What makes Business Ecosystems different in how we approach them, the answer lies in our mindset? Are our existing ways of approaching business design different and within this, how important is a radical mindshift in any Business Ecosystem thinking?

Business ecosystems do need to be understood as radically different from how ‘we’ have undertaken the way we have “gone about our business” and think this through for the potential promise it might offer. Most businesses operate within their protected environment of designing, building, optimising and going to market. It is very singular, and everything is channelled through them.

A single entity undergoes and contract with selected suppliers and often stays with them for many good reasons, they conduct their proprietary research, build there own concepts of products and services and undertake the build to deliver internally within their selected ecosystem of stakeholders. This works and continues to function, but up to a certain point.

Today, this often silo thinking does need to be challenged and at least an initial rethink for instance about Partner Ecosystems and the value they can bring in different approaches, thinking, market offerings and mindsets does lead on to the broader adoption of Business Ecosystems. Applying a radically different collaboration thinking for co-creation can offer significant benefits, returns and rewards.

In markets that are rapidly changing, solutions required are becoming more complex to design and the challenges needed to be overcome are getting tougher to resolve the design of a closed system meets constraints. Those systems are optimised for internal efficiencies, but they, over time, become rigid, and less agile to spot and adapt to changes happening at increasing pace.

Over time, the performance does seem, so often, to continue to spiral down, in finding radical or distinct solutions. Layering over time different and  additional processes and requirements that are required and placed upon them, so often due to the constraints imposed by limited resources, funds and access to broader knowledge, does alter the reactive nature of a business.

The organization itself does gets trapped in its own potential demise . Extracting efficent performance we lose “effective” performance, unable to rapidly respond to changing market conditions or customer needs.

The (un)settling effect

Performance “settles” and lacks that entrepreneurial energy and, even with all the extra effort or incentive, lacks the ‘sparks’ that do make a difference in product design, in new business activities or being comfortable enough to change the existing business model from fear, legacy and often, may I say it, the complacency of being comfortable with what you have got.

The result is an outcome yielding a steady return until the inevitable finally confronts you or the future leaders who takes over and recognizing the symptoms so often does require radical surgery.

Ecosystem thinking and designs open up the potential for change.

By adopting a more collaborative approach you draw in a network of diverse views, knowledge and opinion to challenge the existing paradigm and set a radical y different way to undertake business.

To achieve this, embracing a mind shift in thinking is crucial for effectively navigating and leveraging the dynamics of ecosystems.

Here are some of the most essential differentiating factors and recognitions or triggers that could prompt a shift in mindset needed for Business Ecosystems:

1. Interconnectedness:

• Difference:
  • Traditional Approach: Focus on standalone operations and competition.
  • Ecosystem Approach: Emphasizes interconnected relationships between suppliers, partners, competitors, and customers.
• Mindshift:
  • Recognizing that success is not solely determined by individual performance but by how well you collaborate and integrate within a broader network.

2. Collaboration Over Competition:

• Difference:
  • Traditional Approach: Emphasizes competition and market share.
  • Ecosystem Approach: Encourages collaboration to achieve common goals and mutual benefits.
• Mindshift:
  • Seeing competitors as potential collaborators and understanding the power of collective success.

3. Value Creation through Network Effects:

• Difference:
  • Traditional Approach: Value creation is often internal and product-centric.
  • Ecosystem Approach: Value is created through network effects, where the value of a product or service increases as more participants join the ecosystem.
• Mindshift:
  • Shifting from a product-centric mindset to understanding the value of broader network effects and external contributions.

4. Open Innovation:

• Difference:
  • Traditional Approach: Innovation often occurs internally within the organization.
  • Ecosystem Approach: Embraces open innovation, where ideas, resources, and expertise are sourced from external partners.
• Mindshift:
  • Recognizing that innovation can come from various sources beyond the organisation’s boundaries.

5. Customer-Centric Focus:

• Difference:
  • Traditional Approach: Customer focus, but often limited to the company’s products or services.
  • Ecosystem Approach: A holistic customer-centric focus considering the entire customer journey and experience within the broader ecosystem.
• Mindshift:
  • Understanding that the entire ecosystem influences customer satisfaction and loyalty, not just individual transactions.

Recognizing the external Triggers for a Mind shift for thinking about Business Ecosystems

• Market Disruptions: Disruptions, such as technological advancements or changes in consumer behaviour, can prompt a reassessment of traditional business models.
• Competitive Pressures: Increased competition or the emergence of new players adopting ecosystem approaches can push organizations to reconsider their strategies.
• Customer Expectations: Changing customer expectations for seamless and integrated experiences may drive a shift towards ecosystem thinking.
• Industry Trends: Observing successful ecosystem models in similar industries can inspire a reevaluation of business strategies.
• Regulatory Changes: New regulations or industry standards may require businesses to collaborate more effectively within an ecosystem.

A Mindshift enhances distinctive personal and business needs required today:

• Adaptability: Business ecosystems thrive on adaptability and responsiveness to change. A mindset shift enables organizations to navigate evolving landscapes more effectively.
• Innovation: Ecosystems foster innovation through diverse perspectives and collaborative efforts. A mindset focused on openness and collaboration enhances innovation capabilities.
• Resilience: Business ecosystems can provide a more resilient structure as entities within the network can support each other during challenges. A mindset shift helps organizations embrace this collective resilience.

Business Ecosystems are radically different.

They require an actual opening up, a willingness to share and collaborate, and a belief that co-creation brings growing knowledge, insights, diversity of opinion and potential validation to make real change. We can challenge and construct radically different business models that offer real potential for radically connecting those past individual solutions into a bundle of more oriented, market- and customer-looking solutions.

We can offer combined solutions that connect many fragmented parts not able to be fully achieved in a single organization into a new collaborative offering that solves customers problems, reducing their complexities within transactions, improving levels of satisfaction and gratification, providing a more seamless, effective and efficient way to go about their business, personal or social need.

