So much is spoken about around “dynamics” when it comes to projecting a higher level of vibrancy or providing the extra value placed within your organizations success. In any thriving business ecosystems it is the dynamics within the system that empower new avenues of innovation, growth and resilience in today’s interconnected world.

I keep reverting back to dynamic ecosystems as it is a journey that requires ongoing nurturing and adaptation but recognizing its central importance is significant.

“Imagine your business is not a static entity, but as a thriving ecosystem – more resilient, innovative, restless and adaptable that you ever thought possible. By embracing the principles of Dynamic Ecosystem thinking, we can unlock new levels of growth and competitive advantage.”

Expanding on the idea of Dynamic Ecosystems as the decision-making and adaptability core of business ecosystems involves positioning them as both the “intelligence layer” and the “adaptive engine” that powers business agility, resilience, and growth. This approach redefines their role from a passive network to a responsive, intelligence-driven hub that continuously senses, learns, and guides the ecosystem.

For me Dynamic Ecosystems become the Core of our innovating activity

The dynamic ecosystem provides the flows between the ecosystems, facilitating these connections. So imagine a circular model with the other ecosystems arranged around the core, the dynamic ecosystem, link the interconnected parts and multi directional arrows showing constant flow and interactions around and through the middle.

The Dynamic core is constantly processing and distributing, challenging, providing information, resource and innovative ideas and insights to give a bidirectional flow.

It is the founding principles of Dynamic Ecosystems that unlock levels of growth and competitive advantage.

Lets explore those principles from a leadership “language” perspective:

1. From Interdependence & Mutual Benefit to “Strategic Partnerships for Exponential Growth”:
   • Business Language: “Instead of isolated silos, we’re building a network where our success is intertwined with our partners’. By strategically collaborating and creating mutual value, we unlock new markets, share risks, and achieve growth that would be impossible alone. Think of it as a force multiplier for market penetration and innovation.”
   • Investment/Exploration Value: Investing in identifying and nurturing the right strategic partnerships within the ecosystem will lead to new revenue streams, access to complementary capabilities, and reduced cost of entry into new markets. Exploring collaborative business models will reveal untapped value.

2. From Resource Flow & Circulation to “Optimized Resource Utilization & Accelerated Innovation Cycles”:
   • Business Language: “We’re breaking down internal barriers and external silos to ensure seamless access to critical resources – data, insights, talent, technology. This eliminates redundancy, accelerates knowledge transfer, and fuels faster innovation cycles. Imagine R&D that’s amplified by the collective intelligence of the ecosystem.”
   • Investment/Exploration Value: Investing in interoperable platforms and data-sharing infrastructure will improve efficiency and unlock valuable insights. Exploring open innovation models and talent-sharing initiatives will accelerate the development and adoption of new products and services.

3. From Diversity & Redundancy to “Enhanced Resilience & Risk Mitigation”:
   • Business Language: “A diverse ecosystem isn’t just about variety; it’s about building resilience. By engaging with a wide range of partners, we reduce our dependence on any single entity and create multiple pathways to achieve our goals. This makes us far more robust in the face of market volatility and unexpected disruptions.”
   • Investment/Exploration Value: Investing in building a diverse partner network and exploring alternative solutions within the ecosystem will de-risk our operations and create more agile supply chains and innovation pipelines.

4. From Adaptation & Evolution to “Future-Proofing Your Business through Continuous Learning & Agility”:
   • Business Language: “The market is constantly changing. A dynamic ecosystem allows us to continuously learn, adapt, and evolve at a pace that individual companies can’t match. By embracing experimentation and scaling successful adaptations quickly, we stay ahead of the curve and future-proof our business.”
   • Investment/Exploration Value: Investing in data analytics capabilities to monitor ecosystem trends and in agile experimentation frameworks will enable rapid response to market shifts and the early adoption of emerging technologies.

5. From Self-Organization & Emergence to “Unlocking Breakthrough Innovation & Unexpected Opportunities”:
   • Business Language: “By fostering an environment of autonomy and collaboration, we create the conditions for unexpected breakthroughs and the emergence of entirely new business models. We’re tapping into the collective creativity of the ecosystem, going beyond the limitations of our internal thinking.”
   • Investment/Exploration Value: Investing in platforms and initiatives that facilitate open collaboration and idea generation can lead to disruptive innovations and the discovery of unforeseen market opportunities.

6. From Hierarchy Based on Value Contribution to “Attracting Top Talent & Rewarding Impact”:
   • Business Language: “In a dynamic ecosystem, influence and leadership are earned through the value you bring. This attracts top talent who want to make a real impact and fosters a meritocratic environment where contributions are recognized and rewarded. This creates a powerful engine for attracting and retaining the best.”
   • Investment/Exploration Value: Investing in transparent performance metrics within the ecosystem and in recognition programs will attract high-value contributors and incentivize active participation.

So why are Dynamic Ecosystems needed to become the core?

The concept of Dynamic Ecosystems as the central element makes sense for several reasons:

1. Adaptability: Dynamic Ecosystems inherently embody the ability to respond and adapt quickly to changes, which is crucial in today’s fast-paced business environment
2. Catalyst for Innovation: By creating an environment that is constantly in flux, Dynamic Ecosystems can serve as a trigger for continuous innovation, pushing other ecosystem types to evolve and innovate
3. Responsive Framework: A dynamic core allows the entire Integrated Business Ecosystem Framework to be more responsive to market changes, technological advancements, and shifting customer needs.

It is viewing Dynamic Ecosystems as the intelligent, adaptive, and resilient core of future organizations, highlights their central role in driving innovation, flexibility, and sustainable growth.

The Call to Action:

“The old models of isolated growth are reaching their limits. Dynamic Ecosystems offer a fundamentally new way to build a more resilient, innovative, and ultimately more successful business”

The Concept for a Dynamic Ecosystem as the Core to the Interconnected Business Ecosystem framework has been a realization than makes it central

The time to explore these principles and strategically invest in building your ecosystem is now. Let’s move beyond incremental improvements and unlock exponential potential.

By framing the principles in terms of tangible business benefits like growth, resilience, innovation, and talent acquisition, and by highlighting the direct value of investment and exploration in each area, you begin to recognize the concept of Dynamic Ecosystems does resonate with those progressive business leaders and motivate them to take action. The key is to connect the “wisdom” to bottom-line results and strategic advantage.

Having Dynamic Ecosystems in the core it moves away from static, hierarchical models towards a more fluid and responsive interconnected framework that better reflects the realities of today’s business landscape.

The post Are you ready to explore Dynamic Ecosystem Principles as Business Leaders? first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

Are we seeing a growing influence of how different technologies are forming and shaping Business Ecosystems? The influence of AI and Machine Learning,Blockchain and Decentralized Technologies, Digital Twins and Simulations, Edge Computing and IoT, Platform technology and use of API’s in Marketplaces all shape our growing needs.

My question is “did technology lead to ecosystems or did ecosystems need technology to realize vision or outcomes?

