The term \u201cecosystem\u201d sounds intuitive, even almost trivial, today. However, are \u201cecosystems\u201d as a concept and strategy applied to the business world indeed as straightforward as they seem? Are ecosystems the new silver bullet of business strategy?<\/p>\n
Before you prescribe yourself a strategy based on ecosystems, consider the following possible side effects<\/p>\n
The co-evolutionary nature of ecosystems might furthermore mean that your company might one day be no longer alone in the driver\u2019s seat. Others might want to \u201cdrive\u201d as well \u2013 or even eject you entirely from the the ecosystem that you created.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Ecosystems are powerful instruments in today\u2019s economy. However, there is a risk that they could become such entangled webs of interdependencies and interlocked coalitions of (mutual) interests that they escape the control of its members. At worst, you could end up in a situation, where you can neither change, direct, or even leave the ecosystem.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Ecosystems are not simple instruments for optimizing your own organisation. To access resources of others (e.g., physical resources, time but also ideas) requires reciprocity. Ecosystems thus require balancing self-interest with the interests of others, your profits with the value demanded by the other members of the ecosystem, and finally, responsibility for your organization with that for the entire ecosystem. Ecosystems may help to cope with today\u2019s complexity, but in doing so they create their own challenging decision-making situations.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Ecosystems might enrich your company \u2013 but is that a price worth paying if their boundaries become so tight that important outside stimuli cannot reach them any more? That instead of becoming hotbeds of innovation turn into \u201cclosed societies\u201d?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Ecosystems might require changing the model and image of your organization. In the organizational chart, the environment and its ecosystems have no representation. Opening the organization to ecosystems requires a different concept and image of your organization.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
Not all ecosystems are good. The Mafia is an ecosystem, as are the buyer and sales representative of two different companies who collude to reach their annual targets. Ecosystems require not only sound business plans in Excel spreadsheets but also values, moral behavior, and clarity about the overall purpose.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nDrucker Forum 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n