Category Archives: Business Ecosystems

Recognizing that Gen AI will be the innovation game-changer

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Gen AI will be the innovation game-changer

Everywhere you turn it seems to be all about Gen AI and how it will change the world. The fears, excitement, opportunity and the huge amounts of money being invested is mind-boggling. Any fundamental change is exactly that- full of fear and opportunity.

So where does innovation fit within this?

I have read different views but most seem to be simply dressing their existing tools and methods in the those brighter new clothes of Gen AI appeal.

I would suggest we have been given a chance, a real chance, to transform the way we undertake innovation and that is not just a “lick of paint” or a hasty re-fit of the existing, this needs something a whole lot more.

I took a look at 1) how can AI drive innovation in different ways, 2) would this require a new operating model and 3) how the innovation workflow will require a transformational change to the operating model and 4) the outcome of a fundamental rethinking of how innovation is approached and executed.

We need to leverage speed, scale and impact of Gen AI and delivering this at fast rates for consumer appeal and market development need and growth.

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Business Ecosystems can unlock game-changing potential- lift up your eyes.

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Business Ecosystems can unlock game-changing potential

We sometimes get sidetracked, caught up in the “weeds” of making step-by-step progress, seemingly against odds that are often resistant and unyielding to the notion of change or alternatives to what we are doing.

Today many businesses are floundering in low or no-growth environments and applying approaches that just are not equipped to deal with today’s complex challenges. We are facing market conditions caught up in volatility and ongoing disruptions.

We are equally in the age of harnessing collective intelligence to be in a better position to address these complex challenges. The combined power of Gen AI, humans and diversity of understanding need to be harnessed to open up entirely new realms of possibility. Enter the power of Business Ecosystems.

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An Emerging Blueprint for thinking through Business Ecosystems

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Integrated Blueprint Framework for Business Ecosystem Design and Thinking

So why do we need a Blueprint for thinking through the Business Ecosystem needs of future business? ​

  • A blueprint is needed to thrive and find solutions in the face of complexity and uncertainty. ​
  • Ecosystem thinking and design should be central to this blueprint, as it offers the potential for transformative power and new impact, value, and growth. ​
  • The integration of business ecosystems needs the interconnected parts, with each layer contributing to the whole. ​
  • The three main layers are Strategic, Operational and Crosscutting in design and building blocks
  • The need is to move towards a more comprehensive understanding of the values of synergies, interdependencies, and exponential value created when these layers are interconnected.

We need to appreciate the real business ecosystems we need, they are radically different than most of how we presently undertake Business.

What we first need to do is appreciate this significant difference of what are Business Ecosystems BEFORE we jump into chasing different growth, impact or business opportunity. It needs to recognize the most likely outcome is likely to be a new collaborative Business Model and ask “are we ready for that?”

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A fear of missing out will drive you towards Business Ecosystems models

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The Yin and Yang of Business- opportunity and risk. Image Adobe

Are we seeing increasing complexity within the business world? The search for growth is having real impact from changing political realities, regulatory and market conditions. We are in a fractured and polarized world at present and we all have to adapt and change how we go about our business. There is more uncertainty and you judge this as either risk or opportunity. There is a strategic imperative to “open up” to alternatives to how you undertake business or accelerate it.

For me risk or opportunity are the same side of the coin, you can’t gain one without a level of the other playing its part. A business “yin and yang”, the opposite but interconnected and often complementary forces to drive our business forward by applying business ecosystem thinking and design opens up new competitive forces to build into your strategic thinking.

Is the level of “fear” seemingly rising and are our business organizations equipped or not, to draw upon the many alternatives that technology, Gen AI, platforms, networks, collaboration and co-creation opportunities that are offered to manage and rethink new opportunity and risk?

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Breaking down complexity, introducing the Ecosystem Business Model frame

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Building the Ecosystem Business model is a paradigm shift

Building Business Ecosystems can be complex to build, let alone explain. I have been working on an evolving Ecosystem Business Model for some time.

So many people are unable to explain Business Ecosystems, especially to others and it holds its evolution back. Let me explain some of my thinking here

I visualized a starting point nearly all should be familiar with, of the Business Model Canvas, by Alexander Osterwalder, drawn from his PhD thesis, supervised by Yves Pigneur (2004), called a business model ontology.

This BMC become a phenomena to enable us to easily describe what building blocks need to be considered for building a business model. As a visual chart it enabled us all to build a picture. It allowed us to describe, design, challenge, invent, explain and eventually recognize where to pivot your business model.

That business model canvas tends to stay rooted (or designed) in the single entity in its intention and as Business Ecosystems involve multiple and diverse stakeholders it helps but, in my opinion, does not reflect the design needed for these Ecosystem models.

