In today’s fast-changing communication, media and technology environment, your firm can be opportunistic — or an opportunity for other firms to take advantage of. It must be disruptive to avoid being disrupted.

This story is playing out in real time, across ALL industries including publishing, retail, energy and telecommunications.

Think about it:

• Would you rather be The New York Times, generating headlines as a digital powerhouse, or Time magazine, a formerly influential publication with a very uncertain future?
• Would you prefer to own stock in Amazon, the ever-evolving online predator, or Macy’s, Kmart or Sears — old-school bricks-and-mortar retailers that are struggling to survive?
• Do you see a stronger future for green energy firms or coal? Despite all the life support old coal is receiving, the green energy sector is flourishing on its own.
• Finally, would you rather own shares in a cable or wifi provider or the next communications platform driven by artificial intelligence?

You get the point.

The financial and professional services industries aren’t immune from this extraordinary evolutionary earthquake. In fact, they’re at the center of it.

• Blockchain technology makes record keeping fast, easy, efficient and foolproof. How will it impact traditional financial firms? What’s the best way to explain the evolution to the average investor? 
• The chatter is all about the rise — and possible fall — of bitcoin. What can you do to get people talking about your company, or even sector, with the same level of breathless excitement?
• Some banks, insurance companies and brokers make it easy to transact business online in a click or two. How can less tech-savvy companies keep up? How can you facilitate the change?
• Leading law and accounting firms make it easy to talk or chat with a representative in a single click. Why would someone wait for a callback after completing a contact form? How can you make it easier to connect with a professional at your firm any place, any time?

Ask yourself: Do you have a competitor who is setting themselves up to be the Amazon — the dominating force — in your space? (It could be Amazon!) Is a firm developing new technology, using artificial intelligence or leveraging emerging marketing and communication capabilities, that will completely disrupt your industry?

The answer is: You don’t know what you don’t know.

While this may seem obvious, many marketers, caught in the everyday minutia of getting the job done, forget that surviving isn’t good enough today. It’s your job to be aware of what’s lurking around the corner. You MUST become opportunistic, or you could become another firm’s opportunity.

That’s why it’s important for companies in the financial and professional services spaces to have a marketing partner able to offer a perspective on the future. They can help point the way toward how you could be the disruptive influence in your space, whether through messaging, brand differentiation, technology, improved service or more.

Carpenter Group has been doing just that for more than 30 years. We’ve lead top financial and professional services firms through the branding, digital marketing and social media revolutions. We’re doing the same today by partnering with leading artificial intelligence and data marketing partners to bring these capabilities to financial and professional services firms.

Contact us to start discussing how you can become the disruptor in your space.