It is not simple but rather a dynamic and evolving interplay.

it’s a dynamic interplay. Sometimes, a groundbreaking technology emerges that creates new possibilities and enables the formation of entirely new ecosystems that weren’t previously conceivable. Other times, a clear vision for a more interconnected and efficient way of doing things drives the development and adoption of specific technologies to realize that vision.

The best way to explore this question of what comes first is to break down some examples to illustrate how technology and business ecosystems influence each other:

Did Technology Lead to Ecosystems? Some Examples:

Platform Technology and APIs: The advent of robust platform technologies and standardized Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) has been a significant driver in the formation of ecosystems. Think of companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS). Their comprehensive suite of cloud services and well-documented APIs allowed countless independent software vendors (ISVs) and businesses to build their own services and products on top of AWS infrastructure. This created a vast ecosystem of interconnected solutions, where AWS provides the foundational technology, and partners contribute specialized capabilities

Similarly, the APIs provided by social media platforms like Twitter (now X) and Facebook (now Meta) enabled developers to create third-party applications, expanding the functionality and reach of the core platform and fostering an ecosystem of related services.

Mobile and App Stores: The development of powerful mobile operating systems (like iOS and Android) and the concept of centralized app stores revolutionized how software is distributed and consumed. These platforms provided the technological infrastructure for a massive ecosystem of developers to create and offer applications directly to users. The ease of access and the built-in marketplace fostered a vibrant ecosystem where innovation could flourish.

How about Blockchain and Decentralized Technologies: While still evolving, blockchain technology has the potential to enable entirely new types of decentralized ecosystems. For example, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is emerging as an alternative financial system built on blockchain, allowing for peer-to-peer lending, borrowing, and trading without traditional intermediaries. The technology itself enables the creation of these new ecosystems.

Did Ecosystems Need Technology to Realize Vision or Outcomes?

Supply Chain Optimization: The vision of a highly efficient and transparent global supply chain has long existed. However, it’s the advancements in Edge Computing and IoT (Internet of Things) that are making this vision a reality. IoT sensors can track goods in real-time, providing data to edge computing devices for immediate analysis and action. This data can then be shared across the ecosystem of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, leading to better forecasting, reduced waste, and faster delivery times. The need for seamless information flow across a complex ecosystem drove the adoption and development of these technologies.

Smart Cities: The concept of interconnected urban environments aimed at improving quality of life, sustainability, and efficiency requires the integration of various technologies. AI and Machine Learning are crucial for analyzing the vast amounts of data generated by sensors and other systems. Platform technology and APIs are needed to connect different city services (transportation, energy, public safety). Digital Twins and Simulations allow city planners to model and optimize urban development. The ecosystem vision of a smart city necessitates the deployment and integration of these advanced technologies.

Personalized Healthcare: The desire for more tailored and proactive healthcare solutions is driving the development and adoption of technologies like AI and Machine Learning for diagnostics and treatment recommendations, wearable IoT devices for continuous health monitoring, and secure platform technologies for data sharing among patients, doctors, and researchers. The ecosystem goal of a more patient-centric and effective healthcare system relies heavily on these technological advancements

The answer is this dynamic Interplay:

Ultimately, it’s a dynamic interplay as I have already mentioned above. Sometimes, a groundbreaking technology emerges that creates new possibilities and enables the formation of entirely new ecosystems that weren’t previously conceivable.

Other times, a clear vision for a more interconnected and efficient way of doing things drives the development and adoption of specific technologies to realize that vision.

Think of it as a feedback loop:

1. Technology enables: A new technology emerges, offering novel capabilities.
2. Ecosystem vision forms: Businesses and individuals see the potential of this technology to create new connections, efficiencies, or value.
3. Ecosystem develops: Participants build solutions and services leveraging the technology, forming an interconnected ecosystem.
4. Ecosystem needs drive further technology development: The evolving needs and challenges within the ecosystem spur further innovation and refinement of existing technologies or the development of new ones.
   
   
   In conclusion, while certain foundational technologies have undeniably paved the way for the creation of many modern business ecosystems, the specific needs and aspirations of these ecosystems often drive the adoption, integration, and further development of technology.

It’s a continuous cycle of innovation and adaptation where technology and the vision for interconnected value creation are deeply intertwined.

Ultimately, it’s a symbiotic relationship where technology enables the emergence of ecosystems, and the evolving demands of these ecosystems, in turn, fuel further technological innovation and refinement in a continuous feedback loop.

The post Chicken or the Egg? The Dynamic Interplay of Technology and Business Ecosystems first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

The interplays and interfaces available from technology and AI applications available to us today can deliver completely different, more compelling innovations. I have been looking at the combination effect of humans, technology and AI in this new interplay on my paul4innovating.com site.

Within this research, I have been questioning how innovation has changed in the last ten years but, more importantly, how design thinking will adapt due to this technology and AI adoption as the avenue of future exploration.

Couple this with Ecosystem thinking and design, and we are moving towards a different, more integrated framework for innovation ecosystems. I provided the story for Innovation Ecosystems as needed to be explained in a previous post.

I see four main components within innovation ecosystems that must be expanded to give this framework meaning. Value creation, knowledge transfer, co-creation and competitive positioning.

Why these four components?

Each component contributes to effective engagement within innovation ecosystems in the following ways:

Value creation:

This component focuses on how innovation ecosystems generate value for their stakeholders, such as customers, users, partners, investors, and society at large. Value creation places the context of your innovation ecosystem. This then identifies the key stakeholders and their roles needed in any value creation. Various indicators, such as revenue, profit, social impact, environmental sustainability, and customer satisfaction, can measure value creation.

By understanding the value creation, you can consider repositioning and evaluating the business model of each participant in the ecosystem and recognizing the value of the network-building effects and building what connects them; those involved can design and implement interventions that enhance the ecosystem’s value-creation potential and performance. You see emerging value-creation levers that can generate fresh impact and growth potential through a collaborative learning effect.

Knowledge transfer:

This component focuses on how innovation ecosystems facilitate the exchange and diffusion of knowledge among those participating, often including research institutions, universities, firms, entrepreneurs, and public agencies. Various mechanisms can enable knowledge transfer and its importance, requiring collaboration platforms, exchanging of intellectual property rights, open innovation practices, and drawing in different intermediaries.

Understanding the knowledge sources and flows in the ecosystem builds out the knowledge foundations. By identifying the barriers and enablers of knowledge transfer, those involved and participating can design and implement interventions that foster, promote and build out the generation and dissemination of knowledge in the ecosystem and break down the points of resistance. Sharing knowledge gives greater discovery and value to build upon shared understanding.

Co-creation:

This component focuses on how innovation ecosystems involve multiple actors in the process of creating and developing new products, services, or solutions. Defining co-creation and its significance is essential. Various methods, such as design thinking, agile development, user feedback, and prototyping, can support co-creation.

