Why disruptive businesses are maverick businesses. The world’s most successful businesses are typically disruptive businesses. They have transformed their markets by developing game-changing products and services. To achieve their objectives, they have also usually taken huge risks – risks that have paid off handsomely.
Of course, success in business is about more than just calculated risk taking. It’s about having a vision, spotting an opportunity in the market, being prepared to take brave decisions, bringing people on the journey and – in many cases – having a healthy dose of good luck. There’s also something to be said for being in the right place, at the right time.
For my book, The Disruptors: How 15 Successful Businesses Defied the Norm, I studied 15 of the most disruptive and ground-breaking businesses of our time, from film company A24 through to social media platform TikTok. These businesses certainly display the success factors I describe above, but there is another quality that is a common thread among them. They could be described as maverick – in other words, ‘wilfully independent’ as defined by The Maverick Paradox founder Judith Germain.
Stand out from the crowd
A good example of a maverick is casual footwear brand Crocs. When the foam-based shoes were first launched, even their own inventors thought they were ugly. But, fortunately, these inventors were also wilfully independent enough to believe that because of their sheer practicality, consumers would still buy the shoes. It turned out they were right. The loose, comfortable fit of the shoes made them an instant hit with consumers who also liked the fact they could be easily cleaned. What’s more, the shoes’ quirky appearance didn’t have to be seen as a disadvantage – it could be an advantage when exploited in the right way. Indeed, the brand used Crocs’ apparent ugliness as a hook in an advertising campaign that featured the strapline ‘Ugly Can Be Beautiful’.
A24 is best known as the film studio behind Academy Award-winning arthouse hit Everything Everywhere All at Once[LM1] . Its movies stand out for their creative risk-taking and may be perceived by some as offbeat, quirky or even weird. It is not only in its movie-making approach that the studio is maverick, however. It is also maverick in its marketing strategy. It forgoes traditional marketing channels, such as billboard adverts, and instead embraces cheaper forms of marketing, such as viral marketing and word of mouth. In 2015, it even set up an account on the dating app Tinder for Ava, the lead female character in its science fiction thriller, Ex Machina[LM2] . This was to encourage attendees at a Texan music and film festival to go and see the movie.
Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is a famously maverick leader. It’s therefore no surprise that his business, electric car maker Tesla, is also maverick in its approach. Unlike other car manufacturers, which typically rely on a chain of suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, Tesla makes the key components for its cars, including batteries. This strategy enables Tesla to effectively manage its production process, reduce its dependency on external suppliers, lower its costs, and respond rapidly to changes in the market. At the same time, rivals are prevented from copying its approach. As part of its maverick strategy, Tesla reputedly avoids heavy investment in marketing, with Musk effectively acting as the company’s chief marketer. Also, it sells directly to consumers rather than through dealerships – the sales model favoured by other auto brands. Just to reinforce its maverick image, Tesla is not only pushing boundaries through the vehicles it builds. It has also developed its own humanoid robot known as Optimus.
What makes a disruptor?
Disruptive businesses don’t get ahead by doing the same as everyone else. On the contrary, they differentiate themselves by adopting bold strategies and challenging the status quo. They will often do what other businesses don’t dare to do. For that reason, a disruptive business is also likely to be a maverick business. Wilfully independent? Yes, and proudly so.
