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.
Sometimes we do limit our thinking in business. One organization wants to “own it” and through this limited view deny themselves a diverse set of growth options by opening up to collaborations and co-creation.
Partner ecosystems are far, far more than supply chain or purchasing agreements. They can be a real catalyst for new growth opportunities, resolution to complex challenges and provide new options to build a business differently for impact and sustaining value.
I believe many organizations need to look beyond the “known” and explore the “unknown. It is not as uncomfortable as you might initially think, yet it needs some serious thinking through and approaching and the business case shown below might prompt your thinking to reach out.
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:
How would you sequence these within a interconnected business ecosystem environment?
As I continue to build out the Interconnected Business Ecosystem framework into my version 2 following the opening post Extending out the Interconnected Business Ecosystem as necessary. That opening post outlined each ecosystem in its specific concept approach, positioning and focus area that define the ecosystems and suggest the distinctiveness and value parameters this gives.
Initially I focused on framing this around four ecosystems: innovation, business, dynamic and enterprise as interdependent ecosystems. In the past few months I have been questioning this and believe the interplay was lacking in recognition that other ecosystems were coming into play. Here I deal with the sequencing.
Business ecosystems have grown in real importance for me to focus upon. Alone on this site I have written around 200 plus posts that relate to ecosystems and platforms since 2016 when I started separating my innovation thinking with this business ecosystem one.
Today, I have turned full circle, there is a need for merging these back but into innovation ecosystems for one and business ecosystems for the other, to explain different essential value parts..
Having an ecosystem-centric approach has growing advantages to navigate complexity and strive towards a new level of sustaining growth and impact.
Designing Ecosystems for collaboration, co-creation and extending your business out in radically different ways needs thinking through. It has become essential for the sustainable future tacking more complex and challenging issues
Why should we think about the potential within Business Ecosystems? What does thinking and designing for Business Ecosystems mean?
Thinking and designing for business ecosystems represents a fundamental shift in how we approach business strategy, innovation, and value creation. Let me break this down for you in a way that bridges conceptual understanding with practical application. Two statements:
Thinking and designing for business ecosystems means adopting a holistic, interconnected view of business operations and strategy.
Thinking and designing for Business Ecosystems is about recognizing that in today’s complex business environment, no company is an island. Success increasingly depends on a company’s ability to collaborate, co-create, and thrive within a network of diverse stakeholders.
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 interconnected combines deeper integrated thinking.
The importance of being interconnected is essential in today’s world.
We need to recognize many changes are being undertaken. To reflect this these two frameworks offer a more modern, network-centric view of business operations and strategy.
In today’s complex business landscape, leveraging partner ecosystems offers a competitive edge.
Building an effective partner ecosystem in systematic stages in thinking and design becomes increasingly critical, to build the mindset, skills and understanding of what this means in undertaking to yield the level of return in different routes to growth and value.
Many organizations struggle with this transitioning from individual initiatives of partnering, mostly in partner agreements covering the supply chain, logistics and often in selected sales partners and distributors. These offer a foundation of sorts no doubt and are essential for maintaining the existing business but there is a whole different world of partner ecosystems out there to tap into!
It’s not just about where you fit in the ecosystem – it’s about how you can reshape it, and the unique journey you’ll undertake to get there, transforming your ecosystem presence from a set of business relationships into a vibrant, strategic asset that defines your place in the interconnected economy, making it resilient and highly adaptive. The ability to be highly collaborative and adaptive.
Charting Your Unique Path to Collaborative Success
Building out the arguments to make a compelling business change case for Business Ecosystems needs to cover significant areas to address and recognise. Any view needs to offer some compelling reasons to recognize that there is a powerful need to shift to a more modern, network-centric view for business operations and strategy. Compiling this set of opinions takes time to shape into a concise document.
Here, I want to limit the positioning to two parts: today’s need to change our thinking, recognition, and design aspects toward business ecosystems and then provide a future awareness document.
You need to recognise its multiple parts to make any significant change towards ecosystems as a business approach. So, my aim here is to provide a more comprehensive and forward-looking perspective, making the argument more compelling and actionable for C-level executives.