Rise of ecosystems

Rise of Ecosystems

An ecosystem is born when people start operating beyond their traditional operational borders, thereby creating or participating in new, flexible and adaptive networks. The ecosystems can be a part of one organization or cross the boundaries of that organization.Companies cease to exists as entities but are a part of overlapping ecosystems.
Companies are slowly but steadily breaking away from the traditional ways of working.The old age mindset “Never change a running system” which was also successful no longer applies in the current context. Companies are constantly challenging the existing practices and how they operated.

How to work in ecosystems?

When firms look to work with the ecosystems, they need to look at two important perspectives.

Looking at social and environmental challenges

• The 21st century challenges are completely different from that of 20th century.In the 20th century, any initiatives is often assessed by how much financial value can be extracted.
• In the 21st century, the focus has shifted to how these initiatives and actions will affect the society and environment in a positive manner.
• An ecosystem needs to take this into account and look into the well being of not only the participants in the ecosystem but ensure it provides benefits to society and environmental aspect too.

Dealing with emotional culture

• As people form a crucial part of any ecosystem, it is important that we factor the impact and influence of emotions.
• Corporate culture often looks at cognitive culture – Intellectual values, working norms, artefacts and the other important parameters that serves as a guide for the company to thrive in the intense competition.
• The corporate culture does not look at its emotional culture which is the affective values, norms, artefacts.These govern which emotions people display at work and which emotions they are better off at suppressing it.

Three crucial questions for ecosystems

Three questions need to be addressed to each ecosystems that go beyond the traditional way of managing a company.

1. Is the ecosystem constantly challenging the way things are done?
2. Is the ecosystem working for the benefits of the society?
3. Are we providing a framework for emotional stability?

Companies need to take initiatives to modernize their traditional ways of working by following certain criteria if they want to work with the ecosystems.

• They need to have a strategy which is clear and reliable.
• They need to build an emotional culture which is consistent and exciting
• Technology should not be at the forefront but be an enabling catalyst
• They need to have a structure where knowledge can be disseminated widely.They need to be highly transparent.
• The ecosystem should evolve continuously and hence there should be no timeline
• They need to have a lean operations
• The leadership should be balanced and understanding
• They governance model of the ecosystems should give importance on delegation and foster trust among multiple partners.

There is a risk in modernization, as it involves a lot of time, money and efforts but provide outcomes that cannot be well defined.
At the same time, firms need to operate in a modern way if it wants to achieve success in this hyper connected and complex world.It allows the use of new resources to gain speed where size can be a constraint and create space for a trusting work environment.
When a company changes its traditional way of working in the age of ecosystems, then it can have flexibility and at the same time be profitable and work with the best resources/partners.