In my view “In today’s interconnected world, businesses are increasingly operating within complex ecosystems. Traditional business models often fail to capture the dynamics and interdependence of these ecosystems, leading to missed opportunities of significant competitive advantage and exposure to increased risks that others are recognizing changes and equally on the hunt for new Business Models”

We need to build an Ecosystem Business Model story

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A New Way to Drive Value Through The Integrated Business Ecosystem Design

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Ecosystems in the business environment are taking on a growing importance to manage greater complexity and challenges in unique collaborations than the one single organization cannot handle themselves, so limiting their growth and value potential

We need a different framing of Ecosystems, in appreciating the whole as well as its parts. Often, we describe Ecosystems in far too simplistic terms and fail to recognize the interconnected value we need to bring together from multiple Ecosystems and Networks to extract the value potential that is possible in today’s connected world.

In constructing these Ecosystems I have here provided a short explainer of the Integrated Business Ecosystem Frame and then a summary page of each of its parts with specific definitions and key component parts outlined. These are Ecosystems specifically dealing with innovation, start-up and entrepreneurial, business, dynamism, business, enterprise and enterprise to enterprise (E2E)

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Crafting the Interconnected Business Ecosystems Story is complex in itself.

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Crafting a compelling story that encompasses building ecosystem capabilities, establishing the Interconnected Business Ecosystem Needs, and implementing a blueprint to navigate the ever-changing landscape involves far more than I initially contemplated.

Business Ecosystems are complex. To argue the need to interconnect makes this even tougher and let me put some initial structure to this.

There is so much in weaving any narrative to find the right ways to resonate with your audience.

Here’s a structured approach to build out this story. I believe these become individual parts of a complete storytelling, and I am slowly working through them.

Is it working? I think so but I do have moments of concern and worry it is not getting the imperative of needed focus behind this change to Business Ecosystem thinking and design for businesses to recognize they are in a very different world of reliance.

We need to recognize a growing reliance on building dynamic networks of growing dependencies that leverages on the “collective power and diversity” to tackle problems that need complex thinking through this Interconnected Business Ecosystem approach.

As I tell this story it is equally revealing itself more and more to me. I am learning constantly to adjust, adapt and keep flexible and agile, just like my arguments for businesses to design and think through.

To further help I asked Google through its NotebookLM to provide me back their story of how this might evolve

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Seeking The Alternative Path: Partner Ecosystems for Innovation, Resilience, and Providing Unique Impact

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Seeking The Alternative Path: Partner Ecosystems for Innovation, Resilience, and Proving Unique Impact

In an increasingly interconnected and complex business environment, partner ecosystems offer an alternative path to traditional business models. This approach not only fosters different types of innovation but also enhances organizational resilience and creates lasting impact. Here’s how and why partner ecosystems are transformative:

Business Pitch Summary:

  • We need to Innovate Differently: Harness diverse expertise to drive unique, customer-centric solutions comes from unique partner ecosystem configurations.
  • The real need is Building Resilience: Share risks, adapt quickly, and ensure robust operations does occur from applying a collaborative approach and building sustaining co-creation solutions.
  • Create Lasting Impact: Foster sustainable innovation and inclusive economic growth is achieved in community and customer engagement, discovering and sharing value, impact and novel solutions that solve real problems that can only be achieved from co-operations and awareness.
  • The Value of Finding the Right Facilitator: Building effective Partner Ecosystems needs a very focused facilitator to bring together and equally to draw out the concepts, values and diversity of unique partner ecosystem configurations.
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The Building Blocks of Connected Business Ecosystems

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The Building Blocks of Business Ecosystems in thinking and design

In a world where everything seems to be becoming complex, challenging or simply tough to make the necessary changes, we need to think differently.

We need to collaborate and co-create and that comes from adopting the mindset of Business Ecosystems.

Designing a shared strategic cooperation, recognizing everything needs or is interconnected to achieve a different market position we need to think differently.

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Building Momentum in Business Ecosystems: Research Insights and Future Directions

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Recognizing how connected Business Ecosystems need to be

During the August period, quieter for client engagement, it gave me the opportunity to really do some extensive research across the multiple topics around Business Ecosystems.

The research reminded me that in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, the concept of Business Ecosystems is gaining increasing prominence but is still not well understood.

There is a real need for companies to remain competitive but they are seemingly striving to gain value reliant on old or existing tools and thinking.

The value of Business Ecosystems, in thinking and design for leveraging their growth is still hesitant for so many to investigate or explore. Building justification for making a change in thinking takes time and validation. This further research will yield more for convincing many still reluctant to “open up” to this change to recognize the need for this Ecosystem thinking to happen……..to them.

Simply, it is recognizing that these business ecosystems are becoming so crucial to resolve the complex challenges we are facing to day and that needs collaboration and co-creation but are complex in their structure and execution.

I have tried to summarize the key insights and areas of inquiry from this recent research in the following ways:

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