In summary, a mind shift towards the building blocks of business ecosystems is essential for organizations to stay competitive, foster innovation, and adapt to the evolving business landscape. Triggers for this reflection often arise from external changes or internal recognition of the limitations of traditional business models.

Still, more importantly, it is our willingness to open up our thinking and achieve a mindset shift of how to undertake business in the future, in open, highly collaborative ways of mutual sharing of the value and returns has greater sustaining potential.

The post Knowing the different mindsets for Business Ecosystem Thinking? first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

This month I am completing a series on cross-sector innovation ecosystem collaborations. This is the second post that I am sharing here on my dedicated ecosystem thinking site and also through my paul4innovating posting site, which has different audiences to discuss this with.

For me, cross-sector collaborations are becoming essential to our future in tackling highly complex challenging issues that need collaborative resolution

Cross-sector innovation ecosystem collaborations do have real differences and I am to draw these out and my aim is to draw these out in this series.

There is a unique skill set that needs identifying and consider based upon the following and these include:

1. Interdisciplinary thinking: Participants in cross-sector collaborations must be able to think outside of their respective fields and understand the perspectives of other sectors. They should be able to integrate different knowledge domains and apply them to complex problems.
2. Communication and collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration skills are essential for building relationships and trust among participants. Participants must be able to share ideas, give and receive feedback, and work towards shared objectives.
3. Creativity and innovation: Participants must be able to generate creative ideas and innovative solutions to complex problems. They should be comfortable with taking risks and experimenting with new approaches.
4. Adaptability and flexibility: Cross-sector collaborations are often dynamic and unpredictable. Participants must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and be flexible in their approaches to problem-solving.
5. Project management: Effective project management skills are essential for keeping cross-sector collaborations on track. Participants should be able to manage timelines, budgets, and resources, as well as measure progress and evaluate outcomes.
6. Cultural competence: Participants must be able to navigate cultural differences and understand the diverse backgrounds and experiences of other participants. They should be able to work in multicultural teams and be sensitive to different cultural norms and practices.
7. Strategic thinking: Participants should be able to think strategically and understand the broader context of the collaboration. They should be able to identify opportunities and challenges, assess risks and benefits, and develop strategies to achieve the collaboration’s objectives.
8. Cultural Differences: Cross-sector collaboration can bring together individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and working styles. It is essential to recognize and address these differences to create an inclusive and collaborative environment.
9. Intellectual Property: When collaborating across sectors, intellectual property (IP) ownership and protection can become more complex. It is important to establish clear guidelines and agreements regarding IP ownership and use to avoid any potential legal issues.
10. Governance: The governance structure of the collaboration should be well-defined and established. It should clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each participant, as well as the decision-making process.
11. Funding and Resources: Collaboration across sectors can require significant funding and resources. A clear plan for funding and resource allocation should be developed early on to ensure the collaboration is sustainable.
12. Measurement and Evaluation: To ensure the success of the collaboration, it is important to develop clear metrics for measuring progress and evaluating outcomes. These metrics should be agreed upon by all participants and monitored regularly to ensure the collaboration is meeting its goals.
13. Regulatory Compliance: Depending on the sectors involved in the collaboration, there may be regulatory compliance issues to consider. It is essential to understand and comply with any relevant regulations to avoid any legal or reputational risks.
14. Communication and Engagement: Effective communication and engagement with all stakeholders, including participants, sponsors, and the broader community, is crucial for the success of the collaboration. Regular updates and feedback mechanisms should be established to ensure everyone is informed and engaged.

In summary here, overall, cross-sector innovation collaborations require participants with a diverse set of skills and perspectives who are committed to working together towards shared goals. Effective cross-sector collaboration requires a willingness to learn from others, build relationships, and work towards common objectives in a collaborative and inclusive manner.

Although many are required for both single and cross-collaborations, it is where you often place the emphasis on these that makes them more relevant or essential to ensure you have these covered.

What specific toolkit is required for cross-sector innovation collaborations?

Cross-sector innovation collaborations require a variety of tools and resources to support effective communication, collaboration, and project management. Specific tools that need to be available, compared within the consortium so these have the robustness to meet all the stages of the challenge within any cross-sector innovation collaborations include:

1. Project management software: Software tools such as Asana, Trello, or Basecamp can be helpful for managing tasks, timelines, and project resources across multiple teams and stakeholders.
2. Virtual collaboration tools: Platforms like Zoom, Skype, Team or Google Meet can facilitate virtual meetings, videoconferencing, and remote collaboration across different locations and time zones.
3. Knowledge management systems: Knowledge management systems such as Confluence, SharePoint, or Google Drive can help to centralize project information, documents, and data in a shared online space.
4. Innovation management software: Innovation management software such as IdeaScale, Brightidea, Wazoku, QMarkets, Sopheon or Hype Innovation can facilitate ideation, collaboration, and feedback among different stakeholders, as well as track and measure the impact of innovation initiatives.
5. Intellectual property management tools: Tools such as PatSnap, Lexus Nexus, IPlytics, and Clarivate Innography can help to manage intellectual property rights, patents, and trademarks across different organizations and sectors.
6. Cultural competence training: Cultural competence training can help to promote understanding and communication across different cultures and diverse backgrounds, improving collaboration and reducing the risk of misunderstandings and conflicts.
7. Data analytics and visualization tools: Tools such as Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, Qlink Sense, Looker or Domo can help to analyze and visualize complex data sets, enabling stakeholders to make data-driven decisions and measure the impact of innovation initiatives.

Overall, the specific toolkit required for cross-sector innovation collaborations will depend on the nature of the collaboration, the goals and objectives, and the stakeholders involved. The tools should be carefully selected to support effective communication, collaboration, and project management across all the partners involved, and should be adaptable and flexible enough to meet the changing needs of the collaboration over time. Getting different organizations to find common platforms takes time, patience and negotiations to offset existing agreements, cloud differences and specific licence arrangements.

