Recently, I presented my framework to the GIMI think tank GIMI was initiated by a worldwide group of chief innovation officers, innovation executives, academics and consultants in 2009.
The framework I offered is built upon interconnected ecosystems. Connecting innovation, business, dynamics, and enterprise is crucial for creativity, growth, adaptability and growth.
In the event, I was asked what the difference is and why we should shift from today’s traditional innovation models to this interconnected one where innovation ecosystems are the foundation.
So, I want to explain the importance of shifting our thinking towards designing innovation ecosystems. Organizations must rethink their innovation strategies and approaches and focus on opening up to building these interconnected ecosystems.
Defining and building Interconnected Business Ecosystems
This past week was a highly satisfying one. Besides different advisory, consulting, and mentoring activities, this was a week when I felt I had made some significant advances in my Interconnected Business Ecosystem Framework.
It is nicely taking shape, with many parts fleshed out and described. I completed four critical investigation parts and published them on my ecosystems4innovating.com posting site.
The Interconnected Business Ecosystem framework is pioneering in its approach, which aims to help organizations navigate the complexities of today’s business landscape through this interconnected, collaborative ecosystem approach.
The core is establishing an innovative collaboration foundation to reach dynamic collaborations across a diverse ecosystem of partners that unlocks collective prosperity.
The framework looks to 1) tap into collective intelligence, 2) accelerate innovation by cross-pollination, 3) enhance resilience and agility, 4) deliver superior customer experience, and 5) optimize resource utilization across the parties sharing in this interconnected ecosystem.
Dynamics and Knowledge are essential to your future
Dynamism and knowledge insights are crucial to unlocking and stimulating new ideas or thinking. It is all about actively shaping thoughts or insights to navigate the changing terrain.
We do need to actively navigate the rapidly changing business landscape in multiple ways it is not just about reacting to external forces. It’s about proactively shaping the direction and actively participating in the evolution of your industry, your positioning and your own insights.
In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, the ability to build a strong case, stay informed, and think critically is the key to unlocking success and driving innovation.
The Interconnected Business Ecosystem driving impact and increased value.
I am working to validate and expand on the value proposition of the Interconnected Business Ecosystem Framework and have tried to create, hopefully, a compelling pitch that will bring others on board to advance this initiative. I have published this pitch on both of my primary sites, discussing innovation, business, and ecosystems, as they both provide a combination effect for understanding this framework.
I initially called this “the hierarchy of business ecosystem needs,” which built out an interconnected framework of business ecosystems that give organizations a real alternative to how they operate today and in the future.
I provided a comprehensive series of outline papers as the introduction phase earlier this year, which provided the concepts forming a cohesive outline structure of how organizations should think through the future. Also, I provided an earlier view on my paul4innovating.com posting site of “pitching business ecosystems opens up the possibility of real change.”
We need to really open our thinking towards collaborative ecosystems. This is one of openly collaborating and co-creating in different Ecosystem structures and designs to provide a greater diversity of opinions, knowledge, and resources.
This “pooling or network effect” forms around more complex challenges to tackle, thus giving a more sustaining and hopefully greater value in solutions to the needs of their customers, markets, or areas of need.
I have recognized this needed rebranding- hierarchy has some negative connotations.
I have now entitled this The Interconnected Business Ecosystem Framework as it reflects the essence of what I believe this framework provides
Innovation is evolving, the future will be different
I have been asking Google’s Gemini a series of questions about innovation, how it has evolved in the past twenty-five years, and where it seems to be heading.
This is the third and final part of my questioning on looking towards the future and how innovation will evolve, starting from the original thread of looking over the evolution of innovation in the past twenty-five years, since 1999.
This post is about what has evolved and then what will evolve. There is a very different innovation pathway ahead of us, and then I touch upon a vastly different future at the end of this post.
Innovation will evolve very differently, linked tightly to the organization’s future design, no more cutting it loose, housed separately or outside the core.
