Businesses can no longer grow in isolation. Customers expect a seamless experience, based on a deep understanding of their goals and needs. Delivering customer success is dependent on how well businesses integrate, and co-create, with their partners and other stakeholders.
#communitythinking #communitymindset
An ecosystem is an economic community where organizations and individuals interact for greater value. Like a biological ecosystem, a business ecosystem is not linear. It is a very dynamic system in which participants are constantly moving, where boundaries shift continually to achieve sustainable value and growth.
This triggers interesting strategic considerations.
What is my ecosystem?
Should I build an ecosystem, or participate in one?
Do my partners, stakeholders want to contribute to my goals?
Do I understand my customer or buyer journey across the ecosystem?
Is my organisation or culture dynamic enough?
How does my product strategy enable my ecosystem strategy?
What should I do, and what should I leave to others?
Do I need to build a platform?
How open should I be as an organisation?
Due to the dynamic nature of the ecosystem, these questions have to be answered over and over again, in increasingly faster cycles. The way for organisations to deal with this, is to fundamentally shift the way they approach the world. It starts with by adopting an ecosystem mindset.
Use these 3 core principles to apply ecosystem thinking in your organisation to be successful in this new economy.
In a business ecosystem you can only exist in balance with your surroundings. Ecosystems, in the end, are about trust and the human connection.
Value is created through collaboration across the entire ecosystem, with customers, partners, suppliers and the internal organisation. This requires organisations to focus on a fair exchange of value with the purpose to grow together. So co-creation instead of isolation and ecosystem value instead of shareholder value. And this can be achieved by organising an orchestrating conversations and interactions in the ecosystem based on trust .
Customers always choose the path of the highest value and least resistance. They are individuals with their own goals and context, and expect a seamless experience which deliver the quickest gains to them. A deep understanding of your customers and stakeholders is key to being a valuable contributor to the ecosystem.
Organizations need to deeply understand all stakeholder relationships and identify the customer drivers, gains and pains, revealing challenges and unlocking business opportunities.
To successfully get value out of the ecosystem, your organisation, your product or the service you are offering needs to be prepared to adapt to the ever-changing dynamics.
This requires a modular approach to your organisation, technology and design that is tailored for adoption and ready to jump on the next business opportunity.
Adopting an ecosystem mindset is strategic:
it's about adapting to change and growth.
Let's have a virtual coffee and chat about how we can help you with your community. Contact us or book a meeting with Wilfried.