By understanding the needs and preferences of different stakeholders in the ecosystem and the opportunities and challenges of co-creation, those involved can design and implement interventions that encourage and facilitate the participation and collaboration of diverse actors in the innovation process to broaden the scope. The role of attracting a diversity of views, experiences, and opinions builds out different value potentials. It helps resolve the different complexities of any connected innovation that enhances value and offers new impact by having the potential of a broader landscape to consider and then define. Diversity of opinions builds new understanding and possibilities. Collaborations form the basis for the resolution of complex and challenging problems.

Competitive positioning:

This component focuses on how innovation ecosystems enhance the competitiveness and attractiveness of their options and possible positioning in the global or given market. Factors such as market size, demand characteristics, industry structure, regulations, standards, and policies can influence competitive positioning.

By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of what each partner can bring into the ecosystem and knowing the threats and opportunities of the external environment, fresh thinking can be designed to assess opportunities and risks and deliver interventions that improve the competitive advantage and differentiation of what any new or different ecosystem can bring. Strategic positioning within the innovation ecosystem becomes necessary to establish and drive towards realization. Understanding where the different new opportunities lie gives value creation, knowledge transfer, and co-creation the roadmap and direction. Having a clear positioning builds identification and engagement.

Summary

The integrated framework for innovation ecosystems is facilitated and brings these elements together. It provides a structured approach for organizations to align their strategies with the interconnected nature of value creation, knowledge transfer, co-creation, and competitive positioning. The ‘combination effect’ of bringing these four components together is the multiplier that drives change and reduces uncertainties. It enables all involved to learn more and builds out the dependencies, intersections and synergies that having these more significant levels of collaboration will bring to draw confidence and increase the potential to find better solutions to the growing complexity and challenges we are all facing.

Innovation ecosystems are a multifaceted process that requires organizations to recognize the interconnectedness of various elements, navigate the dynamic nature of the ecosystem, and measure the diverse impacts of their actions.

To bring you on that journey of discovery to implementation within the world of business ecosystems takes time, understanding and effort; I aim to support that transformation as it is the future of innovation as my @job@hand process approach.

Supported in research and validation by Chat GPT

The post Building out the four main components of Innovation Ecosystems first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

I have been spending time arguing for and validating why and how ecosystems in business and applying innovation in their design and thinking are the growing future mechanism for managing new growth, delivering impact and value within Business, and for the final consumer of the goods and services.

The potential within deploying ecosystem thinking can be derived from this highly collaborative approach in finding new ways to design and deliver different options to the existing offerings, offering a different value creation potential, providing for more compelling solutions and finding different ways of solving often complex problems with this co-creating approach.

Yet, I have realized that I have not given the time or attention to the technology issues associated with the move towards adopting an ecosystem approach. So, this post begins to address this.

I believe technology is a vital enabler for building out thriving ecosystems.

Does our technology understanding in organizations and its application to Ecosystem thinking and design fail to be clearly understood as needing a different, perhaps distinctive, structural approach or system?

Building out capability based on a single organization’s needs is a mistake. Understanding the differences in collaborating, co-creating and exchanging across organizations needs a very different design, security and approach mentality.

The role of technology and its understanding in ecosystem thinking and design significantly impacts establishing a structure or system to deploy ecosystem thinking and approaches. it introduces significant levels of complexity and challenges that need to be carefully thought through in any ecosystem design.

Let’s look at how technology can influence ecosystem thinking and can be complex in changing:

Enabler of Ecosystems: Technology provides the tools and platforms that facilitate collaboration, communication, and data sharing among diverse stakeholders within an ecosystem. Digital platforms, data analytics, cloud computing, and communication tools enable real-time interactions and streamline information flow.

Complexity and Interconnectivity: Ecosystems involve various interconnected components and stakeholders. Technology can amplify this complexity by introducing intricate network structures and interdependencies. Managing and optimizing these interactions can be challenging without a clear structure.

Customization and Flexibility: Technology allows ecosystems to be tailored to specific needs. However, this customization can also make it challenging to establish a standardized structure that applies universally. Balancing flexibility with the need for coherence is essential.

Data Management and Privacy: Ecosystems rely on data sharing, which raises concerns about data security, privacy, and ownership. Designing systems that ensure data integrity and privacy while fostering collaboration is a critical challenge.

Lack of Standardization: There isn’t any one-size-fits-all standard for implementing ecosystem thinking and design. Different industries and contexts require different approaches, making it difficult to establish a clear-cut structure that applies universally.

Innovation and Experimentation: Technology often evolves rapidly, introducing new tools and capabilities. While this encourages innovation, establishing a fixed ecosystem structure can also make it difficult as organizations continually adapt to emerging technologies.

Integration Challenges: Ecosystems often involve integrating various technologies, systems, and platforms that might not have been designed to work together. Ensuring seamless integration can be technically demanding.

Education and Skill Gap: The understanding of technology and its application can vary among stakeholders within an ecosystem. Bridging the education and skill gap to ensure effective technology utilization is crucial.

Evolving Ecosystem Dynamics: Technology can impact the dynamics of ecosystems, influencing how stakeholders interact and engage. Ecosystems must be flexible enough to adapt to changes brought about by technological advancements.

In summary here, while technology is a powerful enabler of ecosystem thinking and design, its rapid evolution and complexity can impact the establishment and existing structures or systems deployed in (single) organizations.

It’s essential to approach ecosystem design with a balance between technological innovation and the need for coherent, sustainable structures to deliver value to stakeholders involved in the ecosystem. Flexibility, adaptability, collaboration, and a deep understanding of technology and the ecosystem’s domain are critical factors in successfully navigating this challenge.

Exploring this critical Technology Enabler of Ecosystems further

Technology provides the tools and platforms that facilitate collaboration, communication, and data sharing among diverse stakeholders within an ecosystem. Digital platforms, data analytics, cloud computing, and communication tools enable real-time interactions and streamline information flow.

Technology is pivotal in facilitating ecosystems’ creation, operation, and success. An ecosystem in this context refers to a network of interconnected stakeholders, including individuals, organizations, technologies, and resources, collaborating to achieve common goals.

