In recent years, the business world has undergone a profound transformation. The traditional view of organizations as rigid hierarchies with clear boundaries and linear processes is rapidly becoming obsolete.

Instead, we’re witnessing the emergence of fluid, interconnected ecosystems where value creation is distributed, collaborative, and dynamic, moving across multiple Ecosystems of collaborators to solve more complex challenges and enhance business value. This shift is not just semantic; it represents a fundamental change in how we understand and operate within the modern business landscape.

My move with the repositioning from “Hierarchy of Business Ecosystems” to “Interconnected Business Ecosystem Framework” reflects this paradigm shift.

To reflect this need for today’s complex business dynamics, I have been revising and updating my integrated approaches to ecosystems through the updated positioning of the Composable Innovation Framework and then here in the Interconnected Business Ecosystem Framework. The emphasis on interconnectedness combines deeper integrated thinking.

My thinking has been extending beyond the initial thoughts and values I felt could be offered in these two frameworks in terms of emphasis, design, and implementation approaches. My focus points have significantly altered.

Here’s why this change makes better sense in today’s world and for the future:

1. Network-Centric Reality: Modern businesses operate in a network-centric world. The internet, social media, and digital platforms have created a web of connections that transcend traditional organizational boundaries. An interconnected framework better captures this reality, emphasizing the importance of relationships, partnerships, and collaborative networks.
2. Agility and Adaptability: In a world of rapid technological change and market disruptions, agility is crucial. An interconnected model suggests a more flexible, adaptable structure that can quickly reconfigure in response to new challenges or opportunities. This is in stark contrast to the rigidity implied by a hierarchical model.
3. Innovation Anywhere: The interconnected model recognizes that innovation can come from anywhere – not just from the top of the hierarchy or a dedicated R&D department. It acknowledges the potential for breakthrough ideas to emerge from unexpected connections across the ecosystem.
4. Value Co-Creation: Modern business success often depends on co-creating value with partners, customers, and competitors. An interconnected framework better represents this collaborative approach to value creation, moving beyond the internal focus implied by a hierarchy.
5. Ecosystem Thinking: Businesses today are increasingly understood as part of larger ecosystems that include suppliers, customers, regulators, and even competitors. The interconnected model reflects this ecosystem perspective better, emphasizing these complex systems’ interdependencies and mutual influences.
6. Digital Transformation: As businesses undergo digital transformation, their structures become more fluid and distributed. An interconnected model aligns better with the reality of digital business, where boundaries between internal and external, physical and digital, are increasingly blurred.
7. Global and Remote Work: With the rise of global and remote work, significantly accelerated by recent international events, businesses are operating more distributedly. An interconnected model better represents this reality than a traditional hierarchy.
8. Sustainability and Stakeholder Capitalism: There’s a growing recognition that businesses must consider a broader range of stakeholders and their impact on society and the environment. An interconnected model better captures these complex relationships and interdependencies.

The renaming from “Hierarchy of Business Ecosystems” to “Interconnected Business Ecosystem Framework” adds significant new dimensions, thinking and perspectives by integrating the Composable Innovation Framework. This shift in terminology reflects a more modern, network-centric view of business operations and strategy.

The Evolution of the Composable Innovation Enterprise Framework

In light of this shift towards an interconnected view of business ecosystems, the Composable Innovation Framework has also evolved to become sharper, more future-oriented, and more radical. This illustration is part of the implementation guidance, showing the major milestones.

The framework focuses on flexibility, adaptability, and modularity, breaking down complex innovation processes into smaller building blocks that can be combined and reconfigured. ​ It leverages technology, design thinking, and collaboration to drive innovation and achieve sustainable value and impact in the rapidly changing business landscape. ​

Here’s how it is shifting in design and intent:

