We are in need of the supporting architecture of the AI era, not simply advocating ecosystems or simply using AI within the one organization. The value is in collaborations within networks that combine Ecosystems and AI.
The next competitive advantage will not come from AI capability alone. It will come from designing the intelligence architecture in which AI operates and seeks collaboration
The IIBE Diagnostic Suite is for all those that see Ecosystems as essential for their future
Structural clarity for businesses navigating ecosystem changecome from having available and byoffering, the process, the tools, the engagementthat brings this altogether into a powerful solution
Irrespective of if you are already involved in Ecosystem management within your business IIBE has solutions that support you
Already feeling you are an Ecosystem leader? – Do you already fear a risk of disruption or drift. Are you questioning how they must evolve without destabilizing what you have built.? There are many options for Established players. Strengthen your ecosystem position by confronting disruption, rethinking orchestration, and future-proofing your business model before the ecosystem moves on without you.
Disruptors & Emerging Challengers– those looking to be far more Agile in their innovating and second-movers looking to scale within or against dominant ecosystems. The need and emphasis is to scale your ecosystem strategy with structure and foresight — without losing the agility and edge that makes you a disruptor and focus on those you know you can disrupt for building a new market offering.”
Thirdly, if you are within the Nascent / Laggards / Emerging Catalysts of Organizations just entering the ecosystem space, often through necessity or external change pressure or recognizing the extended value of collaborations and co-creations. Bridge into ecosystem thinking with confidence — gain clarity, build the right partnerships, and leapfrog complexity through focused, actionable tools.No worries we have you covered.
We have not had the tools or comprehensive methodologies to find out what is happening when your Ecosystem shows signs of stress or even collapsing. In this Business Case Study of Northvolt AG using the IIBE Lens approach you can achieve this understanding.
Traditional analysis of the health of any Business Ecosystem can miss so much. In our constructing the Ecosystem IIBE Lens we found the Northvolt business case as a really revealing contrast case for the IIBE and how we learned to evolve it from this. We wanted to show what happened when the Ecosystem ignored the multiple signs of collapsing, and ask if these can be recognized as contributing symptoms earlier?
We believe we can provide the answers through the IIBE Lens
This post is part of a two week series where Week 1 established where the four industrial leaders sit today in their Ecosystem health; Week 2 shows what collapse looks like when the architecture fails in a specific case, Northvolt.
This post is an extended Business Case study of Northvolt AB- it provides some valuable lessons on the management of Ecosystems operating in complex, challenging and often volatile conditions rapidly seeking competitive advantage at speed and scale.
This is a 15-minute+ read as it offers an extended case study of the value of the use of the IIBE lens to a fascinating Ecosystem that showcases how to avoid or avert those moments when you can in your Ecosystem design cross thresholds where your operating logic must fundamentally shift and you realize the architecture has no mechanism to execute these shifts.
This case shows how seemingly a “healthy” ecosystem collapsed, what our original IIBE lens could see – in this case retrospectively- and what was missed, and introduces a new dynamic IIBE principle: designed for Ecosystem optionality under volatility.
Optionality and Volatility in the IIBE Lens Ecosystem design.
Optionality and Volatility in any ongoing Ecosystem design is essential, It is critical to view and understand the risks you have and what might be building as operational and strategic issues.
How much of your current strategic freedom was actually designed- and how much is quietly being consumed? Does Enterprise Option Debt show up on your Balance Sheet? Ecosystems are very different in their management and what is so often lacking is the tools and methodologies of how to evaluate them. The IIBE blueprint and discussing here specifically the IIBE Lens can help overcome these doubts on assessing Ecosystems.
Here in my forth post the ability to assess optionality and volatility need a dedicated focus.
It is for this reason I separated this post within this short series on the value of using the IIBE lens to show how dramatically the evaluation of these two aspects of optionality and volatility can radically alter any Ecosystem assessment.
In today’s complex business environment, ecosystems are no longer static networks — they are living, adaptive systems subject to volatility and uncertainty. For industrial leaders like Siemens, GE Vernova, ABB, and Schneider Electric, understanding how to navigate these dynamics is critical for sustained advantage. What is emerging for each of them is a need for reviewing their strategic design for growing their business in the future. Navigating this is going to be tough and fraught with dangers and opportunities. A IIBE lens provides foresight.
