You are probably sick of hearing these words: 'disruption' and 'innovation', perhaps you're even wondering what they really mean. As with all buzzwords, there can be a sense of inaccessibility, a feeling that innovation is for other people, for businesses that are leaner and full of 20-something versions of Inspector Gadget.

But actually, being a disruptor, and an innovator, isn't really alien. Look at Uber for instance, they didn't reinvent the wheel: taxis existed before they came on the scene. What they did is approach a familiar scenario from an unusual angle: the customer. 

I often feel guilty for praising Uber, after all black-cab drivers have spent years learning the Knowledge. However, I can't deny that a) it's way more practical for me and b) it's not new, Uber was founded in 2009, black cabs and other taxi companies have had years to upgrade their methods to compete with this disruptor. Yet, by and large, they haven't.

Likewise, you could say that content marketing is hardly revolutionary, yet, it approaches marketing from a different angle to traditional marketing by, again, bearing the audience, the customer, in mind first. Rather than advertising at them, you are providing them with something of value to them. More and more companies are adopting this approach, yet, I'm always surprised at how many are still favouring old-fashioned spammy approaches.

Truly, this is the age of the audience, as Samantha Noble puts it, and to be truly disruptive, truly innovative, all you need to do is start with them and work backwards. Quite simply.