When something comes along that sends an established market into turmoil it is usually described as a ‘disruptive technology’. Recently I have spotted at least two such changes.

When EML started I saw a friend had a home office printer/copier/scanner which looked ideal – and so it proved, but with one big drawback. The unit cost around £550 to buy and came with ink cartridges that printed around 2000 sheet. When replacements were needed the secret was out – a full set cost £330!

Seven years later and it was time for an upgrade. Printers still cost around the same but new ones come with a new technology – eco tanks. Full, these tanks print 5000 sheets and filling them costs around £20 – less than 4% of the cost for the previous model.

The roll out of fibre broadband is another disruptive technology. Once connected, the service is reliable, superfast and with a huge capacity. Following installation you can start disconnecting a whole raft of redundant services. Why pay for a house phoneline when all you receive are scam calls? Why are you paying for all those add on services? (Number ID, call packages, answerphone etc – these are all free on your mobile). Why do you still have a satellite dish? How many subscription services do you actually watch?

These are just a couple of examples of why it is so important to embrace change. Existing providers are desperate to tie you into long term contracts while they work out how to respond to these market changes – beware!