Post three builds out different aspects of CSIC and what to consider as “top line” needs to compare and broadly agree as the ‘going-in’ position

*Researched and developed, including separate validations from chat.openai.com

The post Specific skills and toolkits are needed for cross-sector innovation ecosystem collaborations. first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

For nearly all business entities, the ability to fully connect up the organization across people, processes, design, structures and strategies is always a work-in-progress, never worked upon to the fullest extent and rarely achieved without the most radical transformation.

I come up against the barriers to change caught up consistently in this lack of interoperability. So I have to bring it into this exploring ecosystem and platform designs posting views.

What do we miss in not having that connectivity? Recognizing silos of unconnected knowledge needs changing; we need to leverage all of our diversity and expertise. Do you really know your capabilities, competencies and capacities?

1. Focusing on making technology work across organizations, internally and externally, with partners that share a common purpose. Our need is to find new growth engines and, more, sustaining. business value. it is our understanding to make exchanges work to enable creativity, and we need technology across processes to talk to each other- called interoperability.
2. Uncertainty, fear of the unknown, reluctance to share and partner, or to mutually “pool” intellectual property or our research know-how in a shared collaborative effort is hard. We often hold onto our knowledge as our “source of power”, this we need to let go of and embrace a new way of believing, trusting and collaborating. We will gain far more than we lose.
3. We must ask the important questions and fully recognize the answer to “what do we do well? How can we leverage and build out from this?” Are we investing enough time in networking, exchanging insights or building relationships? Knowing our core capabilities, competencies, and capacities is essential.

Let’s tackle one tough one- interoperability makes or breaks much of what we struggle to do -exchange knowledge.

Now I do not want to get caught up in the “weeds” of definitions, challenges or issues relating to interoperability. Still, this need is essential if we want to achieve open connectivity to exchange data, thinking, dialogues etc.

So what’s interoperability?

Think of interoperability as how technologies function in conjunction with other technologies. Take email as that ability to communicate how email needs to work makes each system (Google, Thunderbird, Yahoo etc.) interoperable. We wouldn’t be able to send an email using Gmail to someone’s Thunderbird email account if it was not interoperable.

Thankfully we have a lot of open, available tools that enable interoperability.

APIs — application programming interfaces — allow people to use Google or Facebook, or Thunderbird logins to sign in to other companies websites. For example, Twitter data such as tweets, conversation threads and query language using an API.

Open APIs provide the ability for developers with access to proprietary software applications or web services and allow computer programs to ‘talk’ to one another so they can request and share information.

So interoperability is the design of things to work together, having to conform to operating standards to achieve compatibility and integration; they can extend, sync, share, and enable a common exchange and understanding between disparate systems.

Recognising the importance of interoperability

Efficient automated data sharing between applications, databases, and other computer systems is crucial throughout networked computerized systems.

It is difficult for organizations to resolve this sharing due to layering or hundreds of legacy systems written over time in different codes that hold “open sharing” back. This constrains system-to-system performance.

Achieving recognition of that interoperability, to make use and form of the four levels of interoperability: foundational, structural, semantic, and organizational can all become cross-cutting through technological innovations to ensure consent, security, and integrated workflows move smoothly between different groups.

When being discussed, open standards rely on a broadly consultative and inclusive grouping of all those holding a stake in recognising that a common standard is developed.

The difference discussed and debated of each competing system to establish the technical and economic merits, demerits and feasibility of a proposed common or standards protocol to get to a common position. This can take years and numerous meetings before the resulting common document is endorsed as a common standard.

Many organizations are dedicated to interoperability. They have in common that they want to push the development of the World Wide Web towards the semantic web. The goal of the Semantic Web is to make Internet data machine-readable.

We must not make the mistake of muddling interoperability with intraoperability that strictly focuses on operations within specific parameters. For example, it describes the exchange of data between systems that are fundamentally the same and generally developed by the same vendor (specialised and specific). There’s little need for custom extensions or working on opening up to extend beyond a given limited boundary.

Data exchange is difficult or limited if there is a lack of interoperability across partners due to different standards. This can be solved by having a network where the exchange between all providers and organizations builds upon their software those abilities to talk and exchange data. Often this is no easy task and can take significant time if data exchanges are complicated.

Improving interoperability includes standardization of terminology and normalization of data to those standards, which can be one of the fundamental blockages to why platform adoption still struggles.

The task is complex and needs significant orchestration and leadership to “set” these standards to achieve this potential interoperability.

Those that choose to collaborate become the natural ecosystem participants if the result provides a substantial advantage in advancing and unlocking complexity and communicating on common challenges and concepts of mutual value.

The post Tackling interoperability is critical to resolve first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

I want to relate adoption back to business platforms and anchor it in the process.

Today business platform adoption is a struggle. It needs a clear revisiting of the theory of diffusion and adoption to extract the relevant points of necessary practice.

What is vitally needed is the recognition that deciding on adopting a business platform approach has five stages or decision points to go through.

So often, platform providers automatically go to the assumption that their platform will be adopted. It simply will not without working through and gaining confirmation the five stages of adoption are clarified.

The five stages for business platform adoption decision.

Each of these needs a definitive engagement process by the business platform provider. Passing through the five stages of adoption needs relevance, identification and building out the relationship to pass through all these as distinct cascading steps.

Awareness and Knowledge – refer to a customer’s acknowledgement of the presence or existence of the new business platform and where they form a general perception of what it might entail. The intersection of need recognition often drives it through consistent education and marketing communications to show client value, not the platform provider’s prowess. This is the point of being inspired to find out more.

Persuasion and Interest – this occurs when a client processes the available information associated with the platform and considers the product or service’s appeal on this and its relevant value or potential to them Here, the client actively seeks out information and details and begins engagement. The critical point for any platform provider to manage well.

