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.
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?
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
Heading towards 2025 on Innovation and Business Ecosystems integration thinking
Where I stand todaythat moves me to the future
Let me provide a really short round up of 2024 from my learning and explaining on innovation ecosystems and specifically integrated business ecosystems. Then I outline some of my plans for 2025 to build out the value of Ecosystems in business.
Ecosystems for business have an absolute need to be integrated, they are heavily interconnected. This post of A New Way to Drive Value Through The Integrated Business Ecosystem Design provides handy visuals depicting the different ecosystems that make up (my) integrated business ecosystem framework.
I have spend time on measuring success, defining the different components, exploring and extending this out. I had a recent post showing some key developments in this thinking with reference posts, moving towards providing a compelling business ecosystem case
I sought out a AI generated view from Google NotebookNL research assistants discussing why Ecosystems are really different to consider, which I found encouraging and good, easy listening.
The work in 2024 will gather even more pace in 2025
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)
We recognize the need for business to embrace change and thrive through adaptation in a rapidly evolving business landscape does require a very dynamic environment.
Dynamic Ecosystems are central to providing the engine to collaborations, adaptation and future leadership. Its central role is to build constant adaptation and resilience, pushing to create increasing value through discovery and extraction throughout the entire ecosystem, and providing the evolving positioning of business as leaders in tomorrows industries and solutions provided.
A continuous learning and acquiring knowledge insights needs this rapid adaptability from the Dynamic Ecosystem. Central to investing and exploring innovation, leveraging network effects, capitalizing on synergies and diversities to deliver into decision making the best options and value.
Dynamic Ecosystems build future ecosystem resilience and including participation as the core to thinking evolution and discovery, to exploit and expand to what is possible, through ecosystem-centric thinking and design. They are critical to delivering through collaborative arrangements and diversity of thinking and knowledge sharing.
