The Four Stages of Ecosystem-Centered Market Strategy
“Ecosystems” are a biological orientation to approach modern market strategy, a way of becoming the ‘invisible mind behind the invisible hand’ to see and spark and sustain entirely new economic systems. It’s a new skill for leadership and management — the goal is to position and then intentionally design a systems of markets to as a single organism, and draw innovative power from their connectivity.
Ecosystem-centered market strategy is characterized by:
System Entrepreneurship. Ecosystem-centered strategy is about combining ‘sets of markets’ to build new economic systems. Instead of market fragments acting in isolation from each other, ecosystems enable new possibilities to achieve objectives defined in terms of ‘system value’.
A New Paradigm in Persuasion. By moving away from the sterile marketing parlance of brands and branding, industry ecosystems provide new metaphors, orientations, language, and ideas — a whole new taxonomy — to see and solve issues of ‘value alignment’ with the business and technology agendas of customers.
A Different Innovation Agenda. Ecosystems enable ‘computational imagination’ in the space between healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. By connecting market fragments in new combinations, complex problems beyond the abilities of individual markets are solvable, and new capabilities are acquired.
High Leverage. Ecosystems are high-leverage. Rather than trying to squeeze more life out of worn-out paradigms, ecosystems transcend the “control points” and feedback loops keeping incumbents in power and the status quo alive, creating the conditions to enable market innovation, strategic transformation and new storylines of value.
There are four stages to ecosystem strategy:
Stage One: “Genesis” — Here is where the basic architecture of a new economic system is worked out. Novel linkages between keystone components are made. Goal is to establish the basic capabilities to create new value.
Stage Two: “Expansion” — Proof-of-concept is established. An ecosystem has taken root, and the keystone partners who established it broaden the scope, reach and offers within the new system.
Stage Three: “Authority” — The system becomes established as a reference point. A new economy organizes its work around this reference point, and the system attracts new components that can access new customers and create new markets.
Stage Four: “Renewal” — Systems are “ideal seeking” – this is why they can never be optimized. The only stable system in life is at death. Continuing innovation to improve system performance must take place for the ecosystem to thrive.
For a more context on how to close the implementation gap between technology innovation and ecosystem-centered market strategies, check out our paper ‘Ecosystem-Centered Business Strategy’ published by IEEE, is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
/ jgs
John G. Singer is Executive Director of Blue Spoon Consulting, a global leader in strategy and innovation at a system level. Blue Spoon was the first to apply systems theory to solve complex market access and integration challenges in the pharmaceutical industry.
