tmgroup: What truly defines an industry disrupter?

In an ever-changing property world, industry disrupters come in many shapes and sizes, but what defines a true industry disrupter?

Ahead of tm:tv’s ‘Top 5: Positive property industry disrupters’ session on 20^th September – brought to the market by tmgroup, Conveyancing Data Services (CDS) and mio – the panel share their thoughts on what industry disruption and an industry disruoter means to them:

Actively solving problems:

“Every successful business has an edge that sets them apart from the competition, whether it be superior design, better technology, or a more refined customer experience.

“Success comes from identifying who is your target market and then reaching out to them. To start, a disrupter will think outside of the box to come up with new and innovative ideas. But the good ones will be the ones that solve actual problems – rather than just creating something new.

“One way to differentiate yourself is to go into a new industry and find a hole in the market. This means finding a niche where something is missing, and getting in there before anyone else! Being the least worst has made many people billionaires!”

With thanks to Simon Whale, Founder of Kerfuffle

Rising above the competition:

“One of my favourite things about setting up Atom bank was having the time and headspace to completely reimagine what the customer journey could be.

“When I’d thought about disruption previously, it was usually as an external threat. The expectation that someone was going to come into our market or product space with something bigger/faster/cheaper/better or that we’d have to respond to a regulatory or market change.

“So, creating the UK’s first digital bank and truly disrupting a whole industry felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Removing the constraints of existing systems and the shackles of deeply embedded processes was liberating and working collaboratively helped us build something that was genuinely obsessed with customer experience.”

Looking at your business differently – with imagination, courage and a different mindset:

“Anyone in our industry can choose to be disruptors. You don’t need to wait for an external threat or for outside forces to react to, but you do need to look at your business differently.

What if you didn’t have that system, process, target operating model or other constraint? If you could design the perfect experience for your customers and your staff, what would that look and feel like?

“It takes imagination, courage, and a very different mindset to be disruptive and it takes exceptional execution to do it well.”

With thanks to Maria Harris, Director of Digital Cat Consultancy Ltd.

Unseen threats – such as a pandemic:

“What has truly shaken up conveyancing are unseen matters and threats, such as a pandemic which through necessity brought the conveyancing industry much further forward in a matter of months, than had been done in a number of years.

“For example, through migration to cloud computing, e-signatures, paper free, remote working, apps and portals to update clients and the use of onboarding tools, that had been in the market for a lot of years but weren’t adopted.

“I think that once these changes were made, people saw the benefit and didn’t therefore look back.”

Hacking incidents that made the industry stop and think:

“Another interesting disruptor in the market over the last 12 months has been the number of hacking incidents, which has made owners of businesses and those within the industry stop, look and think about their own infrastructures.

“This has led to investment and change in the industry that partners in law firms were um’ing and ah’ing about for probably half a dozen years before.”

With thanks to Harvey Harding, Managing Director at PM Property Lawyers

Join us for tm:tv at 12 noon on Tuesday 20^th September 2022

The session will take place online – with a fantastic line-up of property experts, including:

- Jonathan Stebbings, Director at tmgroup
- Simon Whale, Founder of Kerfuffle
- Maria Harris, Director of Digital Cat Consultancy Ltd
- Ben Ridgway, Managing Director at iamproperty
- Harvey Harding, Managing Director at PM Property Lawyers
- David Opie, Managing Director, Todays Media