So, breaking down how technology serves as an enabler of ecosystems and provides benefits in:

1. Facilitating Collaboration: Technology provides platforms allowing diverse stakeholders to connect, communicate, and collaborate regardless of location. Digital communication tools like video conferencing, collaboration software, and instant messaging enable real-time interaction and idea exchange.
2. Enhancing Communication: Effective communication is fundamental to thriving ecosystems. Technology enables seamless communication through emails, messaging apps, discussion forums, and social media platforms. This fosters engagement and maintains a shared understanding among stakeholders.
3. Data Sharing and Insights: Technology allows for the easy sharing of data and information among ecosystem participants. Data analytics tools help stakeholders derive valuable insights from shared data, enabling informed decision-making and evidence-based strategies.
4. Real-Time Interactions: Digital platforms enable real-time interactions, reducing delays in communication and decision-making. This is particularly important in ecosystems where swift responses and adaptations are crucial.
5. Cloud Computing: Cloud computing provides a scalable and flexible infrastructure for storing, processing, and accessing data and applications. It allows ecosystem participants to collaborate on shared resources, simultaneously work on the same documents, and access information from anywhere.
6. Digital Marketplaces: Digital platforms and marketplaces facilitate transactions, connecting buyers and sellers within ecosystems. This can be seen in e-commerce ecosystems, where technology streamlines the buying and selling process.
7. Collaborative Workspaces: Virtual collaborative workspaces offer a central hub where ecosystem stakeholders can share documents, collaborate on projects, and track progress. These platforms enhance transparency and accountability.
8. IoT and Sensor Technologies: Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors collect and share real-time data from physical environments. This data can be leveraged within ecosystems to optimize operations, monitor resources, and improve decision-making.
9. Blockchain and Trust: Blockchain technology can enhance trust and transparency within ecosystems by providing secure and tamper-proof records of transactions and interactions. This is particularly important in industries where trust is a critical factor.
10. Remote Access and Flexibility: Technology allows stakeholders to participate in ecosystems from remote locations. This flexibility accommodates global collaborations and ensures a diverse range of perspectives.

In summary, technology acts as the digital backbone of ecosystems, enabling seamless communication, collaboration, and data sharing among stakeholders with diverse roles and backgrounds.

It empowers ecosystems to function efficiently, adapt to changes, and unlock innovative solutions by harnessing all participants’ collective intelligence and resources.

Technology is a potent enabler when you are considering ecosystems, and evaluating all of what is needed is essential initially and ongoing in any ecosystem thinking and design.

Supported and partly validated by using Chat GPT.

The post Technology is the critical enabler of Ecosystems. first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

“Making something harmonious” often means we have to reconcile differences to balance out the tensions and issues to enable and make them compatible to work.

“Fusing” human engagement with technology enablement involves creating a harmonious integration of human collaboration and technological tools to enable an ecosystem’s successful development and operation. Is that possible?

How do we go about evaluating all the possible needs of customers, as they are mostly our success arbitrators? We must gain insights and refer through multiple information sources- digital data and direct human responses – than ever before; these insights are becoming essential to our businesses.

Calibrating the right way to use technology to create mutual benefit is an increasing theme across businesses, which means we need high levels of interdependence.

We must strive towards this “harmony.”

What do we need to consider? Leveraging the strengths of both human creativity and technological efficiency needs a pathway to follow that can enable an ecosystem through this fusion of making the human and technology sides work.

I loved this quote: “Two companies could roll out the same technology, but one might be a success, and one might fail,” says Nick Bouch, data and analytics partner at PwC UK. “The difference comes down to culture, communication, trust, and understanding—all human qualities. You need those things before technology can add any value. You need a balance of humanity and technology.” So it seems one seemingly comes before the other.

We need to work through the following, not in any specific order, as it depends on independent assessments. Still, all these shown below have their place to be considered or determined, especially if you are building out an ecosystem of collaborators.

Identify Ecosystem Goals and Stakeholders: Clearly define the goals and objectives of the ecosystem. Identify the different stakeholders involved, including individuals, organizations, and partners.

Human-Centered Design: Begin with a human-centered approach. Understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of the stakeholders. Design solutions that resonate with them and address their challenges.

Select Appropriate Technologies: Choose technologies that align with the ecosystem’s goals and the needs of stakeholders. Consider tools for communication, collaboration, data sharing, and decision-making.

Collaborative Platform Integration: Implement collaborative platforms facilitating communication and collaboration among ecosystem participants. These platforms can include project management tools, shared workspaces, and virtual meeting spaces.

Training and Skill Development: Provide training and support to ecosystem stakeholders on effectively using the chosen technologies. This ensures everyone is comfortable with the tools and can maximize their benefits.

Open Communication Channels: Establish open communication channels encouraging transparency and active engagement. Use technology to facilitate ongoing discussions, updates, and feedback loops.

Co-Creation and Ideation: Use technology-enabled platforms to engage stakeholders in co-creation and ideation. Encourage sharing ideas, feedback, and suggestions to foster a collaborative environment.

Virtual Collaboration Events: Organize virtual events, workshops, and hackathons that leverage technology to bring stakeholders together for brainstorming, problem-solving, and innovation.

Data Sharing and Analysis: Employ technology to enable data sharing and analysis. Collect and analyze relevant data to inform decision-making, identify trends, and measure progress toward ecosystem goals.

Feedback Integration: Continuously gather stakeholder feedback through surveys, polls, and interactive discussions. Use technology to process this feedback and iterate on ecosystem strategies.

Innovation Challenges and Competitions: Host innovation challenges or competitions that encourage stakeholders to develop solutions using technology. This fosters engagement and generates fresh ideas.

Digital Storytelling: Utilize technology to share success stories, case studies, and updates within the ecosystem. Digital storytelling can inspire participation and showcase the impact of collaboration.

Empowerment and Ownership: Empower stakeholders to take ownership of their roles within the ecosystem. Use technology to provide them with tools to contribute, collaborate, and lead initiatives.

Regular Assessments and Adaptation: Regularly assess the effectiveness of the technology-enabled strategies. Adapt and refine approaches based on feedback, data insights, and changing stakeholder needs.

Cultivate a Collaborative Culture: Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning within the ecosystem. Technology can support this culture by providing the means for constant interaction and knowledge sharing.

By integrating technology as an enabler of collaboration, communication, and data exchange while keeping human engagement and creativity at the forefront, you can create a dynamic ecosystem that thrives on innovation, inclusivity, and shared goals.

The post Fusing Human and Technology to Enable Innovation Ecosystems to Thrive first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

I have been struggling for quite some time with innovation’s increasing difficulties in influencing growth and achieving real impact.

I see many comments on the failure of innovation, in its inability to be at the core of an organization’s ambitions for growing and changing. Actually it is a long list of issues and concerns that we so often paper over and don’t fully address. There is a time for making a real change and I feel that could be now by shifting our thinking towards innovation ecosystems.

Let’s reflect first on the constraints or barriers that innovation faces, much self-imposed.

Innovation “fights” to attract resources, to gain management attention or to appreciate fully the difficulties and uncertainties in the time it takes, in its potential risks and its need often for a more ambitious and bold commitment of support and belief.

Our innovation processes stay locked in islands of knowledge, stubbornly not flowing across organizations, informing others and giving the right levels of insights, support, or collaboration needed. Innovation software management continues to be sold piecemeal, so often just bolted onto the other selected parts already in place, not being optimized.

The innovation process is often ignored or constantly adjusted to meet ad hoc requests or external pressures. The approach to innovation is often subject to the whims of the individual, accountability is reduced to a few ‘selected’ KPIs.

Innovation solutions are seen as limited, and the pressures often felt for giving straightforward immediate returns of value are often overriding the sustaining potential with more patience or investments in resources and time. Often innovation activity frustrates senior management. The work undertaken is often seen as a drain, not repeatable, and poor on the efficient definition of understanding we have in place today as the work undertaken, not yielding the returns if the concept is more radical due to time horizons or business model constraints..