Decision and Assessment – Considering the persuasion factors, the client will decide whether to adopt, delay any decision, or reject the platform. Their activity in seeking advice, gathering data and comparing or making different assessments happen clearly here and need the contacted platform provider to understand the level of assessment and the issues. Here, costs begin to kick in, considering the switching costs and fresh investment needs and weighing the advantages. This is the hardest stage to understand. The ability to build a solid business case at this point is essential. My recent post, “Exploring points of value in adopting business platforms,” has some relevancy here.

Implementation and Exploration – These are the series of activities to put the platform to use in exploring its (multiple) points of value and validating these. The client employs the platform to a varying learning degree. The usefulness, impacts, and costs are determined, and they may search for further support or relevance value about it. Here the business platform provider needs to be really “on the case” in strengthening the engagement and anchoring it into more of a forward-looking partnership but working in parallel on this learning path, as adoption is a gradual journey.

Confirmation and Adoption– is mostly concerned with post-adoption behaviour exhibited by the adopter, reinforced by the platform’s actual delivery against the relative advantage ‘claims,’ its complexity and compatibility on their understandings. The individual finalizes their decision to continue using it and makes that ultimate investment in forming an ongoing, long-term partnership for extending its use to its full potential.

Develop this five stages  process of engagement in any adoption of business platforms

Suppose these five stages are not followed in the business platform adoption process; there is a higher probability of poor engagement, lost time in chasing leads, being distracted, and not getting the end result intended or stated or being the offering of compelling value believed as the stages of adoption were not followed and anchored in these transition points of understanding.

So I would always recommend understanding the theory of diffusion and adoption offered by Everitt Rogers in his Diffusion and Adoption theories for innovation ; it is as relevant for Business Platform adoption today as when he offered this for “straightforward” innovation.

Platforms are the new meeting place for innovation to happen. They diffuse and adopt as their key value but getting clients to think this through needs these five decision stages

The post The difficulties of adoption for the business platform first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

A Series of Posts exploring the what, why and how of Xcelerator- part two

In this series, I felt there is a need for a deepening or exploring of what Siemens Xcelerator is all about. What are the implications and value opportunities for customers, distributors, partners, or analysts?

My aim in three separate posts all linked here is to explore the Siemens Xcelerator, a new Digital Business Platform, firstly what it is, secondly, what it does and thirdly, how it does it.

These three posts are “looking into” Siemens. I am looking from the outside to see the value of this launch announcement of the Siemens Digital Business Platform. The launch proposal offers much. The first post I recommend reading provides context to “what Siemens Xcelerator is.”

This post is about “what it does,” from my perspective.

The stated objective is that “Siemens AG has launched an open digital business platform, Siemens Xcelerator, to accelerate digital transformation and value creation for customers of all sizes in industry, buildings, grids and mobility. The business platform makes the digital transformation easier, faster and scalable.”

Peter Koerte, the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at Siemens, recently stated in a podcast, “Xcelerator not only brings all of the critical digitalization components together – the service providers, the software partners and especially the hardware – it also provides both technical governance and interoperable solutions.

You realize this Xcelerator launch is very much for the longer gameplay.

Peter also provided further insights “At Siemens, we serve many different customers. So we are doing this in industry, we are doing this in buildings and infrastructure, and we’re doing this in mobility. And we saw that there is an incredible amount of work that goes into digital transformation and that many customers are coming to us and asking, please, can you help us?”

“The realization was, look, what we want to bring to our customers is solutions that are easy, fast and scalable. And this is what we hear over and over again: you have a bespoke solution that doesn’t work for me”.

The idea is to follow these design principles and provide more tailored solutions.” Peter then went on to explain: “it’s like Lego blocks where you very easily assemble and disassemble, and you just pick what you need. You really can get to these easy, fast and scalable solutions for our customers.”

Peter then explained: “And it’s a complex task. You need to have the hardware; you need to have software; you need services. So nobody holds the key, nobody. So, there you go. You need to have an ecosystem that is orchestrated where you have created a portfolio delivered to our customers or to the customer to solve their problems. And that’s where we realized that Siemens very often already held the key with regards to having some of the critical components already, but not all of them. And so we clearly said, okay, if we can bring them all together: the service providers, the software partners and the hardware – and this is very important, including the hardware – then we can make a big difference.”

The recognition from these positioning statements is that solutions have to be open, flexible, personalized and to be individually customized and need interoperable solutions to clearly work with each other then we come to What Xcelerator intends to provide.

Let’s step back from this terrific set of insights and have a back-to-basics review.

To cater for this strategic ambition, the B2B market needs, first and foremost, a change in emphasis, one of thinking out the evolution of platforms into ones designed to build thriving business ecosystems (B2B enabled) for all to collaborate around and build together.

So what is the Siemens Digital Business Platform?

What if you now reflect on what Siemens is proposing- a more open, collaborative platform, sharing their substantial portfolios, building out an ecosystem of certified partners as well as building out a marketplace of solutions that can be applied across the most significant markets of Industrial application, Buildings, Energy Grids and Transport. A Digital Business Platform that is governed as an intelligent, integrated and orchestrated one, provided in a single source and place but open, collaborative and certified.

So the “What If”becomes clearer in my mind.

The purpose is to create new product services and business models in the solutions provided. Solutions that accelerate revenues drive efficiencies through automation, improve profitability, enhance the customer experience, ensure compliance and link the ecosystem of partners for revenue and operational solution delivery for new client opportunities and improvement. Driving the digital transformation.

It needs to ask basic questions like, “can this proposal overcome the inherent inefficiencies overcome the disruptive traditional forces and present restricted business models?” “Can the solutions enable more sustainable business continuity? Can it change the nature of competitive advantage and shift the present mindset about technology adoption and risk?

Seeing a future and embracing it

Perhaps it is likely that Siemens recognizes where the future of digital transformation needs to go and sees a better approach to this digital transformation through this launch. A view reflecting that digital transformation requires a continuous evolution, fundamentally redefining the business operation and customer experience in highly connected, digital ways across an ecosystem of like-minded solution providers. Siemens, for me, has signalled that they are moving towards a new business model to take them even further as a focused technology company.