This is written more as a provocation showing the use the IIBE Lens for Ecosystem Management has hidden value . It can uncover uncomfortable truths.
Market conditions, sentiment and reaction to change can determine the longer term positioning for any organization. How well equipped are you to manage in more volatile times? Are you comfortable that your present Ecosystem design has flexibility and agility to adjust?
This post is to trigger thinking. It is written for executives who suspect that their current ecosystem narrative may not survive the next phase of industrial and energy-system change.
Introducing the IIBE Lens. In a series of four posts provided over on my other dedicated Ecosystem Design Hub site provided, is a focus on four of the most capable industrial companies in the world- and can potentially reframe how you read your own position. Applying your own IIBE Lens can certainly help.
In the four posts they are outlining the value of adopting an IIBE Lens you will see how different industrial and energy organizations are evaluated and assessed by using this approach through to positioning positions taken on Ecosystem offerings, to how optionality and volatility can radically alter propositions to impact their future.
Business ecosystems provide a real, sustainable and significant competitive advantage by shifting a company to a higher level of collaborative, networked value creation. Instead of just selling a single product, you are selling a “connected solution” built and supported by a web of partners, providing greater value and outcomes as a result.
Designing Innovation Ecosystems as Integrated Business Ecosystems
I continue to read one report after another concerning the latest state of innovation play. These seem always to be on a repeat button and this does frustrate me. It is like a record stuck at the end unable to be switched off, constantly repeating hopefully there will be some magic intervention. With a record at the end you simple switch it off or lift the “needle” to solve the problem. Let’s do that with simply “innovation”.
Why can’t we move on from talking “just” innovation. We should be highly focused on innovation ecosystems and where they fit with integrated, interconnected business ecosystems. We need to make the connection for todays world.
So let me offer up the compelling case of putting that tired old record about innovation not working finally away and redirecting you to the equivalent of spotify as a Ecosystem solution. Just a typical example- the “excitement” of the 29th PwC Global CEO Survey stating only 50% view innovation as a critical component of their overall business strategy. Well of course innovation is dead, it is seen through the wrong lens.
Recognizing how connected Business Ecosystems need to be
I was just reflecting on the reasons and importance of Ecosystems. I put this together a while ago in an extended chat but felt it was worth publishing as it validates a lot of the direction for my work and the Integratd Interconnected Business Ecosystem (IIBE).
Business Ecosystems are undervalued and often poorly used. The ability to bring together a collaborative network of partners working on a shared goal that has impact and value beyond the existing solution one organisation alone can deliver, has significant advantages to grow out and extend a business.
Intelligent Business Ecosystems Report 2026 connects the needed integration
In an era defined by volatility, complexity, confrontations and rapid technological acceleration, the traditional model of the isolated firm is becoming obsolete. Rigid linear value chains are failing to keep pace with the demand for speed, adaptability, innovation and sustainability.
To survive and thrive, organizations must transcend traditional buisiness silos and evolve into adaptive, resilient interconnected ecosystems
We are sensing the world is entering a decisive shift: in this case from platform-centric models towards fully dynamic, intelligent, coninuously orchestrated business ecosystems.
Ecosystems require a more dynamic, systematic approach to learning
It’s time to see beyond silos and embrace ecosystems as the future of innovation, resilience, and human progress. It is applying these triggers—Awareness, Mindset Shifts, Exploration, Design, Build, and Scale—to craft a pathway that over time moves from recognition to action, collaboration to impact. This is your roadmap. Now is the moment to lead the change.
Ecosystem design and learning are potentially very different from the way we operate within the one organization. So much has to be understood as different to”let go” and apply that Ecosystem thinking.
We need to recognize the comprehensive roadmap recommended below by using each of these triggers—scale, design, build, explore, awareness, and shifts in mindset—so they become the focal points for progressive learning and application within Ecosystem application.
When Ecosystem Strength Quietly Becomes Strategic Constraint
In energy and industrial sectors, many of the most capable organisations are experiencing a paradox they rarely are able to name. There is a constant uncomfortable feeling of “we are not achieving the leverage and our role is becoming less clear and surely growth is not just investing more, have we more structural problems?”
The results seemingly point to they are performing well. They have strong installed bases and this keeps evolving.. The investments made, although intially heavily in digital, automation, partnerships, and platforms have enabled new offerings and solutions, yet this could be better.