The knowledge captured often doesn’t have integrating capabilities with other core enabling processes or is not seen as a building block to greater value. Innovation knowledge often simply dies or moves away with the person that gained from the time they spent focusing exclusively on innovation

We have the need to re-think innovation, we need a new level of innovation integration and optimization.

What we see increasingly is “innovation ecosystems.” Is this the potential answer to overcoming and giving innovation that chance to be more central to the core of the business? These are being built increasingly on digital platforms that seek to offer the technical and organisational context and knowledge, so a community of innovators or solution solvers can build out a wider community and begin to interact on a more shared purpose of common understanding.

For me, ecosystem thinking and design are accelerating mutual learning, and through this innovation, outcome potential for sharing and knowledge building. As we build an understanding of the power of digital platforms and ecosystem thinking, we can see gains and new values and realize different opportunities denied to us in the past by a lack of clarity, depth of understanding of what was in front of us but not appreciated, as we were looking at it differently and not seeing its potential in a combined value or bundling.

Firstly, we need to ask, “Why change the innovation narrative?“

Organizations today are no different from the past; they seek fresh growth and establish new competitive positions. The difference is the straight jacket they often “wore.” constrained them.

Today we live in a more connected world, technology has enabled this. We are becoming far more networked and have a growing awareness of hyper challenges that we are part of resolving and blurring boundaries across market positions, competitors and global trade. We are in a more complex world needing different approaches within business organizations.

We hold the promise of liberating potential in resolving wicked problems and opportunities, providing we embrace the potential to combine and share outside our organization and tap into the rich diversity of knowledge, equally keen to collaborate and cooperate to achieve a more cross-cutting innovation that provides solutions to these more complex problems.

The need for digital platforms and ecosystem designs has grown to achieve this collaborative environment. The ability to evolve enterprise capabilities is evaluating value webs, and artificial intelligence, pushing the need to reshape structures to be more outwardly facing, open to receiving new knowledge and prepared to share and exchange in return.

We are shifting critical capabilities that are growing the agility to trial, pilot and learn quickly as information flows in. We are achieving a faster adaptation and exploring mentality. The ability to combine data, and human knowledge is revealing this new collaborative potential and a new set of competitive opportunities.

The increased ability to deploy, activate and utilize resources and assets requires these digital platforms to constantly exploit latent potential through the network and relationship engagements that engage in mutual pursuit.

To achieve this, we do need a better conceptual innovation framework, this innovation ecosystem one.

What is needed is something more radical and cohesive than we presently have. Let’s call it a “co-evolutionary dynamic ecosystem.” It moves from systems to ecosystems of innovation activity. It is knowledge-based and well-grounded.

It needs much of what we have been arguing for over many years. Clear strategy leadership, a different organisational culture but with an emphasis more on partner engagement.

Organizations need to be well-equipped in supporting knowledge, data, insights and people in their data handling, its management, analysis sharing and processing.

To achieve this evolution, which has been called for over many years, is to facilitate and allow innovation to thrive and work. This means we do finally need to address controls, and provide different structures and emphasis by re-orienting at faster rates of learning on the reliance on the technical aspects.

Seeing the end result

The end result needs to be robust, dynamic and holistic in its dimensions, it has to be systematically designed and implemented, knowledge-driven by events and process design, and driven by dynamic interactions.

This call for a different end result does require this profound shift in the business landscape. Ecosystems and platforms become the core of any design. Ecosystems fundamentally challenge the way we currently are doing things (in isolated actions) and rearrange the way innovation is being managed today. It cannot work through stand-alone systems or software components it needs “digital platforms that offer the technical and organizational context soi a community can interact for a shared purpose” (adapted from Yochai Benkler)

It relies increasingly on a network of interconnected organizations organized around one or a few valuable focal points, firms that can contribute and on a shared platform that offers both producers of value but constantly engages with user-side participants helping to shape, offer and provide insights and criticism on what they see as value to them.

It is in this ecosystem design that organizations can act differently on strategies, business models, leadership commitment and encouragement, building out different capabilities to build collectively new value creation, breaking down previously complex or challenging problems by having in place capturing systems and organizational models that reflect a common ecosystem design thinking.

It is this recognition that today, innovation rarely succeeds in isolation to achieve real, lasting impact but needs this growing dependent type of complementary innovation that ecosystem design provides.

Any new narrative has many parts of a story to tell.

Those willing to listen and recognize a story that needs to be built out that they can identify with. My work over the past few years is gaining the experience and insights to attempt to tell this story of needed change.

I often speak of my innovation journey; I sometimes call myself the innovation journeyman. I recently wrote a post “innovation passion led me here“

My personal energy is drawn from all the challenges we face, looking to help find solutions.

We must promote more dynamic environments and the constant desire that organizations and their people have to be fit for innovating purposes, adaptive and fluid in such highly challenging and confusing times.

Transitions towards (real) innovation ecosystems

It is all about the translation points in innovation guidance and finding the time to engage with the external catalyst of innovation understanding. That is my place.

Relating and understanding the potential in adopting an innovation ecosystem design and thinking can potentially offer an exponential return to you, your team and your organization’s innovation activity. That is, of course, if you have the desire to build your innovation capabilities in new ways that are more based on “innovation ecosystems”.

For that, I need to change your innovation narrative. Have you the time? Contact me

The post Please, we need a different Innovation narrative first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

I have been asking myself how a combined effect of innovation and ecosystem design thinking will support the energy transition we are undertaking to give it additional traction and generation.

Let me share my thoughts and proposition here.

The vital “infusion” of innovation in thinking, approaching and building this into the front end of any energy transition provides a greater discovery structure and process that can greatly facilitate the changes, with more informed knowledge, insights and validation of a path to travel.

Finding fresh ideas and momentum

The energy transition needs a broad array of thinking; specialists, generalists, enthusiasts and passionate people that can move beyond their own view offering a “non-ideological confrontation” where solutions are both sustainable and accelerate a path to decarbonization and net-zero without any legacy or vested interest effect.

This innovator capacity that is needed to be ‘enforced’ requires greater insights and understanding of the alternatives, options, issues, and challenges.

There is a substantial role for me to play, I feel.

This is why I feel my multiplier approach offers a framework to help work this complexity through the energy transition in a supportive, systematic way; the combination gives momentum, traction and fresh energy.

For me, applying the “multiplier effect” to any discovery and validation accelerates the understanding of where the potential growth and impact points of a new business opportunity can occur.

As stated, my positioning is at the front end of the Energy Transition, building insights through the “eyes” of the strategic innovator.

I see the front end of energy as the critical feeding-in point for the energy transition. So what does this mean exactly?