Siemens is opening up their solutions, combining these with others so the platform can provide a stronger response, a more resilient, agile, flexible and knowledge intense digital and real-world potential to boost productivity and competitiveness to scale up innovation through a digital transformation.

Siemens has signalled a new journey in a world that seems in a continuous state of flux and needs a more connected ecosystem, portfolio agility and robust, growing Marketplace for all to shop based on the Xcelerator Digital Business Platform (Website here)

So what Xcelerator Digital Business Platform does?

Digital Business Platforms create new digital business capabilities by recombining existing technologies and providing the platform for partners, customers and providers of services to come together and take these often individual solutions into a new level of connection to integrate these technologies, concepts and ideas to create new and disruptive capabilities that accelerate the community and advance the digital transition.

Any platform certainly needs to be of architecturally sound design to maximize the opportunities this recombination offers to digital transformation. Xcelerator is positioning itself to provide that as the platform orchestrator and provide the governance and undertake the lead. Xcelerator can transform.

You certainly stimulate ideas in platforms through engagement and interactions in a community-centric marketplace.

A critical part is to leverage data and as well as exchange ideas, build out software solutions within the collaboration space. Marshall Van Alstyne, who co-authored a great book “Platform Revolution” is the Questrom Chair Professor, Boston University and a Digital Fellow at MIT, commented on the power of leveraging data: “What I think is interesting,” Marshall stated, “is that one of the impediments to B2B [business-to-business] platforms has been [that] we haven’t had the frequency of interaction we’ve had in B2C [business-to-consumer] platforms. Machine to machine, device to device, will dwarf the number of interactions among people. And so, I think we should absolutely anticipate huge transitions towards these platforms and these models………to capture the value created”

Delivering digital transformation easier, faster and at scale

So for me, a strong platform for building out a growing portfolio, connecting an ecosystem and providing a marketplace does offer all involved the opportunity to create, deliver and capture new value in what the platform provides if it applies the governance and design principles, and rigour suggested, is timely and can transform the market dynamics in radically different ways.

Siemens Xcelerator offers the power of the network effect, a growing ecosystem of partners, designers, distributors and customers who can jointly accelerate the digital transformation. Today it is collaborations, relationships, cocreation and customer-centric solutions that change today into tomorrow for a different, connected future.

My third post is the last in this initial series that looks deeper into Siemens Xcelerator and explores “how it does it” coming up next.

Disclaimer: This article is published in partnership with Siemens. Siemens is paying for my engagement, not for promotional purposes. Opinions are my own

The post Siemens Xcelerator Part Two- what it does first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

The post Ecosystems, technology and innovation; the keynote at Siemens SPS Event first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

Regretfully many businesses are still caught in the change over from the past industrial era, we have not fully absorbed or translated the impact of the digital effect. The rising expectations from technology are ‘running way ahead’ of our ability to transform the organizations to be digitally ready.

We are in need of finding and developing environments that are far more connected and open, simple yet intelligent to reduce complexity, yet fast and scalable as the frequency and collaboration needs are changing, all placing increased demands on the organization.

With the consistent onslaught of social media, the potential of cloud computing and the increasing reliance on the mobile or smartphone, the pressure is on organizations to adapt and respond accordingly. The consumer expectations are dramatically shifting to expecting these connected experiences we have written about, they are seeking higher levels of personal gratification.

Everything is about “getting connected”.

Working in Ecosystems will change the nature of business activities

Ecosystems will have the potential to expand capabilities and enable experiences beyond anything possible today in the present ‘disconnected’ world, where technology is not playing a significant part. It is by the very nature of the interacting and interdependence in relationships that is driving this need of participating in an interconnected system.

We are all increasingly searching for designing new ways to do business, ones that are buildimng networks that are collectively finding, exchanging and looking to create and allocate new business value together. It is the need of acting together, that offers the potential for the outcomes to be greater than the sum of the individual parts and it will be technology driven.

Recognizing the significant changes underway let’s look at many parts of today’s environment that are coming together to make the conditions for a ‘perfect storm’ that we have to navigate through.

Multiple elements are combining to drive change and get us all to consider Ecosystem designs as a solution to reduce complexity.

• Business has a growing need for finding new competitive battle zones as they exhaust the traditional ones
• There are these higher risks of disruption happening today, across all industry sectors
• The scramble to scale and globalize is increasing the pressure for speed, adaptation, and new outlooks.
• Customers are more sophisticated and demanding, expectations and empowerment are on the rise.
• Customer experience is becoming more compelling, individualized and offering integrated experiences.
• Digital transformation, big data analysis and the ubiquity of information is changing the knowledge game
• Industry lines and conventions are blurring and merging through the need for technology and overhaul
• Power is shifting from single company offerings into platform offerings, built on collaboration needs
• The existing Business Model is increasingly under threat and shorter in its ‘shelf life’
• Collaborative Needs are increasingly the basis for achieving competitive advantage
• Reality is that every innovation and company is part of a broader, evolving ecosystem
• Our futures are far more intertwined and dependent on others
• Technology is leading us all in an unparalleled rate of change in most of what we do in our lives.
• The reinventing of the rules of competition have dramatically opened up (startups, venture capital etc)
• We all cannot navigate the future alone, we are becoming increasingly reliant and dependent.
• Technology offers business greater access to intelligence that is fast and scalable
• There is a shift in the economic equation to collaboration, transparency and customer engagement.

These shifts are altering the business environment and organizations have got to find solutions to address these, as these shifts are increasingly making the environment highly complex to navigate through. Ecosystem thinking holds a crucial key to managing this growing complexity, in radically connected ways.

Business Ecosystems are not new but they hold tremendous promise for innovation

Business Ecosystem thinking, although not new, is rapidly becoming the new organism to coalesce around to tackle growing complex challenges and a more demanding consumer. It has the mechanisms to encompass all necessary players to share and relate to the challenges and collectively work on solutions together, often in a growing world of complexity.

