Louise Kelly Founder Thought Leaders Circle reflects on Business as an EcosystemOpen collaboration, togetherness, business boundaries with passages in and out, open architecture, open talent, sharing IP, these are the qualities that are building businesses of the future. The old tightly guarded trade secrets, the product based value propositions, are being out trumped by externally engaged, win-win business alliances that are creating ecosystems of value.
Open collaboration, togetherness, business boundaries with passages in and out, open architecture, open talent, sharing IP, these are the qualities that are building businesses of the future. The old tightly guarded trade secrets, the product based value propositions, are being out trumped by externally engaged, win-win business alliances that are creating ecosystems of value.
Just compare Blackberry to Apple, who became the victims of their own product centricity. Their tightly held business boundaries kept them out of the collaboration space and falling prey to Apple’s ecosystems of value approach. Apple supported alliances, a seamless business, and co creation and co development with the partner application builders.
From 2008 to 2010, Blackberry’s financial performance dived to half of what it was, and from 2012 to 2013, Blackberry completely lost its footing in the market. How quickly fortunes change in a mobile economy. Two years, about the length of an average mobile contract, is all it takes for a market wipe out. What Blackberry failed to see, was that brand equity lies in the product’s ability to connect to other applications, not just the functionality and design of the phone.
We see this Ecosystem of Value trend in the new hype of the Industrial Internet. Jet engines that monitor and correct themselves, product’s like Apple compatible jawbone, a bracelet which monitors our body, sleep, heart beat and exercise. The Industrial Internet, describes the new possibilities created from connecting the internet of things, data driven learning and the connectivity of machines.
“More objects are becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate. The resulting information networks promise to create new business models, improve business processes, and reduce costs and risks.”
Michael Chui, Markus Löffler, and Roger Roberts, McKinsey Quarterly
The Industrial Internet takes the promise of what has been till now an over hype, Big Data and really send it to work with exciting possibilities. Up until today Big Data has been used for its multivariate analysis, which gives the insights of “if this, so is this”, which often doesn’t capture all the causal data and can led to incorrect assumptions. However Big Data can work well in a closed system, like that delivered by the industrial internet, which is basically an ecosystem within greater eco systems.
I’ll go out with a bang….. here is a big, big claim from General Electric, leaders in the industrial internet:
The industrial internet opportunity represents $32.3 trillion, 46% share of the global economy today.
You can take your slice of the big industrial internet pie by busting through your concept of the four walls of your business, instead think of your business as a node in an ecosystem of value.
Louise Kelly
Managing Director
Hearts and Minds
Founder Thought Leaders Circle
References
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/08/blackberry_forgot_to_manage_the.html
http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=BB:TOR
http://www.ge-ip.com/industrial-internet
Thought Leaders Circle 