Understanding Business Ecosystems & Digital Platforms (A list of knowledge articles to read..)
The word ‘Ecosystem’, as you might know, is not new and was introduced in the field of Botany in the 1930s and was eventually applied to business management parlance in the early 1990s. I heard the term ‘business ecosystem’ at my office during one of our quarterly all-hands meetings many years ago. Organizations in traditional industries had duly noted the emergence and enviable user adoption of ecosystems (and digital platforms) developed by the Chinese digital-native corporations. Traditional industries, who were willing to change and were planning to invest a large chunk of their future annual budgets towards decluttering their legacy software systems, embracing SaaS-led/external-API governed digitization and generating new revenue streams , had assessed the ‘Alibaba model’ to try and gain insights from it, in order to thrive in a digitally interconnected world.
- How can we re-tool the hierarchical value-chain operating model (or a tight vertically-integrated model in some cases) within our industry and increase collaborations with independent entities to build a sustainable ecosystem that could not only spur growth but also present new business opportunities?
- While managing the interdependencies between the varied players in the ecosystem, is there a risk of diluting our core competencies?
- Is there a significant, coherent & quantifiable value that can be gained by orchestrating an ecosystem with collaborators and complementors within and outside of an industry?”
These questions and many more had gained traction.
Below is a list of knowledge-articles from different sources to answer such questions and gain an understanding of business ecosystems & digital platforms.
Note the distinction: A digital platform is a combination of technological building blocks or tools or products that producers and consumers use to network and exchange value. A business ecosystem is a dynamic group/hub of independent economic players (participants of that ecosystem such as consumers, suppliers or even competitors) that create products or services that form a coherent solution (output of the whole ecosystem).
1. What is a business ecosystem and how is it different from other governance models? Types of business ecosystem? Pros and cons of a business ecosystem?
2. In the ecosystem economy, what’s your strategy? What role should you play in an ecosystem?
3. Competitive advantage in the context of an ecosystem? Considerations for designing a sustainable ecosystem? Challenges?
4. Myths and realities of business ecosystems? How do you use an ecosystem?
5. Dimensions of Business Ecosystems for leaders?
6. Legacy businesses and digital platforms?
7. How do you design a business ecosystem?
8. Ecosystem businesses and covid-19 crisis — Crisis proofing a business (Example of companies like Alibaba and Ping An)
9. How to launch your digital platform?
10. For non-platform businesses: How to turn existing products and services into a platform?
11. Why some platforms thrive and others don’t?
12. The future of platforms?
13. Three models for digital collaboration — Lessons from Chinese firms
14. Reference: Alibaba and the future of business
15. Lockdown diaries: China’s ecommerce giants and benefits of an ecosystem to promptly deliver value
16. Self-tuning enterprise: Algorithms driving tactical decisions at dynamic platform companies like Amazon, Netflix and Alibaba
17. Platforms in logistics and shipping industry
Rahul Nilangekar is a Product Manager, Entrepreneur and a budding Writer. He received his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow in India. His corporate work experience spans across the IT services industry and the Automotive industry.