially those within the tech sector — to want to maintain total control of all aspects of execution and operation. This is partly due to fear of diluting the idea and ceding oversight but it’s also down to the perception that if an organization is large and well-established, it doesn’t have the mindset or agility to genuinely work as a strategic partner – or at least a partner that can keep pace.
Common disruptor denominators
And yet, being able to tap into the depth of experience and understanding within many of these comparatively slow-moving organizations is often vital to a disruptor’s sustained success.
If we return to the topic of successful disruptors, what they all have in common is that they realized, quickly, that there is not simply a business benefit, but a true competitive advantage in partnerships, especially when it comes to customer experience.
Resource management
Working with the right outsourcer can significantly improve a disruptor’s financial planning and resource allocation abilities. Bringing costs under control will help reduce burn rates.
Scalability
Again, rather than having to make heavy, ongoing investments in infrastructure to ensure scalability and provide bandwidth for growth, working with an outsourcer provides direct access to the tools and systems needed to ensure smooth operations irrespective of growth ambitions.
Access to talent
By ceding control of non-core operations to an organization for which those operations are its prime expertise, disruptors can immediately reduce some of the burden on their existing workforce. This enables employees to focus on high-value and engaging tasks. At the same time, thanks to optimized training and large-scale recruitment capabilities, the right BPO partner can easily maintain or ramp up staffing levels to continue meeting customer needs.
Feedback
Working with an outsourcer provides immediate access to best practice approaches for capturing and operationalizing customer feedback whether in the form of voice of the customer programs, direct customer service metrics or the ability to analyze data and insights across the major social media platforms.
Data management and insights
The right BPO can instigate robust data collection and analytics capabilities from day one of any engagement that will enable your brand to capture the qualitative insights hidden within every customer engagement. As well as being able to continuously fine-tune CX delivery to increase rates of satisfaction and ultimately customer loyalty, these insights can have a direct bearing on marketing campaigns and the design and development of future products and services.
Likewise, BPOs’ ability to translate insights into benchmarks also ensures that you can gauge performance against that of direct competitors and the wider industry or market sector to ensure you maintain a competitive advantage.
But, of course, the ultimate benefit of forging a business partnership with CX delivery experts is that it guarantees customer experience is never neglected or treated as an afterthought. As well as working with outsourcers to meet strategic needs, all disruptive brands that truly redefine the market have done so by ensuring they remain customer-centric. Afterall, nothing brings burn rate under control faster than building and retaining your customer base.
The growth strategy disruptive brands can’t afford to overlook
Strategic outsourcing aligns with disruptive brands’ ambitious growth paths, enhancing operations without compromising customer experience. For startups navigating swift expansion, outsourcing offers the infrastructure, expertise and agility necessary to maintain momentum while refining CX strategies.
By integrating outsourcing into their business strategy, disruptive brands can effectively navigate rapid growth complexities, ensuring customer-centricity, operational efficiency and innovative foresight. This strategic alignment not only mitigates immediate risks but also positions brands for long-term success and sustainable growth. To learn more about how working with a CX delivery partner can help you unleash your full disruptive potential, read our best practice guide.