Grow or die: Churn, disruption and agility are key takeaways of the decade

Churn, disruption and agility are the key takeaways of the decade

Sample this: since 2000, 52 percent of companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired, or ceased to exist. In fact, three-quarters of today’s S&P 500 is expected to be replaced by 2027. Risk is no longer in changing. But in not changing. Those that think change is a big risk, risk annihilation.
 
The brand is the new category today. Challenge is no longer just the competition or the ever-changing business environment. It's our own inertia. Our fear of the new, of the unknown.
 
What can brands learn from the decade past? Those that overcome, change. They stay awake as business landscapes around them change. They acknowledge the new consumer preferences. They accept the new customer experiences. They react and respond. Sacrificing their comfort. Replacing complacency with competitiveness. Because they change, they grow. Because they grow, they change.

 

Growth and change are inseparable and yet habit, inertia and fear impedes change. The truth is that in growth, there is both chaos and order: new dynamics that change the shape of things, and the structures that channel and harness that change. Major cultural shifts impact the way people think on a macro scale—especially younger generations—and these attitudes trickle into organisations. Understanding the forces behind their motivations and desires is key to shifting the thinking of an organisation.
 
Luxury is the new normal
 
Nothing illustrates the way consumer attitudes are changing and driving change in brand behaviour than the premium segment. Interestingly, while some of the fastest growing brands globally like LV, Gucci and Hermes have moved with the times, brands outside the luxe-club have taken a leaf right out of the luxury playbook. Because if the decade has one big lesson for all brands, it is that one must inculcate a luxury mindset.

 
Brands are responding by creating world class experiences even in transactional sectors. Royal Enfield in motorcycles. IndusInd, Kotak
 
Bank in banking. In this manner, not only do they cater to a growing customer desire, but also stand up to global brands. Premium drives innovation, freshness and growth in brands. Maruti is an example of turning the premium route into one for growth and expansion through its retail brand Nexa.
 
Custom-made, not just customer first
 
Being truly customer-centric today means going deeper than just offering a product or service that the customer wants, and truly recognizing how customers think, feel and behave, and then delivering the most optimized experience possible across each and every customer touch point.

 
In early 2000—almost 20 years ago—Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, “We seek to be earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprise, and content creators.” When people order household goods 24/7 from Amazon Prime, watch Prime TV shows, party at Prime Live Events, order clothes from subscription service Prime Wardrobe, or purchase sustainably-sourced groceries from recently-acquired Whole Foods, the company analyses consumers’ interaction data, and then uses it to continually to customise and enhance the experience for every single customer.
 
 Another company that has customer-centricity engrained in its brand DNA is Netflix. In fact, Netflix can attribute its rapid transformation from its small beginnings as a mail-order DVD service to becoming the multi-Oscar award-winning media powerhouse that it is today to this very customer-oriented approach. Over time, the media juggernaut Zee 5 too has tapped into data analytics to develop all-encompassing personal profiles of customer preferences.

 
 The retail brands making their way into the league table too reflect a serious uplift in their customer centricity. Big Bazaar over the years has evolved substantially to add key customer choice drivers like design and experience into its strong value proposition. Even B2B brands such as Infosys are driving value growth by moving closer to their customers and staking their claims to being best placed for navigating their next steps as a side-on partners.
 
Brand is the new category
 
Consider the big disruptor brands. Amazon, through its subscription service Amazon Prime, convenience store concept Amazon Go, ‘try before you buy’ online shopping service Amazon Wardrobe, or even its latest version of the Echo, called Look, that can deliver fashion advice. Jio in India has turned almost every rule in the communication business on its head. But how does one define the category the Jio Brand operates in, or Amazon for that matter? What was intended to be a telecom business now includes everything from entertainment to ecommerce.

 
Transcending categories is a pattern we have seen in other key value creators in other categories too. The future of brands clearly lies in understanding that it is the ‘age of you’ we live in. In this cognitive era, consumers want to design their lives and use brands as a tool for that.