The post Making the case for Ecosystem thinking first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

By looking outside we open up. More and more demands are being placed on us via our customers, suppliers, our regulators and a host of other stakeholders all wanting to contribute into our existing knowledge. The ability to collaborate, to cooperate is coming by purposefully designing ecosystems and platforms

We struggle to adapt to these new external pressures as the more we engage outside we realize there are (often) stark differences in approaching problems. This adaptation demands a very different approach to anyone organizations structures, processes and systems. They need to adapt to and support these changes in working within an ecosystem designed one.

We all need to be more flexible, adaptable and agile so our resources grow their capacity to absorb and strengthen the competency and capability in new more dynamic ways. To design in ecosystem thinking needs a very different approach.

Building Value into Networks

We need to ask specifically are we going to gain a significant advantage in working in networks as the work is highly demanding and calls for a very different mindset and business thinking application

I have written on this posting site many aspects of ecosystem thinking. One, I can point you to is “Connecting future value will come from ecosystem thinking”

We need to ask ourselves lots of questions. A useful post is “Designing our Innovation Ecosystem needs five considerations“

Why ecosystems have come of age in the business world.

To explore and exploit ‘the new,’ we have the opportunity to combine technology and leverage relationships to extract ‘greater’ meaning. Building a network of contacts, we are scaling and developing a more productive potential of something new.

We can, through data and exchanges, link up the real world and relate the physical and data worlds. Actually, we are building a digital-physical twin as we understand what is going on, explore how we can change it, and then compare this back in the digital world, that mapping back for all participants to work upon and extend it out. We are creating value in combining technology and relationships in any ecosystem design.

The ability to delve into or broaden out our thinking gives us these opportunities to extend what we have or create something new. In any ecosystem evolution, ‘something’ or ‘someone will exploit a gap, a niche, and utilize this. It takes time if it cannot build on its capabilities in that space, it needs to build up its environment around it.

We often limit our capabilities and capacity because we do not ‘stray’ from the knowns into the unknowns. Ecosystems that encourage that pushing frontiers to lead us often to finding that unexplored point. The combined realms of digital and physical meeting points allow us to do this in faster ways than ever before. We can reach wherever we want to go.

What are the on-going exchanges within the system that make up the communities for us?

As we interact what is the impact derived from the time it takes up for us to participate?

What ways can we extend, create and leverage the value. Can we convert a certain value into another that offers increased worth and growing usefulness?

We need to acquire, anchor and and transform this flow of new knowledge into future new worth.

Value Creation comes in many forms but it is the pivotal role of our intangibles that give it the greatest potential. Take a read of this “Exploring the Value of Your Innovation Capital“

– What makes up the negotiable and deliverables in what we do? Do we know all our capitals?

– What can be extracted as tangible benefits and intangible value exchanges that emerge as we explore them into more tangible ones?

– What impact these decisions and actions have to specific business activities, challenges and issues?

These make up the ‘currency’ of new value and are found across different networks and communities. We need to seek, find and engage in these.

Seeking out Social – Business Engagements

Organizations need to look for developing greater community engagement strategies.

This includes recognizing the new business goals social engagement can provide as social media relentlessly chips away at established practices

Every function is undertaking some form of transformation from technology and global digital networks.

* Ensure the leadership within the organization recognizes the opportunities and risks

* The necessary dedicated resources are made available that have the requisite skills

* The  building of response measures and actions in any growing social engagement

* Recognize the changes in working this shift to a greater ‘connected’ engagement means

* Prepare for engagement at growing scale, effect, shared value and increased insights.

* The increasing need for a modern engagement platform that listens, interacts, filters and provides.

Identity – Profiles and Reputation

As we look at our networks, both internally and externally we need to find clear identities, we need to build a profile that ‘speaks’ of reputation and trust. We have to become like-minded.

As we engage across different, often diverse resources we need to be authentic in how we go about our business. What we do, who we engage with it requires ‘relevancy’ to all

We need to place greater trust in others, as we perceive them so we can recognize their unique identities and contributions so we help build each other’s capabilities.

The level of engagement, our clarity and values build reputation and identity. The very patterns of participation and contribution are decided and often dictated at multiple levels by others, not ourselves.

We need clear identities that are the bedrock to build out our communities, based on reciprocating value and trust in how we exchange going forward.

To navigate through this often needs consistent support, it needs clarity of mind and underpinning of approach to draw out each of our unique identities.

Building an ecosystem design needs significant thinking through.

Take an extended browse through this posting site. Ecosystems and Platforms are discussed in different ways, you will find value as you browse. Ecosystem designs are critical to our “collective” future.

Let me help and contribute into your thinking, prompting you and encouraging you at the same time

The post Thinking About Relationship and Network Management first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

A patient consulting the doctor about his symptoms starts an intricate process that may label him, classify his illness, indicate certain specific treatments in preference to others, and put him in a prognostic category.

The outcome of the process is regarded as essential for effective treatment by both patient and doctor(1). It is seen as “the clustering of signs and their development over time is, in narrative theory, defined as the plot, with this plot, eventually becoming the diagnosis.

Taking health systems higher into whole health systems

When you take health systems higher, into a design of a whole health system, the complexity becomes a magnitude of order to sort out that is way up there, in a different league. We struggle to find ways to capture whole health systems, perhaps until now.

There are so many gaps in our health system, to the point we are often just plugging parts thinking they are improving the system.  Actually, the opposite is often true, we produce a ‘knock-on’ effect that depreciates the system to make it less effective progressively over time or in surprising sudden fashion. This progressive decline comes partly from not understanding the complete Health Ecosystem you are in. We need to think about designing Health Systems in Ecosystem ways.

It is argued our health systems are failing as they do not address the “whole” health ecosystem, as we only tend to treat part of the system. The doctor is looking to cure the immediate issue, applying solutions that are often grouped as generative but in his judgment applicable to your need.