Collaboration, Idealization and the enabling of innovation
I have have been looking back at innovation and how it has changed over the last twenty-five years. In a series of three posts, I have asked Google’s Gemini to answer five questions to track and trace the progress innovation has made and where it seems to be heading.
This is the second post looking more at collaboration and idealization and how and what has helped it evolve in this period. Hopefully, this change has enabled better value creation and learning how to innovate. (First post here)
So this post, in a series of three, looks at the answers given by Google’s Gemini on how collaboration and ideation evolved the organization’s ability to adapt and what helped.
I decided to hold a conversation with Google’s Gemini about how innovation had changed and hopefully progressed since I first became involved 25 years ago, when I lived in Singapore and was heavily involved in my MBA, which had innovation as an elective.
The MBA elective “hooked” me on innovation, and here I am 25 years later, still going on about innovation, championing, cajoling and encouraging innovation to be more central, disciplined and structured.
So I have taken the educational looking back from Gemini lense of perspective and broken this into three parts. I find it interesting and reaffirming. This is the first of these posts looking at the development, thinking and design of innovation from 1999 to today 2024, twenty-five years.
Innovation can be both highly frustrating and rewarding. It is good to gain a real sense of progress in these past 25 years; otherwise, where have I been?
I often feel innovation has not advanced in these past twenty-odd years, but having all the changes nicely summarized here makes me feel there has been a shape and purpose to be so actively involved in the evolution of innovation over these 25 years and been part of that evolution.
Firstly, this post outlines how innovation has evolved since 1999 and does a further recheck for 2019 until today. So, it covers a twenty-five-year period but recognizes that the last five years have seen a very different set of innovation accelerants.
In January of this year, I introduced the thinking behind “the Hierarchy of Business Ecosystem needs.” This framework was outlined initially in a series of seven posts on my dedicated ecosystem posting site.
On this posting site here, I provided numerous supporting posts in “given” areas of Business Ecosystems that covered some areas I felt were important explainers. This filled a number of critical gaps in building a more comprehensive understanding of Business Ecosystems in their different parts for providing a “fitting” context.
If you go to the “Explore My Insights and Thinking” tag shown above, you will see there are two files you can download that provide all of these posts in a PDF format.
“The Hierarchy of Business Ecosystem Needs presents a holistic approach to navigating the complexities of the modern business landscape. It emphasizes collaborative ecosystems as the key to unlocking untapped potential, driving sustained growth, and achieving collective prosperity.
I have been looking at different ways to pitch Business Ecosystems recently for some evolving and hopefully sustaining work.
You can “pitch” to clients in several different ways. Some know their problems, while others don’t recognize them until they are prompted or confronted. If you have a tried and tested way to solve problems, you can become a little blocked from considering something that looks on the surface as radically different, but underneath might be the pathway (to salvation) for new sustaining solutions.
Pitching business ecosystems has to gain attention and be seen as a (radically) different way to tackle growing complex and challenging business problems. The problem for many is that it does “confront” them in considering the multiple layers of what this might mean regarding changes in mindset, organization thinking, and design, rethinking trust by opening up to others outside your existing network and adapting to a new way of design and thinking.
I will tackle different approaches over several posts, but first, let’s look at organizational strategies and the distinct advantages Business Ecosystems can have compared to the more traditional ways of tackling challenges today.
Combining Ecosystems, technology and GenAI to unlock innovation
The concepts of ecosystem innovation and generative AI has arrived at the point where we need to question workflows have the real poential openness has become central to our process of thinking and development building.
Innovation does need reinventing as a discovery process. Radically different ways of capturing, extracting, and delivering value are emerging. Adopting ecosystem thinking and design, combined with Generative AI, has the impact of augmenting, automating, and rapidly scaling innovation in significantly different ways than ever before.
In one of my posts, “Embrace AI-driven innovation; it is the future,” I looked specifically at how the (traditional) innovation management process will change. The deployment of AI-driven thinking utterly alters my perspective of “delivering” innovation.
