Tag Archives: Digital technologies and innovation

Evolving to my focus on the Business Ecosystem story

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Building Strong Business Ecosystems

Recently I have been reflecting and giving a new focus on my journey on Business Ecosystems. On this dedicated web site ecosystems4innovating.com I have traveled from my initial emphasis on the platform and the technology parts, increasingly recognizing and moving towards building over these past few years, the business ecosystem story and understanding needed. I have evolved my thinking from over 200 plus posts published as this evolving journey to lead up to today and my current opinion. The future promises to be exciting-

Let me summarize this on a current state of Ecosystem play, as it forms the basis of where I go forward in the continued development of Business Ecosystems and why I see these as significant in value to any business searching for new growth, different impact points and recognizing the value of collaborating within networks of ecosystems to accelerate their offerings, making these more resilient and sustaining.

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Why Business Ecosystems are highly valuable to think through.

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Thinking through Business Ecosystems

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

Let me provide some thoughts on this:

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Thinking and Designing for Business Ecosystems

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Thinking & designing Business Ecosystems to build innovation differently

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:

  1. Thinking and designing for business ecosystems means adopting a holistic, interconnected view of business operations and strategy.
  2. 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.
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Crossing the chasm with Partner Ecosystems to grow your business differently.

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A relatively quick post, partly as Hannover Messe 2024 is in full flow and tuning into events like this, you realize where we are all being pushed to the future,. Although GenAI gets a lot of central billing in the talks and demonstrations, the future “buzz words” that tell much of the immediate future are wrapped up in the solutions being offered.

Hannover is seemingly emphasizing the power and need of Ecosystems, platforms, marketplaces, end-to-end processes, and sustainability to set up so as to gain value and impact from all the data and AI coming towards us. These events are always forward-looking; you get the impression there are some big, even mega ecosystems, being built, but the reluctance and convincing are still lagging from those attending, transformation is a very tough call.

I am not sure we have crossed that “tipping point” needed from the essential missing piece—customers of all sizes and shapes—being convinced that opening up to far more collaboration and co-creation is in their interest. They need to cross the chasm and start with, perhaps, extending their existing thinking on “Partner Ecosystems” and opening them up to real collaboration and co-creation sharing.

Crossing the chasm into a new way of doing business through Ecosystem thinking and design is upon us all.

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Are you thinking of Partner Ecosystems? You should. Making the opening Business Case.

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There is a growing trend towards Partner Ecosystems, so what’s the opening business case?

Partner ecosystems play a crucial role in business growth and success, especially in today’s interconnected and globalized business environment. They can tackle business issues, support social problems, and overcome the complex and challenging issues we increasingly face.

A partner ecosystem refers to a network of complementary companies, organizations, and individuals collaborating to create (additional) value for customers and drive innovation.

However, it’s important to note that building and managing partner ecosystems can be challenging. You need to obtain sound advice, relate to what ecosystems can provide, and recognize that they can challenge or disrupt much of what you have in place as they are highly collaborative with other parties  However, that is not such a bad thing in today’s unpredictable world. We live in an interconnected world, and your business should reflect that in more open co-creation ways

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We are facing growing complexity and more formidable challenges- time to think about Business Ecosystems

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All around us, we are faced with new challenges and growing complexity.

We seem caught up in more wicked problems that require a profound shift relating to innovation. Increasingly, we are also witnessing growing dissatisfaction with the impact that innovation has today to overcome customer needs and provide more sustained growth, returns, market and customer impact.

One of the implications of this growing recognition is that innovation today rarely succeeds in isolation, staying within the four walls of one organization. Solutions required are becoming highly dependent on a more dependent type of complementary innovation: open, collaborative, sharing, and exchanging collectively around a given concept to take it to market. This requires business ecosystem thinking and design.

Working in Ecosystems will change the nature of business activities.

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Knowing the different mindsets for Business Ecosystem Thinking?

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The importance of a radical mindset shift in Business Ecosystem Design

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.

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Good Marketplace design does drive bottom-up business ecosystem participation.

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Marketplace Design can drive bottom-up Ecosystem designs.

Do Marketplace designs drive the adoption of platforms and ecosystems? Marketplaces should certainly be fast followers as they will shape future decisions by their attraction. Once a platform and its strategic design and intent are in place, Marketplace attracting becomes a critical attraction as the place you buy, sell and develop the solutions needed to achieve the value derived from building and investing in platforms and collaborations built around Ecosystem thinking and design.

Does this more “bottom-up” approach of accelerating the attraction of having Marketplaces more open and ready for the “trading” business make sense, and is the better way to achieve an Ecosystem adoption?

Marketplace designs can indeed drive the adoption of platforms and ecosystems. A marketplace approach can facilitate a “bottom-up” adoption strategy, where individual participants are attracted to the ecosystem through the value they can gain as buyers, sellers, or users of services.

It is always vitally important that any contributor to marketplace solutions receives recognition for their work, efforts, or willingness to participate in enabling and strengthening the Marketplace. The success of any Marketplace is engagement- making it attractive to participate and contribute.

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Why Are We Navigating to the New: A Summary of the Hierarchy of Business Ecosystem Needs

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The Importance of Hierarchy of Business Ecosystems

Why Are We Recommending Navigating into this World of Interconnected Ecosystems?

In the ever-changing and fast-paced world of business and innovation, the paradigm is shifting towards collaborative ecosystems. Traditional models are making way for a new approach emphasising openness, adaptability, and shared vision.

This transformative journey is encapsulated in the Hierarchy of Business Ecosystem Needs, a cascading framework comprising four interconnected layers: Innovation Ecosystems, Business Ecosystems, Dynamic Ecosystems, and the Ecosystems of Enterprises.

Introduction to the Hierarchy:

The Hierarchy of Business Ecosystem Needs is a construct of collaborative ecosystems, navigating complexity with agility, openness, and shared vision. Each layer contributes to the orchestration of innovation, business synergy, dynamic resilience, and collaborative prosperity.

The interconnected dynamics and strategic integration across layers create a self-reinforcing cycle of success. As organizations embark on this transformative journey, they move beyond boundaries, adapting to change, fostering resilience, and achieving collective prosperity through collaborative power, providing the catalyst to a different, highly collaborative management paradigm.

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Moving Beyond Boundaries in the Ecosystem of Enterprises

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Sub–Title: “Prosperity Unleashed Through Collaborative Power”

The Ecosystem of Enterprises- the Apex in the Hierarchy of Business Ecosystems

The Ecosystem of Enterprises Layer- the pinnacle or apex

Ascend to the pinnacle within the Hierarchy of Business Ecosystem Needs where entities dynamically achieve prosperity through collaborative efforts across Enterprises—the Collaborative and Sustaining Prosperity point. The need here is to explore the mechanisms where organizations collaboratively drive value, share prosperity, and unlock opportunities that transcend individual capabilities. This is the final layer of the interconnected Ecosystem thinking and design.

I am introducing the Hierarchy of Business Ecosystem Needs in several posts within this framework. I am outlining the top layer here, the final layer- the Ecosystem of Enterprises. This drives the interconnected Ecosystems in all of what they do.

As I have previously mentioned, the design of this Hierarchy of Business Ecosystems is modular; each Ecosystem can stand alone and offer significant value, but it is part of a more extensive cohesive system where each layer contributes to the overall success of collaborative ecosystems.

The importance of this top tier- the Ecosystem of Enterprises

Leadership needs to drive the profound shift to highly collaborative and co-created Ecosystems, designed and thought through to achieve a collective vision, sets of objectives and ultimate success of (multiple) missions; it does that through this Ecosystem of Enterprises.

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