Dynamic Balance 1: Ecosystems and Single Institutions AI Voice Agent Guide

 

 

1. Introduction and Purpose of the AI Voice Agent

The AI Voice Agent is a pioneering feature of the Drucker Forum 2025 experience, designed to capture real-world perspectives on management’s evolving challenges.

By participating, you are contributing to the Next Management initiative, which seeks to redefine management practices to better align with today’s challenges. Your insights will be used to shape discussions at the 2025 Drucker Forum and beyond.

This dynamic AI interview agent adapts to each participant’s insights, fostering a structured yet fluid dialogue on this Dynamic Balance Domain as outlined below.
 

2. Ecosystems and Single Institutions: Framing the Current Context

As value migrates toward ecosystems, organizations must operate beyond institutional boundaries, navigating networks they don’t control with legacy management systems optimized for internal control and efficiency.

Most management systems today remain fundamentally institution centric. Organizations are structured, governed, and evaluated as bounded entities - optimized for internal efficiency, vertical integration, and discrete accountability. Success is measured by institutional metrics like profit, productivity, and market share, largely within the confines of the firm.

Meanwhile, value creation has shifted outward. Complex challenges like climate risk, platform interoperability, and stakeholder coordination require collaboration across ecosystems of customers, suppliers, regulators, NGOs, and civic actors. Yet few institutions are designed to operate in multi-stakeholder ecosystem contexts. Ecosystem engagement is often informal, under-resourced, and disconnected from core operations.

This creates a growing gap between institutional design and ecosystem reality. The assumption that internal control ensures external success is weakening. Managers increasingly must act in networks they do not own, influence outcomes beyond their walls, and contribute to systems they cannot fully control. But current tools, metrics, and mindsets remain largely tuned to individual institutional performance.

 

3. Structure of the Interview

The purpose of this interview is to explore how the dynamic balance between ecosystem engagement and institutional leadership may evolve over time. As value migrates toward ecosystems, organizations must operate beyond institutional boundaries, navigating networks they don’t control with legacy management systems optimized for internal control and efficiency.

More specifically, we’re interested in how organizations and management must evolve to support and sustain this dynamic balance. 

The interview itself will last about 30 minutes. The AI agent will solicit your input on the following questions: 
 

  1. Looking ahead to 2030, how do you foresee the balance between ecosystem engagement and institutional leadership shifting over the next five years?
     
  2. If organizations fail to dynamically balance ecosystem engagement and institutional leadership over the next five years, what strategic, operational, and reputational consequences might they face?
     
  3. To dynamically balance ecosystem engagement and institutional leadership over the next five years, what structural, systems and governance model shifts will be required? 
     
  4. To dynamically balance ecosystem engagement and institutional leadership over the next five years, what new management mindsets, responsibilities, capabilities and practices will be required?

 

4. Practical Participation Guidelines

Technical Requirements:

  • The AI Voice Agent works on all tested browsers (Firefox, Safari, etc.).
  • Ensure a stable internet connection and use headphones for clarity.
  • Choose a quiet space to avoid background interference.
  • Works best on mobile.
  • Works best without VPN.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Find a quiet space to ensure clarity during the conversation.
  2. Click the interview link to access the AI Voice Agent (see Below)
  3. Press ‘Talk to Vapi’ to initiate the interview.
  4. Ensure you allow microphone access when prompted.
  5. Wait for the AI to prompt for your name or alias.
  6. Engage with the interview agent knowing you can:
  1. Ask for clarifications or examples.
  2. Let the Advisor know if you need to take a break (up to 1 minute).
  3. Exit anytime by saying “I need to exit.”

 

5. Accessing the AI Agent
When you are ready to “Talk to Vapi” click on the button below:

Talk to vapi here.

 

6. Ethics and Data Privacy Information

This interview is part of the Next Management initiative led by the Peter Drucker Society Europe (PDSE). The project is spearheaded by Professor Johan Roos, Executive Director of the Vienna Center for Management Innovation (PDSE) and affiliated professor at Hult International Business School (UK). 

To meet academic ethics and data protection requirements, ethics approval is granted through Hult, a UK-based academic institution. All data handling complies with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Participation is voluntary and you have the choice for your responses to be anonymous. By clicking the interview link and continuing the conversation with our AI Voice Agent, you consent to the following:

  • Purpose of Data Collection: To explore emerging management practices and leadership perspectives.
  • Data Collected: A text-based transcript of your responses. No audio recordings are saved.
  • Legal Basis for Processing: Consent, in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) of the UK GDPR.
  • Use of Data: Aggregated insights will inform presentations, reports, and academic publications. No identifiable personal data will be disclosed.
  • Automated Processing: The interview is conducted by an AI voice agent. While it adapts questions based on your responses, no automated decisions affecting you are made.
  • Data Transfers: Infrastructure from Vapi and large language models may involve processing outside the UK/EEA. Appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure data protection.
  • Retention: Anonymized transcripts will be securely stored and may be used for future research and learning.

 

You may exit the interview at any time by saying “I need to exit.” You may also request deletion of your data by contacting us at [info@druckerforum.org]