Experian Was Being Disrupted by Fintech Startups. Then They Turned the Tables

When Jeff Softley joined Experian’s consumer division ten years ago, things looked bleak. The business had endured 16 quarters of declining revenues. It was being disrupted by venture backed fintech startups that didn’t need to turn a profit for years—if ever.

How do you run a business charging customers for what other companies are giving away for free? How do you compete against companies that don’t need to earn money?

That, in a nutshell, was the challenge Jeff Softley was facing.

The key to his salvation—And Experian’s—was understanding that they needed to change. You can complain that the competition is unfair all you want. But unless you can create new value, you’re toast.

So Jeff and his team set out to find how they could create a new business model that served consumers well. There were no easy answers, but they worked the problem and iterated until they got it right.

Today, Jeff Softley runs a $1.5 billion business serving 70 million customers

Notable Quotes from the Episode

1. “Mobilizing people is only useful if you can channel it to influence institutions.” — Greg Satell
2. “Disruption teaches you that you’ve always got to be looking for what you can do that others cannot.” — Jeff Softley
3. “We didn’t tell anybody—we started with a test because tests are not threatening.” — Jeff Softley
4. “A new idea is like an ugly baby—you don’t take it to a biker bar and leave it to fend for itself.” — Greg Satell
5. “We clarified a North Star: we were going to build products that were first to market, best in market, or the only place on planet Earth you could get them.” — Jeff Softley

Further Reading & Resources

• Experian Boost – experian.com/boost
• Greg Satell’s Book, Cascades: How to Create a Movement That Drives Transformational Change – Amazon Link
• Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. on Leading Innovation – Amazon Link

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