Ecosystem design thinking

The Mindset Shift in Business Ecosystem Thinking

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Opening up the Mind to Connected Ecosystem thinking

During this month of September 2025 I (finally) launched my comprehensive approach to Integrated Interconnected Business Ecosystems. It has all somewhat come out in one big rush. Fifteen posts in one month (!) but I took the view this needs explaining, exploring and expanding the thinking that went into it over a long learning and research period.

Moving from a business largely based on linear thinking is really hard to master initally. It takes a real mindshift and commitment to understand the why, how along with the what and when, and then where to apply this within your business, to explore and then learn for expanding it across the organization.

Nothing happens overnight, it does take a structured learning and implementation plan. It takes a dedicated approach of learning and experimenting.

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The Industrial Metaverse and the Need for Dynamic Ecosystem Thinking

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A Dynamic Industrial Metaverse Ecosystem is characterized by continuous evolution

The Industrial Metaverse is described as a significant part of the next evolution of the Industry 4.0, moving beyond mere digitalization to create an interconnected, intelligent, and interactive digital realm that transforms industrial operations, innovation, and value creation. Its potential benefits include increased efficiency, enhanced safety, reduced costs, accelerated innovation, improved sustainability, and bridging skill gaps.

I would argue that the array of potential solutions available or emerging within the Industrial Metaverse constitutes a true ecosystem, envisioning it as a persistent, real-time, interconnected, immersive, and social digital universe filled with contextual experiences. Therefore, it should be treated as such in its organizing structure of Ecosystem thinking and Design.

We need to think Dynamic Ecosystems for the Industrial Metaverse

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A A-Ha! Moment. So why are Dynamic Ecosystems so important to the Industrial Metaverse?

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Combining the Power of Dynamic Ecosystems with the Industrial Metaverse

Lets have a A-Ha! Moment about the importance of Dynamic Ecosystems for the Industrial Metaverse?

Recently I have been writing about how Dynamic Ecosystems are the essential missing piece to unlocking the Industrial Metaverse. The series of five posts can be viewed over on my posting site are sequential  Start here perhaps.

Diving in for some opening observations and views

What Is a Dynamic Ecosystem applied here?

  • A Dynamic Ecosystem is a continuously evolving network of diverse participants—companies, technologies, data sources, and people—that interact in real time to co-create value. It’s not static; it’s built for motion, adaptation, and collective intelligence.

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How are you facing a changing more dynamic world? In partnership or isolation?

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Business Ecosystems are interconnected and integrated to build unique value and greater resilience

How are you facing a changing, world defined by a growing volatility (VUCA)?

This LAUNCHES a definitive dynamic ecosystem blueprint focusing on the integrated concepts and frameworks I have been working on for the past 20 months. The research and design are providing a new architecture. It is distinctive and has many parts that will emerge in the next months.

Here I am introducing the solution concept to overcome and redefine how organizations can create superior value and drive innovation in more distinctive and radical ways in a more dynamic world we are facing today.

The approach using the Integrated Interconnected Business Ecosystem (IIBE) recognizes that value is no longer confined within the boundaries of a single enterprise but emerges from the synergistic interactions and contributions of diverse stakeholders

Letting go of our past– the legacies that constrain us

The organizational designs mostly today are still rooted in the industrial era and ill-equipped to meet the demands of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ubiquity (VUCA). We today require an unsentimental mind-shift in thinking, strategy approaches and execution design to adapt.

For decades, traditional business frameworks relied on a stable, predictable structure. The linear value chain and rigid hierarchy, with their clear lines of command and control, were the standard for maximizing efficiency and scaling operations.

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A New Strategy for a Complex World With The Transformative Power of Business Ecosystems

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The complexities within Business Ecosystems

In a world defined by volatility, complexity, and rapid change, traditional business models are showing their age. Linear value chains, siloed operations, and rigid hierarchies struggle to keep pace with the demands of modern markets. Enter the business ecosystem—a dynamic, interconnected network of partners, platforms, and shared capabilities that reshapes how organizations think, operate, and innovate. It is radically different from the “age of the industrial revolution”, it collaborates, evolves, adapts constantly and scales consistently on the connections and values it produces.

Business ecosystems aren’t just a trend that leaves behind our old business designs. They represent a fundamental shift in mindset, strategy, and execution. They challenge old assumptions, unlock new possibilities, and offer a resilient path forward in uncertain times.

