By doing this, these companies are changing the way brands have done business with customers for decades. This change goes deep into the root of business process, organisational culture and customer psyche and requires leadership that is prepared to risk moving into unchartered territory. Disruption, in other words, is hard. The momentum is against you. Yet therein lies the opportunity for brands to engage with their customers by taking the leap of faith and give the customer the power of choice - choice to buy your product, provide direct feedback, engage and more importantly the choice not to engage.
"The challenge of course is that if you do not disrupt your own business model, someone else will. When we launched M4JAM in August 2014, this is exactly what we set out to do," says Andre Hugo co-founder at M4JAM (Money for Jam).
It breaks big projects down into small tasks that ordinary people complete, whilst going about their daily routine in exchange for cash. It taps into the collaborative power of the community, which is made up of a broad section of the South African population. M4JAM operates as a Platform as a Service (PAAS) as opposed to an app and has partnered with mobile social communications platform, WeChat. This placed it in the centre of a social conversation, while at the same time adding value to the broader WeChat community.
This platform now allows brands to partner directly with their customers without having to go through a massive business process redesign, which is a clever disruption.
The platform presents disruption to a business model people presume is static. However, this is what technology has done for centuries - it redefines business, currency, even legislation, and eliminates middlemen who cannot justify their value.
For more information visit https://www.m4jam.com/.