The question we all face there are significant gaps as the system really is one-sided, it is looking for speedy outcomes, and to limit the cost. This is a solution-providers need but is it coving the patient’s side by delivering value in one that offers affective capacity. Affective here refers to the underlying affective experience of feeling, emotion, or mood, both in its physical and mental capacity to influence and produce lasting change but also to provide a better health system focused on outcomes that work for the system providers and the patients’ perspectives delivering value to both.

Recently I was invited to preview some really pioneering work of Chris Lawer with his “Health Ecosystem Value Design 2.0”

Chris presented to a small group of invitees his work over many years accumulating into this new process and set of workshop templates to address whole health ecosystems.

This is highly topical, relevant and directly related to the need for deeper questioning across so many health systems across the globe. Of course, today, no system is designed for such a pandemic of the magnitude we are facing with CORVID-19  but we certainly need to connect and relate to health systems, build better understandings of how they function and where are all the essential connecting points are to manage health differently than the present ways. Looking at the issues from an ecosystem approach really makes sound sense.

The aim of Chris’s work is to thinking differently, from the individual person to the collective body (ecosystem) to capture, evaluate the actual realm of possibilities by seeing this complete ecosystem. The dynamics need to be really appreciated, as an ecosystem is never stagnant, it needs to be recognized as a living ‘thing’ to detect differences, detecting progress or slippage, plotting progress and transitions. These are always in dynamic tensions and need to be recognized as such.

Clearly, Chris’s work is extensive and very detailed, it has to be.

It is far too detailed for simply a post, so I thought I would provide a short snapshot. Those wanting to understand and apply radically different solutions to their part of the allying health systems around the world can contact Chris himself ( details are given below).

The case study he used went through was based on the work he conducted in 2019 and still ongoing. Here is the problem page that he set about to understand and then begin to frame new options that have the potential to radically alter Chronic Pain (this example shown below). The knowledge gained is certainly not just in Northern Ireland, the base for his study, but for chronic pain solutions worldwide, as he has built a way to map the complete ecosystem of Chronic Pain.

Chris sets about to build the model of Northern Irelands pain experience and the multiple affect factors  (base of study) of all involved actors; patients, health providers to then guide systematic inquiry, learning, design, and affect.

Within the methodology, it captures the forces at play, the events themselves, the durations across multiple perspectives, the encounters), the practices, the places these are undertaken (hospitals, clinics, mobile visits, surgeries). Most importantly, the effects, especially the negative ones (quilt, greed, discomfort, fear, shame, grief, etc., etc.) in the different perspectives of all those involved. It is structured, systematic and validated approach.

I really relate to this frame as it summarizes the aspects that determine the dynamics within any ecosystem if you think about it.

Chris works through ten different templates to discover and valid novel paths to a new ecosystem transition through this approach. It is clearly a very systematic inquiry to arrive at the potential alternatives in the Value Creation options. It considers all parties, practices, and encounters to build this complete picture with emersion with different parties involved in the discovery and validation through workshops, discussions, interviews, and physical validation.

The end results are showing the divergence of opinion, practice, and approaches and so identifies the significant gaps in the system from multiple perspectives. The decisions that can then be taken in investments in transitions are made with a deep understanding of the connected whole. Any emerging phases understand the diverse affective capabilities to build progressively towards a better Ecosystem, in this example, for dealing with Chronic Pain, across Northern Ireland.

Chris, within these designs and solutions, offers critical measurement criteria to build out to judge the value creation in this ecosystem design. Those measurements address the whole system and very radical over the existing ones based on a different health ecosystem capacity dynamic, in recognizing capabilities and learning methods to make this transition.

His complete sequence of the method is shown here:

The solutions offered are a real “sense-making” purpose that accounts for all involved in the health system, from patient to the solution providers and all the associated parties (helpers, family, doctors, practitioners, etc.).

You can call it a solution that has a definite “sense of place” within the broader Ecosystem, it becomes holistic and not fragmented as it is so ofter today in its parts having a separate design applied to that specific part.

I do feel this is a fascinating work from Chris and Umio.

It is pioneering in the much-needed Ecosystem approach that can be applied across all of the health systems with the depth of experience Chris has built up, in the design and approach from his Version 2.- the Health Ecosystem Value design 2.0 framework.

To finish in his own words, this is what he is offering:

ABOUT HEALTH ECOSYSTEM VALUE DESIGN^®

Health Ecosystem Value Design^® (HEVD) embodies a novel philosophy of ecosystem, emergent, relational, and affective value thinking to advance the health and social (care) sciences.

The framework goes far beyond the dominant biomedical, reductionist view of health as baseline functioning and end-state absence of disease. Instead, HEVD adopts a broader socio-ecological view of health as an individual, group, community, and place-based capacities and powers of acting in the pursuit of valued affects producing positive experiences with life.

Valued Affects supports a novel perspective of human-centered value and its creation-assessment. They challenge the transactional disease-centered exchange-economic outcomes model, along with the symbolic medical/clinical order and method of individualist-centered (patient) health behavior thinking.

HEVD reveals deep “thick explanations” of health, social, and related phenomena to surface new possibilities, design novel transitions, and realize sustained ecosystem-level transformation.

Anyone interested to learn more or engage Chris should visit his website and/or contact him, it is truly pioneering.

https://www.umio.io
Twitter:@umiohealth
Email: chris.lawer@umio.io

Tel: (UK) +44 (0)1295 724 539
Mob: +44(0)7717 435 785

1) The diagnostic process in general practice: Anders Baerheim’s paper

The post Designing Ecosystems in Health Understanding first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.

Ecosystems are under-deployed or even misunderstood in business. Ecosystems are certainly growing in our jargon to describe something we think we want to achieve, but we fail to recognize many of its functioning aspects or needs to realize it. It is being offered simply as a buzzword.

The business ecosystem is an important business model you can deploy if you are having higher levels of complexity and growing uncertainty, and let’s be honest who doesn’t today? It can also be a way to reach out and have engagement and traction (Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, etc.)

