Ecosystem: from buzzword to engine of new value creation
Ecosystem has become part of the innovation jargon. It is also the key to unlock a wealth of new societal and business value. If the CEO looks primarily after their house, the ecosystem leader acts like a mayor and takes responsibility for the whole village.
This approach is behind some of the most inspiring stories of economic and societal transformations of our times. From the spread of electricity in late 19th-century Europe to the rise of the PC industry and microfinance, to today’s app economy. But for every one of those successes, there are thousands of others that fail to rise above the lowest common denominator, often at great expense and with patience stretched thin.
What’s the difference?
Most start ecosystem initiatives by making a big laundry list of problems and gathering the usual suspects to solve them.
Nothing really happens that way.
It may bring incremental gains but it also reinforces and keeps us stuck in the current way of doing things, which is often the actual problem. Or like Einstein said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
The real promise of ecosystems is in lifting the game to the next level. One that functions better and generates new and better value for all involved.
How do we get there?
By shifting focus from individual problems to collective possibility, and by mixing old and new parts in a new story of value creation.
Both paths are hard work. But the latter also unlocks the necessary energy to make it happen.
And that makes all the difference.
What have you seen help make the shift toward the bigger possibility? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