Let’s explore how ecosystems transform organizations from the inside out. They are radically different

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Resilience Building for Ecosystems in Tough Economic Times

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Resilience Building for Ecosystems

Economic downturns force organizations to make hard choices. Budgets shrink, uncertainty grows, and risk tolerance drops. In this climate, investing in ecosystems might seem counterintuitive—but it’s actually one of the most prudent moves a forward-thinking organization can make. One of the most important needs is to look always to build resilience into all you do, Ecosystems can build that

Ecosystems—collaborative networks of partners, platforms, and shared technologies—offer a way to do more with less. They enable agility, reduce costs, and unlock new value streams. But to succeed, ecosystem investments during economic difficulty must be strategic, lean, and focused on long-term resilience.

Here’s how organizations can build ecosystem capabilities that deliver immediate value while minimizing financial exposure.

These are some general thoughts to trigger your thinking or make some of the suggested moves to shape your organization for agility and resilience through Ecosystem design and thinking. This can be the time to reshape your organizations agility and collaborative thinking.

Where do you start?

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Being Smart – Invest in Ecosystems During Recessions

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Being Smart Invest in Ecosystems During Recessions

When economic headwinds hit, conventional wisdom urges organizations to tighten belts, cut costs, and hunker down. But history—and strategy—suggests a more nuanced approach. Recessions, while challenging, also offer rare windows for bold moves. One of the most powerful yet underutilized strategies during downturns is investing in ecosystems.

Ecosystems—collaborative networks of partners, platforms, and shared resources—can help organizations weather economic storms and position themselves for accelerated growth when the tide turns. But convincing leadership to invest during a recession requires re-framing the conversation. It’s not about spending more—it’s about spending smarter.

Putting some of my opening thoughts into some form of “good” order, here is a view for considering Ecosystems

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Resolving Today’s Current Innovator’s Ecosystem Dilemma Progressively

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Recognizing the Innovator’s Dilemma with Ecosystems

What would force us to change or radically adjust our existing business trajectory? Can we afford to take another period of uncertainty, what are the risks? Does it make sense to alter our existing Business Models?

At some time it is absolutely right for the C-level to ask! It cuts to the core of the Innovator’s Dilemma applied to organizational transformation.

A terrific book, an Innovation foundational one, was “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,” first published in 1997. It is most probably the best-known work of the Harvard professor and businessman Clayton Christensen. It describes how large incumbent companies lose market share by listening to their customers and providing what appears to be the highest-value products, but new companies that serve low-value customers with poorly developed technology can improve that technology incrementally until it is good enough to quickly take market share from established business (source Wikipedia). Today’ it is so different, anyone can take market share through applying technology thoughtfully.

This concept today faces far more “dilemmas” that can be more widely applied as the “disruptor” has even more “disrupting tools” at their disposal as they search and connect all the “dots” of opportunity that those incumbents will struggle to adopt though legacy or speed of market reaction. “Higher value” needs to be replaced with “Greatest Connecting Value”.

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Navigating the Human Dimension of Ecosystems: A C-Level Imperative

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Connected Business Ecosystems, overcoming the Human Dimensions

There is immense strategic value, real growth potential, and significant competitive advantages that pioneering ecosystem companies like Apple, Amazon, John Deere and Siemens have achieved. We’ve seen the trillions in value generated and the market dominance secured by the adoption of unique Ecosystem designs turning into robust Business Models.

However, the journey to becoming an ecosystem leader is not merely a technological or financial one. It’s fundamentally a leadership journey that requires navigating significant human and organizational dimensions. This is where many companies stumble, not because they lack the vision, but because they fail to prepare for the inevitable impact on their people, their culture, and their ingrained ways of operating.

Let’s address the ‘elephants in the room’:

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Are Business Ecosystems Being Overtaken, Facing the New Realities

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Building Strong Business Ecosystems for the Future

I recently got into a chat exchange between Google Gemini and myself on the present and future of Business Ecosystems. So editing this down into two major points

Firstly “why our old structures are no longer good enough” and then “are business ecosystems being overtaken?”

I worry more over the second question on the view of “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. – Wayne Gretzky as within my advisory role it is necessary to anticipate movements in the business world to predict its future trajectory and be in the right place at the right time or at least try too!

So within our exchanges the realities and reassurances come out. Let me share these:

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