1. From Linear to Network-Based: The framework now emphasizes innovation as a network-based activity rather than a linear process. It recognizes that innovation emerges from complex interactions across the ecosystem, not just from a predefined sequence of steps.
2. Adaptive Architecture: The framework has become more adaptive, allowing for rapid reconfiguration of innovation components based on changing ecosystem needs. This goes beyond mere flexibility to true composability, where innovation capabilities can be assembled, disassembled, and reassembled closer to real-time.
3. Ecosystem Integration: Rather than focusing solely on internal innovation processes, the framework now explicitly includes mechanisms for integrating with the broader business ecosystem. This includes tools and processes for collaborative innovation with external partners, customers, and competitors.
4. AI and Automation: The framework has incorporated advanced AI and automation capabilities, not just as tools for innovation but as integral components of the innovation process. This includes AI-driven ideation, predictive analytics for innovation trends, and automated innovation portfolio management.
5. Sustainability-Driven Innovation: Recognizing the growing importance of sustainability, the framework now includes specific components for driving and measuring sustainable innovation. This aligns innovation efforts with broader environmental and social goals.
6. Cultural Transformation: The framework has expanded to include robust mechanisms for driving cultural transformation towards a more innovative, adaptive mindset across the entire organization.
7. Data-Centric Approach: While data has always been important, the new framework places data at the centre of the innovation process, emphasizing real-time data flows, advanced analytics, and data-driven decision-making throughout the innovation lifecycle.
8. Open Innovation by Default: The framework now assumes an open innovation approach by default, with mechanisms for managing intellectual property and value capture in a more open, collaborative environment.

The importance of interconnectedness is becoming essential in today’s world.

We need to recognize many changes are being undertaken

1. Flattened Structure, externally orientated, not internally designed:
   1. Moving from “Hierarchy” to “Interconnected” suggests a more flattened, less rigid organizational structure that adapts to the ecosystem construct needed.
2. Network-Centric Approach:
   1. “Interconnected” emphasizes the importance of networks and relationships central to the diversity and vibrancy needed.
3. Enhanced Collaboration:
   1. The new name implies a greater focus on collaboration across different parts of the ecosystem to co-create and enhance value.
4. Openness and Permeability:
   1. “Interconnected” suggests more open boundaries between different parts of the business and its external environment as it will be highly adaptive, flexible and responsive.
5. Dynamic Interactions:
   1. The new terminology implies more dynamic, multi-directional interactions within the ecosystem as opportunities are spotted, explored and adjusted as learning is more “real-time”.
6. Holistic View:
   1. An interconnected framework promotes a more holistic view of the business ecosystem where all the sub-systems form into one.
7. Adaptive Capability:
   1. “Interconnected” implies a need for greater adaptability to changes in any part of the ecosystem to adjust to change circumstances and rapidly evolving market conditions.
8. Value Co-creation:
   1. The new framing suggests focusing on co-creating value across the ecosystem, which seeks impact, growth, and sustaining competitive positions.

Integration of the Two Frameworks

The Composable Innovation Framework integrates far more seamlessly with the Interconnected Business Ecosystem Framework, serving as a critical enabler of innovation across the entire ecosystem. Here’s how they fit together:

1. Innovation Layer: The Composable Innovation Framework primarily operates within the Innovation Ecosystem layer but extends its influence across all layers of the Interconnected Business Ecosystem as it identifies and drives fresh growth and sustainability.
2. Cross-Layer Connections: It provides mechanisms for connecting innovation activities across different ecosystem layers, ensuring that innovation efforts are aligned with business needs, market dynamics, and enterprise strategy.
3. Ecosystem Sensing: The framework includes capabilities for sensing changes and opportunities across the interconnected ecosystem, allowing for rapid innovation responses—the importance of rapid reconfiguration within more dynamic ecosystem approaches and capabilities.
4. Resource Orchestration: It enables the orchestration of innovation resources from across the ecosystem, breaking down silos and leveraging diverse capabilities, demonstrating its support for the co-creation of value across various ecosystem partners through its flexible and adaptable nature.
5. Value Flow Facilitation: The framework facilitates the flow of value (ideas, knowledge, capabilities) across the interconnected ecosystem, acting as a value multiplier.
6. Adaptive Governance: It provides adaptive governance mechanisms that align with the broader ecosystem framework’s more fluid, interconnected nature.
7. Collaborative Platforms: The framework includes collaborative platforms that extend across the ecosystem, fostering co-innovation with various stakeholders.
8. Connective tissue: There is a growing “connective tissue for innovation across the entire interconnected ecosystem, emphasizing the role innovation undertakes between the different parts of the ecosystem

In conclusion, the shift from a hierarchical to an interconnected view of business ecosystems represents a fundamental change in how we understand and operate in the modern business world. The evolved Composable Innovation Framework is designed to thrive in this new paradigm, serving as a critical tool for driving innovation and operating as the “connective tissue” of innovation across the entire interconnected ecosystem.

Combining these two frameworks provides a powerful approach for navigating the complexities of modern business, driving innovation, and creating value in a more connected, collaborative, and dynamic world.