When you are in the pursuit of having the best highly coordinated and geared to optimize performance such as a global supply chain, it is the complexity and integration that needs governance and the utmost attention to the detail and the flows. These are brilliant to “shave” costs, time and are working in predictable market conditions.

Yet as we are witnessing presently, with the Corona Virus contagion, they can quickly unravel and become a real 24-hour nightmare to resolve. Suddenly all the carefully orchestrated parts, highly connected and in a complete reliant supply chain, totally dependent on each other. The optimization of the model gets shot to hell.

Ecosystems are more initially loosely designed; they have governance structures and where the orchestration needs to be more open. It has rules and requires a flexible, evolving design. Still, it is the value that lies in exploring and then exploiting the opportunities of the connectors and the richness of the data that needs interpretation. Often you are looking for the unpredictable, a new idea, for example, or making connections between different parts of the network to explore a new concept that needs the diversity of these opinions. Then finally, it is the ability to interact in the real world of exchanges that you see a “raw idea or insight” so you can quickly translate that and share this across your ecosystem or network.

Ecosystems need to be sustaining, and that is where data and insights come in, they feed into opportunities and push out the frontiers that need exploring

Why do I title this “Let’s create and rejuvenate with Ecosystems?”

Any ecosystem has to be carefully nurtured; it needs balancing, a shared value, otherwise, or it will eventually die. Why I like ‘ecosystem thinking’ in the business world is its very nature, it can shift us from linear thinking into more holistic. A hybrid that mixes and interacts to get the best out of a system. It needs a richness of diversity to come together, that ‘combining effect.’

Why ecosystems have come of age in the business world.

To explore and exploit ‘the new,’ we have the opportunity to combine technology and leverage relationships to extract ‘greater’ meaning. Building a network of contacts, we are scaling and developing a more productive potential of something new. We can, through data and exchanges, link up the real world and relate the physical and data worlds. Actually, we are building a digital-physical twin as we understand what is going on, explore how we can change it, and then compare this back in the digital world, that mapping back for all participants to work upon and extend it out. We are creating value in combining technology and relationships in any ecosystem design.

The ability to delve into or broaden out our thinking gives us these opportunities to extend what we have or create something new. In any ecosystem evolution, ‘something’ or ‘someone will exploit a gap, a niche, and utilize this. It takes time if it cannot build on its capabilities in that space, it needs to build up its environment around it. We often limit our capabilities and capacity because we do not ‘stray’ from the knowns into the unknowns. Ecosystems that encourage that pushing frontiers to lead us often to finding that unexplored point. The combined realms of digital and physical meeting points allow us to do this in faster ways than ever before. We can reach wherever we want to go.

The rejuvenating of the existing

So much of what we know today needs rejuvenating, it is tired, outdated, or just solely not up to the job. Let’s take the energy system across the whole world; it needs rejuvenating and the creation of new things. I write a lot on the energy transition as it is one of those prime places where ecosystems will take hold to provide a different (hosting) environment that we need to overcome multiple problems and break down complex issues through new innovative ways.

So I think Ecosystems are not a new phenomenon, we all exist in “nested” ones but within the business world we are in danger of not understanding its important differences; they can expand what we individually know into a connected world of understanding, then all the new opportunities that have yet to be discovered or leveraged can emerge and become part of the evolutionary process.

I liked one comment made by BCG recently. It was in their describing ecosystems as the digital-physical intersection and, as such, this offers such fertile ground. It is the understanding of how to design the ecosystem and then orchestrate or manage one, within a business or social environment, that gives it a different set of dynamics to realize new business opportunities.

We need to seek out the dynamic effects

The “dynamic effect always catches me” as something that offers more significant potential. So much of what we do operates in static environments, those repeating systems that seem exciting as we’ chip away’ at shaving extra minutes off a process extracts more from time, but they rely on being linear, they can’t cope with exponential growth or sudden change or disruption. We so often get caught up in designing for certainty, and eventually, the forces of inertia take over.

We need to push harder on the “forces of change,” and it is technologies, networks, and creating dynamic environments that can bring this about. If we only model what we know, we will increasingly get caught out. The ‘flow’ needs to feed the ‘stock.’

What allows us to ensure that new flows keep building the stock are some unique aspects that technology has delivered. We can achieve a more seamless and expansive environment that can scale continually through connecting our digital and physical worlds. We can explore and satisfy the curious, and we can provide more insights and satisfaction to a broader world.

Tackling more of the unknowns surrounding our business

We certainly are in a time where the unprecedented or unpredicted is happening far more often. We need to have in place different structures to react and work within these periods of uncertainties better than we have been doing in the past. Ecosystems of established relationships allow this, as they respond to changing environments faster. Take the sharing of gene data to tackle the coronavirus, for example, where laboratories around the world are sharing their work to find a solution to a global problem.

We are learning to accumulate and analyze more than ever before, and we need to spread what this means, to improve on the existing. Finally, we are in the world of recognizing when we add to a well-designed system; we are entering the land of potential zero marginal cost in shared understanding; the more we have a higher series of activity, the more our ecosystems are attractive, the more we can potentially learn. We can all gain from this “positive network effect.”

The effects of ecosystems and engaging networks

That “network effect” if well designed and managed gives us this opportunity to create and rejuvenate within ecosystems purposefully designed, and that is why I get excited about this area of design.

We do need to appreciate what we have, but so much of our world today needs rejuvenation firstly, and we need to combine all that is ‘out there’ to explore and exploit what is possible in what we have.

To do that, we need these ecosystem designs to flourish, but let’s not apply them to the wrong need of repeating and extracting. To create something new, we need to design the ecosystem purposefully but always with some specific levels of intent or suggested value proposition, and then be ready to see where this goes as ecosystems are an evolutionary process of discovery.

****The work of BCG in Ecosystems has been a source of inspiration here.

The post Let’s Create and Rejuvenate with Ecosystems first appeared on Your Ecosystem Design Hub.