We live in a buyer’s economy. Trying to sell in this marketplace is a sure-fire way to lose money, credibility, market-share and, importantly, your disruptive edge.

On 11th February 2016, an announcement in the scientific press caused a major stir in the technical and academic physics community. Gravity waves had been detected. First predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915, these enigmatic waves are the result of the coalescing of two massive black holes, distorting the very fabric of space-time. There was a helluva of a lot of excitement for something that you can’t feel or see, but profoundly disrupts our understanding of the nature of the universe as we perceive it today. Interesting? Sure, but it’s as old as the universe and life goes on unchanged for the most part.

In the business community, we have experienced a similar set of invisible waves that have caused just as much excitement and disruption. These disruptive waves have consisted of business model changes, process changes, innovative and novel applications of technology and, most importantly, massive user adoption that has swamped and mystified the traditional provider in the affected space.

One invisible wave is the evolution of the ability of consumers to prepare their own products and services’ procurement lists, without ever divulging their identity to the producer. This has fundamentally changed the nature of business world-wide.

For example, there are more new buyer-centric applications being published in the ‘new economy’ marketplaces than ever before. Disruptive entrants like AirBnB and Uber which were new, bright and shiny a mere six months ago are now members of mainline business practices where ‘old economy’ businesses are treating them like long-time members. Both now have specific insurance offerings from century old players to protect the rented accommodation assets, and the vehicle drivers from the loss due to the buyers who use them.

But is this a transitive phase in an economy that is adjusting to new models and methods of performing financial exchanges or a fundamental side-step in the economic dance between producer and consumer? If it is a fundamental shift, how will businesses cater for the next seismic change when it arrives? How does a disruptive business stay disruptive?

One mechanism is to provide complementary services. For example, Uber has now begun offering services and capabilities that have nothing to do with the ability to catch a ride from point A to point B. Their new ‘Amber Alert’ capability is designed to tap into the nascent capacity for all of their drivers to assist in finding and reporting missing children. This is a social contract that leverages the services that the business provides for no direct monetary gain. However in the eyes of the buyer of Uber’s services, this is directly attributed to the company itself. They have fundamentally shifted the perception of the buyer by providing a service that the buyer will (hopefully) never need.

At DB Results, we have been both participating and leading in the introduction of disruptive waves of technology and capability for several of our clients across multiple industries. Whether that disruption be associated with pro-active and predictive electrical grid demand management, real-time life-experience and superannuation planning services for financial peace of mind, to micro-insurance facilities for home, car and business owners, we have been partnering with our customers to help them surf the disruptive wave.

So when your organisation is ready to buy, come talk to us.