Business Ecosystems | Innovating in the Age of Ecosystems

Principles for Bridging Traditional to Ecosystem Thinking

Feeling trapped, break out of the box with Innovation Business Ecosystems

I have been investing a growing amount of time in building my understanding of Business Ecosystems and from one of my AI chats I really do get some wonderful “nuggets” of thinking.

It does continue to amaze me within a stream of exchanges or prompts how you are sparked into another strand of thinking that continues to build your understanding or simplify a part that can be complicated to explain.

One of these “popped up” while I was trying to relate Natural Ecosystems with Business Ecosystems and I asked a follow on a prompt around mind shifts “What are the principles of the mind shift to bring structure to recognizing different changes in thinking from existing business thinking to make the bridge into fresh thinking needed for Business Ecosystem thinking.”

I simply loved this reply as so clear and defined for changing thinking.

Eight principles for bridging traditional thinking into Ecosystem thinking

What will enable us to transform our world?

We need to reshape and transform our future

We are in a world of re-calibrating our business, where to invest and who to partner with. Firstly we have to cut-away much of our existing approaches and thinking of how we organize and operate.

Opening our minds to the alternative of being in a collaborative network, sharing in value and worth.

Having a reliable network to plug into and exchange views in confidence and speedily is vitally important. Many of those advisors we relied upon for economic prediction, (banks, consultancies, think tanks, even prediction models) providing their advice was prevalent on stability. They are at present as much at sea deciphering future direction as the rest of us.

What you can revert too and draw in a better level of confidence and understanding comes from the value and worth of your own trusted network. Who we know, who we work with and trust is so valuable in these volatile times.

Building the Design of the Integrated Interconnected Business Ecosystem

Driving Integrated Interconnected Business Ecosystems

The integrated interconnected business ecosystem is a framework that offers a pioneering approach, one that builds the mechanisms to unlock sustainable and connected growth. This approach to business ecosystems fosters continuous innovation and works towards lasting competitive advantage through its interconnected parts.

At its core this holistic framework harmonizes five independent layers- Innovation, Entrepreneurial, Business, Dynamic and Enterprise Ecosystems- creating a virtuous cycle of value creation, resilience, sustainability and adaptability.

By adopting this framework, your organization gains a comprehensive implementation to back your move towards Business Ecosystems in design and thinking

Forget traditional operating models when dealing in Business Ecosystems

Comparing Operating Models to change to Business Ecosystems

Forget how you operate in traditional business models if you are considering the value and benefits of applying Ecosystem thinking and designs. You really have to think radically differently.

There are significant differences in how we (can) operate and appreciate the distinctive aspects between our traditional management approach and applying Ecosystem thinking and design. Initial assessments are highly valuable before you embark on participating in Ecosystem collaborations.

There are several emerging frameworks that provide for both universal and distinct application stages. There is always a need to emphasis “contextual nuances” and those “triggering points” but those are further critical aspects to explain for gaining a deeper understanding of Business Ecosystem distinctiveness in future posts.

My aim is to encourage business thinking around Collaborative Ecosystem Management for the future. Considering and then undertaking Business Ecosystems has a very different organizational impact and significant changes to be considered to be built and then put into place.

One exercise I recently undertook was to compare traditional to ecosystem distinctiveness. I offer here ten key distinctive areas for comparison. Let me share these:

There are many aspects to evaluate. Here I provide a handy comparison of existing and necessary changes likely to be made for Ecosystem management. Take a look at many of the principle differences.

I have put these into ease-of-reference set of tables.

Feeling trapped,break out of the box with innovation ecosystems

We continue to fail to unlock the full potential of innovation. I continue to receive reports on the latest surveys on the management of open innovation and its progress.

So little is said or discussed on changing the innovation system, it seems organizations are (really) comfortable with incremental or experimental innovation as the extent of their ambition. We are trapped in a ever decreasing cycle.

I recall one report mentioning only 7% of innovation is deemed radical or significantly changing the way business undertakes innovation.

The business model, built on the premise the knowledge needs to flow into “us” and not mutually sharing the final outcomes, going into the market. Why?

In my view, Innovation Ecosystems Outperforms Traditional Internal Innovation Structures? Why don’t we change?

Recognizing Dynamics Ecosystems are the core to Innovation change

Recognizing Dynamic Ecosystems are at the core of Innovation Business Ecosystems

The strategic shift to dynamic ecosystems as a decision-making core for innovation and business ecosystems reflects a paradigm shift towards intelligent, real-time responsiveness.

This approach emphasizes not only operational flexibility but also strategic agility, enabling businesses to anticipate and lead rather than merely respond to change.

So what is special or radical in making Dynamic Ecosystems central?

We live in a world that is highly dynamic, it shifts and alters constantly. We have pursued Innovation in linear ways and these always lag. Technology has provided us to escape from the past and respond on a constant ‘real-time’ basis.

Lets change the old record and sound on innovation

The old record and sound of Innovation certainly needs changing.

Recently I have been reading about how innovation management needs to get back to basics or how it needs to be given a fresh lick of paint in professional certification, revised and updated university training programs or short courses.

For twenty years, since I have been working in the innovation space, we have constantly complained about so many different aspects of innovation failure and offered solutions to why innovation management still seemingly fails to deliver on its promise to build new growth inside our organizations. Offering innovation advice is a big industry to consult and academically, to teach in.

We keep innovation management locked into a 20th-century paradigm and I believe we must break the “chains” and make a significant shift in our innovation thinking, into innovation and business ecosystems

2024 Under Innovation and Business Ecosystem Review

My review of 2024 from a posting perspective has been a really positive one.

Taking my two primary posting sites of paul4innovating.com and ecosystems4innovating.com I wrote just over 100 posts, which always comes as a surprise in what it entails in time invested.

The split between sites was fairly even as I continue to increase my focus on building the building case for Ecosystems, in thinking and design.

In this reflective post I took a look back on why I moved from an “absolute” focus on innovations into innovation and business ecosystems.

Pitch me on why Innovation Ecosystems are better than my present open innovation approach

Pitching the reasons to change to Innovation Ecosystems in thinking and design

So after working through the values of the Innovation Ecosystem over a series of three posts I asked Chat GPT to help me in making a pitch for the change from existing internal orientated innovation processes and structures.

I wanted to go way beyond just “open innovation” here, I wanted to provide a compelling set of reasons to make this move or accelerate this into reality.

Does this resonate with you? Are you moving along this journey of change seeing the reasons and lasting potential?

Unlocking the Full Potential of Innovation: Why an Innovation Ecosystem Outperforms Traditional Internal Innovation Structures and Systems

Buttons and Threads: A Modern Ecosystem Perspective

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the “buttons and threads” concept perhaps is a powerful metaphor for understanding and designing interconnected business ecosystems.

This updated perspective integrates technological advancements and business practices to illustrate how organizations can thrive in a network-centric world.

I was first introduced to the “Buttons & Threads” concept while working within one alliance I had in consulting while living in Singapore back in 2003. This concept was envisaged, in my view, before its time and ability to deliver due to the constraints of not having technology sufficiently capable and developed to be scaled and connected up, to fully gain the value that this concept offered from an Ecosystem perspective.