Master your business ecosystem for innovation success

Master your business ecosystem to create more value and achieve competitiveness

No business operates in a vacuum. It’s always part of a larger system that involves a web of stakeholders, trends, and external influences. And understanding and managing these interactions is key to driving growth and creating more value for your customers.

The idea of mastering your business ecosystem goes beyond simply providing a product or service; it’s about strategically managing the relationships and dynamics within your entire network to drive value creation. Whether you are responsible for strategic innovation in your organisation, you’re the manager of an innovation cluster, you’ve just undertaken an M&A or are looking for new a strategy, mastering this ecosystem allows you to not only thrive but lead in your industry.

The reality of interconnectivity

No matter how innovative or unique your product or service might seem, it is still shaped by various factors outside your company’s direct control. These factors could range from economic conditions, technological advancements, and customer behaviours to competitive forces, regulatory changes, and even societal trends.

Think about it: A tech company doesn’t just create its software in isolation—it’s influenced by hardware manufacturers, software ecosystems, consumer feedback, data privacy laws, and advancements in technology. Similarly, a fashion brand isn’t only about design and production; it’s influenced by consumer preferences, supply chain logistics, sustainability concerns, and trends in global culture.

Innovation requires collaboration

The best innovations rarely happen in isolation. When you can tap into your ecosystem – whether it’s by collaborating with partners, engaging with customers for feedback, or learning from competitors – you can find new, creative solutions. Ecosystem collaboration allows companies to combine expertise, resources, and diverse perspectives that would be difficult to achieve alone.

Several studies have shown that those companies that keep on innovating through a crisis outperform those that don’t.

companies that keep on innovating through a crisis outperform those that don’t.

This data shows the performance through the financial crisis between the innovators and the index showing a clear spread between each.

While companies may be treading water in the incremental zone, they are subjected to fierce competition in the so-called Red Ocean.

You don’t have to “self-disrupt”.  It’s very hard to achieve, and is, in my opinion, a distraction.

There’s a huge opportunity for organisations to create significant value in the space in between: what I call the ‘Reasonably addressing zone for breakthrough innovation’. 

When you master your business ecosystem, you can:

  1. Attract partners & suppliers: Creating alliances to be able to share resources in cooperative networks, whether in established or new ecosystems.
  2. Create new value: Build partnerships with other organisations can lead to joint innovations, shared resources, or co-created value propositions that benefit everyone involved.
  3. Reduce risk: By mapping out your network of suppliers, partners, competitors, and customers, you can pinpoint vulnerabilities, such as single points of failure in the supply chain or over-reliance on a specific market. This visibility enables pre-emptive actions, such as diversifying resources or securing alternative suppliers.

Common challenges and barriers in understanding your business ecosystem 

Some innovation leaders wrongly assume they know their business ecosystem, but unless it’s mapped out it can lead to missed opportunities, including:

  • An insufficient understanding of the precise nature of complex ecosystems as they are and as they could be.
  • Lack of understanding as to how value is created and exchanged, added, and lost in a fragmented world.
  • Missed opportunities for new value and innovation in products, services, or partnership configurations.
  • The business has an immature approach to risk management and missed potential for innovation in rapidly changing markets predicting transformations and disruptions.

Mastering Ecosystem Mapping 

Would you like to transform your approach to your ecosystem, rapidly moving from immaturity to ecosystem mastery?

We work with leaders in ecosystem thinking, like the IfM at Cambridge University, to offer a commercially proven approach to analysing, innovating, and configuring business ecosystems. Our expert-facilitated, workshop-based process engages your network of experts and delivers initial results in around 12 weeks.

Watch this video for the key essentials. Then continue reading.

YouTube video

Some example Use Cases in business ecosystem mapping

  • Responsible for strategy in a complex technology and service network, such as energy, defence, healthcare, transport, or construction.
  • Building a new ecosystem and accelerating its establishment.
  • Managing complex contracts within a network of service providers.
  • Shifting from goods manufacturing to greater service provision.
  • Developing national or regional capabilities in technology or service sectors and engaging a community of stakeholders.

What results can you expect?

  1. A more precise understanding of the business ecosystem for existing products and services.
  2. 5-10 new areas of value creation, potentially breakthrough innovation.
  3. New partnerships and critical capabilities with strategic insights into your ecosystem.
  4. A shift in the balance of power in understanding and managing the ecosystem for future commercial success.

If you want to unlock the potential of your business ecosystem, achieve greater value and transform your approach to drive innovation and growth, get in touch with me.

Testimonials

In association with the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University, read the testimonials and case studies,

“IfM Engage is helping us to establish tools which enable us to look across our ecosystem and consider new ways that we could work with key players, better shape proposals for, and delivery of new services for our customers. The tools and experience are unique in this area and add real value.” Paul Andrews, Head of Service Systems Engineering, BAE Systems

“The workshops identified some gaps and also started to coalesce key areas of value creation. But, also validated that we weren’t doing anything drastically wrong to date which was very comforting as well. It’s sort of full steam ahead,” Dr Leon Lobo, Head of the National Timing Centre.

“IfM Engage has been a great partner for this project. They have challenged how we think about innovation as an organisation and have done it in a way that has brought genuine excitement towards these new approaches,” Dr Andy Clifton, CTO, Domino Printing Sciences. 

“Before we started the process we feared that we were not competitive enough to win this tender and this would increase risk to future potential contracts. We won the bid thanks in strong part to the themes identified using the workshop, which had a significant impact on our strategic approach by evidencing the best value proposition required to deliver the solution.Head of Service Contracts, BAE Systems

We do ecosystem mapping through our association with IfM Engage at the Institution for Manufacturing at Cambridge University.

Read some of our customer stories and how we’ve helped with business ecosystem mapping: 

Developing a business case for a national capability in timing, National Timing Centre

Rethinking Innovation, Domino Printing Sciences

Ecosystem roadmapping delivers a technology strategy to support manufacturing in Northern Ireland