• I provide evaluations and assessments of the front end of a transformation in discovery and validation that build understanding and fresh thinking.
• I offer advisory and supporting services in knowledge and insights provision on energy-related matters.
• I break my business out into dedicated focal topics in “big transforming” points of impact, applying understanding and insights that are, in my mind, complementary, synergistic or clarifying new emerging intersections for growth potential that have impact and growth potential.
• The combination of innovation within ecosystem thinking and the design approach supports the acceleration of the energy transition
• The combination capitalizes on the value points of data assets combined with knowledge insights and business-building experience. I believe it can offer a very different multiplier effect to idea generation and momentum building.

Explore Innovating the Energy Transition

Offering a given value in the proposition

I want to advance further what organizations or individuals responsible for leading the energy transition require to support and develop a more significant innovation and transformation understanding of energy transition options. To support them and build new competencies, clients achieve positive and sustaining results from these activities around the energy transition they intend to undertake.

The insights delivered aim to offer a unique view leading to a more balanced perspective, fresh inspiration and real alternatives to investigate and explore energy transitions.

Building a better discovery and validation portfolio

Extracting knowledge and applying application and practice gives clients the beginning of the “discovery and validation phase”, accelerating the client’s growth options in more structured ways, what is evolving and what impact and growth opportunities are on a business by taking the innovator’s perspective into assessing the need for a client’s energy transition.

By drawing on the external perspective, there is a significant saving in the amount of time in early resource investment. These insights and recommendations provide the triggering points for seeing fresh growth opportunities.

Does that make sense? It does to me but maybe I am a little biased here!

The post Gaining energy and idea generation first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

The level of interest in business platforms in the B2B space has rapidly grown. Platforms are more viable and relevant today than ever. The platform’s ability to offer multiple values will influence many of the client’s adoption decisions over the choices their business will engage with.

I wrote a recent article on my ecosystem and platform posting site, “Exploring points of value in adopting business platforms.”

I suggested in this post, “Platforms allow you the opportunity to innovate in very different ways. They can add value through collaborations that can add more to the internal efficiency options through learning and sharing. Platforms help manage the difficulties of transitions we are all undergoing and change how we see the world through a broader collaborative set of lenses.”

Recently in Stanford Social Innovation Review, an article on the “Adoption of Innovation” by Benjamin Kumpf & Emma Proud is well worth the read as adopting any innovation process is a tough, slow one.

They take a position on looking at behavioural approaches suggesting when behavioural insights have been adopted, innovation has ceased to be “innovative.” When a method, technology, or approach to a problem has moved from the experimental edges of an organization to the core of its work: no longer a novelty but something normal and institutionalized. My fear here is this becomes “static” and losses its dynamism.

So, I think their argument works if you take a standard way to design and implement programs. This means they suggest “that innovating is no longer a novelty requiring a burden of proof; adopted approaches become part of the organizational (repeating) toolbox. People know what they are, when and how to use them, and who to ask for help in doing so”, but I am uncomfortable with that.

Innovation needs to be constantly adapting, adjusting and reconfiguring. We have established structures and stages to go through in innovation of course, but suggesting “when behavioural insights have been adopted, innovation has ceased to be “innovative.” I question.

Maybe I got the gist of the article wrong.

I feel they miss the recognition of dealing with one of the worst obstacles for innovation to be understood: the constant “need to change“, the people managing innovation, the process of innovation discovery, or the metrics to judge success or failure. Innovation needs to function in a constant state of flux as what is going on impacts what is around them. This is constantly changing, being impacted by new technology, different combinations and ways to collaborate and innovate, new insights, knowledge and competitors.

We live in a world of relentless change, and adoption needs some really important “sticky” aspects to gain attention and be adopted. Also, in the world of business platforms, the mindset needs to be far more one of “achieving a level of fluidity.”

Adoption or even following a decision process is a really tough nut to crack.

The writers in this article suggest there are five adoption factors, which are establishing, a clear mandate, having in place a culture of collaboration and learning, having a clear context (my post on learning the mantra of context relates), collaboration through networks, and built-in capacity to explore and perform in innovation.

The Stanford Social Innovation review article really builds upon the amazing work of Everett Rogers on his Diffusion and Adoption theories for innovation with some fresh observations in their research.

For me, the work of Everett Rogers stands the test of time. I wrote the three-part series on “Exploring Diffusion and Adoption for Innovation (part one here, then read on if of interest.).

Innovation is undergoing a significant change; it has moved from within one company or institution to needing a network of relationships, today, this is highly reliant for success, and business platforms form the base to leverage all the connectors required. So figuring out the adoption process of business platforms becomes important.

Reading the article did trigger “adoption thinking.” and my need to apply this in the business platform adoption space.

I want to relate adoption back to business platforms and anchor it in the process.

Today business platform adoption is a struggle. It needs a clear revisiting of the theory of diffusion and adoption to extract the relevant points of necessary practice.

What is vitally needed is the recognition that deciding on adopting a business platform approach has five stages or decision points to go through.

So often, platform providers automatically go to the assumption that their platform will be adopted. It simply will not without working through and gaining confirmation the five stages of adoption are clarified. Again I reference Everett Rogers here as my base.

The five stages for business platform adoption.

Each of these needs a definitive engagement process by the business platform provider. Passing through the five stages of adoption needs relevance, identification and building out the relationship to pass through all these as distinct cascading steps.

Awareness and Knowledge – refer to a customer’s acknowledgement of the presence or existence of the new business platform and where they form a general perception of what it might entail. The intersection of need recognition often drives it through consistent education and marketing communications to show client value, not the platform provider’s prowess. This is the point of being inspired to find out more.

Persuasion and Interest – this occurs when a client processes the available information associated with the platform and considers the product or service’s appeal on this and its relevant value or potential to them Here, the client actively seeks out information and details and begins engagement. The critical point for any platform provider to manage well.

Decision and Assessment – Considering the persuasion factors, the client will decide whether to adopt, delay any decision, or reject the platform. Their activity in seeking advice, gathering data and comparing or making different assessments happen clearly here and need the contacted platform provider to understand the level of assessment and the issues. Here, costs begin to really kick in, considering the switching costs, and fresh investment needs and weighing the advantages up. This is the hardest stage to understand. The ability to build a solid business case at this point is essential. My recent post, “Exploring points of value in adopting business platforms,” has some relevancy here.

Implementation and Exploration – These are the series of activities to put the platform to use in exploring its (multiple) points of value and validating these. The client employs the platform to a varying learning degree. The usefulness, impacts, and costs are determined, and they may search for further support or relevance value about it. Here the business platform provider needs to be really “on the case” in strengthening the engagement and anchoring it into more of a forward-looking partnership but working in parallel on this learning path, as adoption is a gradual journey, yes, a behavioural one as suggested by the Stanford article if it is structured and follows.

Confirmation and Adoption– is mostly concerned with post-adoption behaviour exhibited by the adopter, reinforced by the platform’s actual delivery against the relative advantage ‘claims,’ its complexity and compatibility on their understandings. The individual finalizes their decision to continue using it and makes that ultimate investment in forming an ongoing, long-term partnership for extending its use to its full potential.

