3 Signs You've Become a Disrupter in Your Industry

The business world loves disrupters. Those who upend the status quo and offer truly noteworthy innovation -- from Ford to Netflix -- often end up in the history books, serving as case studies for other would-be entrepreneurs. Of course, while everyone would like to disrupt their industry, true disruption isn't always easy to come by. Fortunately, resilient, forward-thinking organizations are less likely to be disrupted by technological and other changes. However, true disruption occurs when your business changes the established rules or norms of the industry, doing things differently in a way that improves operational efficiency or creates more value for your customers. And quite often, there are tell-tale signs your efforts have proved successful. 1. The market is responding to your way of doing things. How your target market responds to your disruptive efforts is one of the earliest (and most obvious) indicators as to whether you are truly disrupting your niche. When you provide real value to your target audience, they will respond by making your brand a priority. For example, as a USA Today analysis of photonics and spectroscopy manufacturer tec5USA notes, the company's focus on tailoring custom solutions based on the needs of individual customers has played a pivotal role in its efforts to expand its contract manufacturing services into new sectors. By building off its pre-existing photonics and optics alignment expertise, the company has been able to disrupt its niche by expanding its manufacturing capabilities to include medical devices like laboratory analyzers and pharmaceutical production devices. Such efforts have been a success thanks to the market's need for lower overhead costs and margin increases during a volatile economic landscape, leading to significant growth for the company. As another example, the success of Ford's disruptive automobile manufacturing processes resulted in over half of the world's registered automobiles in the 1920s being a Ford. Deliver what your niche wants, and user behaviors (particularly their spending habits) will adapt to accommodate your disruptive efforts. 2. Others are attempting to copy your disruptive efforts. One of the most obvious indicators that you are successfully disrupting your industry is when other businesses attempt to imitate what you're doing. After Netflix dominated the video streaming industry for years after introducing its streaming service in 2007, it now seems like just about every entertainment brand has its own streaming service, with an estimated 2,286 services available in the U.S. alone. You don't have to introduce an entirely new business model to start seeing copycat efforts from your competitors. Any business practices that you implement that help you operate more efficiently or better meet the needs of your target audience will likely be adopted by others. While this imitation is certainly flattering, it's also an indicator that you need to stay vigilant and flexible in this new landscape. Successful disrupters who become too complacent ultimately risk being disrupted themselves. 3. Your business is scaling successfully. Industry disruptions aren't always as dramatic as the ones that make the history books. But when you're doing things differently from the norm, it can also be helpful to look at the context of your business's ability to scale. In other words, your disruptive efforts should enable your company to expand its operations in a manner that helps you stay profitable and continue to deliver value to your customers. Successful disruptive businesses will be more likely to attract and retain top talent who contributes to the culture of innovation and constant improvement that you need to cultivate. They also fine-tune their systems and processes so that expansion occurs in a controlled manner that helps them maintain efficiency. These businesses grow at a pace and in a manner that allows them to deliver the same level of quality to their customers, even as the scale of their operation grows. While some challenges are inevitable with growth, truly disrupting an industry means you'll continue to find success as your operations expand. Find success as a disrupter. Disruption doesn't always have to be directly customer-facing to have a meaningful impact on the market (though it often is). Even when you're reworking your internal processes, successful disruptive efforts can have a significant impact on your ability to deliver true value to your customers. As you strive to continuously innovate and improve, the tell-tale signs of disruptive success are sure to follow. Expert Opinion By Heather Wilde, CTO, theDifference @heathriel