Develop this five stages  process of engagement in any adoption of business platforms

If these five stages are not followed in the business platform adoption process, then there is a higher probability of poor engagement, lost time in chasing leads and being distracted and not getting the end result intended or stated or offering (compelling) value.

So I would always recommend understanding the theory of diffusion and adoption offered by Everitt Rogers, it is as relevant for Business Platform adoption today as when he offered this for “straightforward” innovation.

The post Establishing an innovative business platform adoption approach first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

What has been changing in how we approach innovation, and have we taken the opportunity to radically revise the innovation system and process accordingly?

Many of our innovative approaches or systems are based on very often just an internal perspective, restricted in available resources and limited knowledge and insights, often constraining the evolving new solutions and then limiting the impact and outcome.

For many years open innovation has been encouraged to be adopted to break out of this very narrow internal focus. Having a real diversity of opinion with this greater access to different knowledge and experiences does open up our thinking, but it is, on its own, not enough to make a real difference, especially in times of acute change. We need to put to use a different innovation model or approach.

We are at the cusp or already into significant changes to how the world, society and we as individuals will manage or engage going into the future.

This is my second post discussing the belief that we are being to see a real contagion breaking down how we have been operating and living in the world.

We are facing the potential of unprecedented change, and we need to recognize how a different approach to innovation can help offset or mitigate many of the destabilizing aspects and provide a pathway to managing differently in a new environment that will inevitably come from this contagion.

In my first post.” the fear of business contagion required different innovation response.” I focused briefly on the four interlocking conditions.

These interlocking conditions are prompting this potential shift in our approaches to undertaking business, how we engage with government and institutions, our place in society and where we as individuals can adjust and thrive in a different environment we will be facing.

I argue how we undertake our innovation in this significant new set of conditions needs changing.

Our ability to perform differently will provide new avenues of innovation discovery and eventual value to offset or bridge the need to make a change we will be forced to make in these different market and society conditions.

The four interwoven catalysts to approaching innovation are discussed here.

These do not stand alone, they make up the new strength within the fabric of innovation management, hence my interwoven application.

The four interwoven catalysts are recognizing we are moving from complicated to complex; we have different collaboration tools to be more agile and adapt, we need to adopt a clearer mindset to working in innovation ecosystems, and we need to leverage the digital transformation we have been undertaking.

Let me explain these a little more for the remainder of this post.

Moving from complicated to complex.

We have seen, over time, that much of what seemed simply complicated has increasingly become complex. We need a new innovation approach, it is intrinsic to achieve and find solutions to these complex problems outside just what we know. There are so many connected parts that one individual person or entity simply cannot find the right answers; they need to seek out others to complete the map and connect the parts.

Recognizing complex acknowledges the volatility and disruptions that are constantly occurring. There are many interconnected (constantly moving) parts. We often need to approach change in a non-linear fashion as no recognized patterns or present system approaches or behaviours work. The need is for a very fluid, dynamic, constantly evolving approach to design and solutions. Knowledge flows are constantly changing and often surprise us and need adaption to what this means. Systems today need to be designed to be self-driven in design, which needs us to often simply let go but carefully orchestrate such an adaptive thinking approach.

Connecting up and Deploying Collaboration Tools

To achieve a fluid, dynamic design in any new innovation solution recognizes our growing reliance on different collaboration tools. These are known and adopted in many organizations today but must be valued as the backbone of any new innovation collaborative system. To apply these effectively across multiple organizations, we must talk the same common language of understanding and approach.

These tools are lean and agile, design thinking, rapid experimentation and prototyping approaches, accelerate and elevate innovation hacks, engagement in crowdsourcing approaches and deploying our limited resources in dedicated “living” labs that seek out partners that have a commonality and shared ethos to what innovation can provide in impact and value to challenges and complexities. It is the ability to “string together” and leverage the different collaboration tools to maximise innovation discovery and execution.

To break down the complexity, you need to be highly collaborative

Complex problems are typically defined as those that include the ability to approach them from multiple, sometimes competing, perspectives and which may have multiple possible solutions.

I suggest this as a way of thinking through the complexity as a building block*

Peter Sjulstad wrote this* to break down complex problems and offer a very extended version. I have taken my own simplified approach to his suggested ways to make complexity simpler.

• Understand the problem or build your understanding up of its often diverse parts. ..
• Break things apart to see what can work or connect to other complex parts..
• Break the problem into sub-problems or sub-systems so solutions can be scoped, validated and tested as contributions to a new solution. …
• Break the problem into requirements and allocate those out to the best possible providers of solution experts. ..
• Figure out what is known and what is unknown and keep working on appreciating the differences and moving the unknown, once discovered across into the known, to work upon new solutions. …
• Break it down into flows so the multiple parts can do exactly that, flow and fit together. …
• Break it into different places, so you leverage the diversity and environment that might have the best chance to tackle that part of the complexity. ..
• Break it into different people as diversity in experience, knowledge and expertise all bring different dimensions to finding the solutions.

Working in innovation ecosystems

Today we promote innovation ecosystems, they extend the open innovation thinking further. They coalesce across innovation partners and innovation centres and seek to work with start-ups and established companies, focusing on a market activity that provides insights and knowledge.

Ecosystems accelerate learning and innovation; the organisms associated influence each other and shape the terrain of discovery can combine to offer a profound shift in business landscape potential, attract further resources to tap into, and harness the creativity and intelligence of all within the ecosystem.

We need to question differently and often the “why change?” and “what can be gained?” and need to encourage activism to “collide and build”, to “network and engage”, and “relationship builds” around a common purpose and desire.

I wrote this, and it might have value to read: “are you ready to thrive in a world of innovation ecosystems?” I wrote in summary:

“Ecosystem thinking (combined with platform management) has a very transforming effect. It opens us up to a highly fluid, changing world of possibilities. It can help you match and possibly get ahead of all the volatility swirling around us. We can develop strategies and innovations that keep pace as we connect with a broader community.”

I believe ecosystems are the new organism of the business world. We need to explore these increasingly in their design and management potential through increased platform moanagement.

Digital transformation will keep pushing us to become more efficient and effective but also enable us to become more adroit and innovative. We will need to take a ‘dual’ mindset to constantly balance these often conflicting tensions to harness all the different power sources of digital and structure the business and organization accordingly.

Digital enables so much, but it can build the relationship mechanism with customers, which is vitally important in times of volatility.

We are all aware (or should be) that customers are increasingly choosing products and services based on the quality of the experiences they have with them; digital connections help inform and determine positioning and appeal.

The pressing need is to address a competitive risk if you are not mapping and understanding the channels, touchpoints and shifts taking place in technology solutions that capture, evaluate and determine customer experience. In any contagion environment, we need to know the points of value to bring new innovative solutions into the marketplace to overcome these shifts in behaviour and need.

You need to ask, can digital transformation help you meet your customer needs, do you fully understand their motivations and associated behaviours to design a better range of innovative solutions? It is through a digital transformation we can make the connections tangible, achieve relevancy and provide a new difference that is “seen” to bridge needs and gaps found in often rapidly changing market conditions.

Digital transformation can build all the connecting points in a value chain, deploy the technology needed (on platforms and through the ecosystem), and give what I call “the connected fitness”.  Data today is more relevant the closer it is to its point of creation.

A digital environment enables human and artificial intelligence to combine in new, exciting ways to give innovation a completely different dimension.

The journey of discovery is the digital transformation one we all are undertaking.

Digital transformation and maturity must be understood through the lens of business focus, prioritising investments and defining success. It knows what outcomes you wish to achieve will help enable that transformation process, but this is not a “static” process; it is dynamic, highly interactive, and our ability to listen intently, interpret and learn, so we all evolve along the journey of digital discovery is vital.

The four interwoven catalysts to approaching innovation are our way to deploy and offset business contagion through new innovative approaches.

As I said in opening this post, these four do not stand alone, they make up the new (underlying) strength within the fabric of innovation management, hence my interwoven application.

The four interwoven catalysts are recognizing we are moving from complicated to complex; we have different collaboration tools to be more agile and adapt, we need to adopt a clearer mindset to working in innovation ecosystems, and we need to leverage the digital transformation we have been undertaking.

As I opened in my first post: “the fear of business contagion requires different innovation response.”

In summary

We are presently facing a profound set of changes in the conditions that businesses operate within the immediate years ahead, that of the fear of business contagion; these will need a different set of innovation shifts and responses to counter this and seize new opportunities.

In these two posts together, I have offered my view of the four interlocking contagion points and the different four interwoven catalysts to approaching innovation differently in this changing and highly challenging environment that is ahead of us.

The post New innovation approaches to counter the fear of Business Contagion first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.

We are presently facing a profound set of changes in the conditions that businesses operate within the immediate years ahead, that of the fear of business contagion; these will need a different set of innovation shifts and responses to counter this and seize new opportunities.

Over two posts, I want to lay out the underlying concerns (here) and the new dynamics we can deploy by changing how we undertake innovation as my second post.

This first post discusses what is changing, and there is a growing argument in what I am seeing that we are facing one of those contagion periods where one set of conditions is triggering another, followed by another.

The four interlocking conditions

The economic and political conditions we seem to be facing of global uncertainties are triggering a profound shift in the social conditions and causing personal shifts we are all undertaking, and that will have an intense shift for business to adapt and react to.

Let’s take these separately and how these when combined, will require a very different innovation mindset in the coming months and years.

Economic and Political Conditions

The growing level of international tensions and global conflicts are already impacting our supply chains. The growing uncertainties are triggering the fears of global and local recessions and the spectre of rising inflation to levels not seen for many years and outside of many people’s personal experiences. The shifts will change how each country and company compete. Volatility and extremes will become more commonplace and require a different reaction time and response.

The ability to pass on inflation or be agile in supply response to sudden shortages will need very different agility than ever before. Decisions will need to be closer to the point of ‘conflict’ and certainly more local. Waiting for decisions will lead to lost opportunities. Adaptivity in changing conditions will increase rewards but bring more risk and exposure. This changing dynamic flows through into the other conditions.

Social conditions

The social conditions are pointing to rising levels of instability and unrest. As rising prices are seen not just in essentials (food, energy, stable items and services) but in items we have taken for granted (airfares, travel, well-being, clothing) and our accepted needs of everyday life (technology, fuel, water, heating), we become confronted and begin to react, in anger, despair and needed support. This presents a very different fluid environment and has a knock-on effect; we quickly relate and identify with others facing their changing conditions. We suddenly see very different “network effects” that have social consequences and impacts.

To counter this sudden shifting of social conditions, innovation needs to adopt a broader view of adapting to changing needs. Being agile and responsive becomes central to seeing opportunity gaps quicker and responding in socially aware ways. Rising demand for change becomes a new normal.

Personal Shifts

The “needs-driven” becomes dominant. Expectations rapidly change, and a new approach to governance and questioning takes place. In a world where the vast majority are always connected and aware of their immediate surroundings (at least), new skills and learning suddenly kick in.

Knowledge adoption and awareness become higher in personal needs. Innovation takes on new twists. It will utilise the digital tools we have at our disposal to shape our opinions, assumptions and attitudes to be highly aware and adaptive. Where is the job opportunity to seize, where do I go to save costs or reduce my money outlay, what decisions do I need to make to reduce my costs, adjust my living conditions and find different ways to extract value and achieve a return in a diminishing set of market conditions.

The profound shifts needed in business to adapt

Change brings complicated challenges. The more complex the business, in its hierarchy, making decisions, and managing its local and global network will lead to a different set of operational disruptions. Risk-taking rises in need. The need is to break out of past or present traditional boundaries and borders to capitalize on the new innovation potential of opportunity seizing.

The value of agility, flexibility, knowledge awareness and rapid diffusion of (new) solutions to meet these changing operating conditions and seize upon “breaking opportunities.” adds increased complexity, highly disruptive to today’s accepted view of “effectiveness and efficiency” but gets rewarded in this ability to perform differently, responding to changing market and societal needs.

All of these conditions are the triggers for wholesale change.

You simply adapt or die. Contagion, by definition here, is in its economics and financial effect. Contagion can be explained as a situation where a shock or series of shocks spreads out and affects others that trigger a crisis. We have built up such an interdependence; when contagion happens, it spreads quickly and unexpectedly.

The role of innovation suddenly changes.

I have written consistently about risk and innovation. We do need to revisit our appetite for risk, we need to reflect on a return differently. Perhaps this three-part primer on risk has value here to begin to rethink innovation and its need to be adapted and respond to a different world ahead of us.

In a three-part series, part one outlined the implicit need to align innovation to the corporate strategy, and through this, we can determine ‘acceptable risk’.

In part two, I offered numerous reasons why we should recognize and treat innovation risk differently to allow it to perform closer to its promise of driving growth and achieving real advantage.

In the third and last part, part three, where I lay out different mechanisms and framing of risk and innovation. These need to be evolved to fit your own risk appetite, not one size fits all. I hope it helps.

I believe we need to explore the new dynamics we can deploy by changing how we undertake innovation.

Moving from the triggering conditions, my next post explores the changes around innovation we can move towards to adapt to the new environment we face today and in the future. I have optimism that innovation can be an even greater catalyst in times of significant change.

I will be looking at issues such as moving from complicated to complex; we have different collaboration tools to be more agile and adapt, we need to adopt a clearer mindset to working in innovation ecosystems, and we need to leverage the digital transformation we have been undertaking.

It is our ability to perform differently has always been a high mark of innovation, often not well understood at senior management levels.

This very nature of leveraging the conditions needed for innovation across the organization can lead a business into a new era of innovation opportunity- that carpe diem instinct which is in all of us, I believe we will need to!

The post The fear of business contagion requires different innovation response first appeared on Building Your Innovation & Ecosystem Intelligence.