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When new technologies and rivals disrupt markets, numerous firms employ antiquated Business Models, strategies, technologies, and procedures to keep up but struggle to do so. They are, most likely, unsatisfactorily prepared to produce new goods and services in an unpredictable environment.
Such circumstances motivate some firms to form partnerships with others. Successful partnerships need presence of necessary individuals, procedures, and organizational support, or to put it another way, an entire ecosystem.
Partnering with complementary businesses to develop an Innovation Ecosystem significantly increases a company's technological or competitive ability.
Establishing the proper sort of Innovation Ecosystem is essential for ensuring success and identifying and resolving areas of friction.
Globally, the Centralized Innovation Ecosystem is the most utilized system. Key elements of this Innovation Ecosystem include the company's role as a Broker or Hub, the creation of unique connections with each participant, and the participants' indirect engagement with one another i.e., through the Broker.
The success of a Centralized Ecosystem Strategy is contingent on its having specific, identifiable challenges as well as answers. It is effective in mature markets.
In many instances, the usual method for developing an Innovation Ecosystem Strategy is ineffective.
The Adaptive Innovation Ecosystem is better suited for environments with unclear criteria or industries that are still emerging and require cooperation. The firm acts as an Orchestrator in the Adaptive Innovation Ecosystem, linking companies, which collaborate directly.
Adaptive Ecosystem Strategies are applicable when both the problem and the solution are undetermined or currently being classified.
More than 15 years have been devoted to the study of how businesses derive value through partnerships and Innovation Ecosystems. This ground-breaking research suggests that the implementation of an Adaptive Ecosystem Strategy demands a 6-step approach.
- Define the area of exploration.
- Find and attract the right partners.
- Connect uncommon partners.
- Connect the partners into an ecosystem.
- Leverage opportunities to transform.
- Allow partnerships to be flexible.
Let's go into a little more detail of the first 3 steps of this approach.
Define the Area of Exploration
Adaptive Innovation Ecosystems are utilized in unclear environments. Consequently, it is natural that the 1st phase of an Adaptive Ecosystem Strategy should be to determine the exploration area.
After establishing the area to be investigated, the problem may be explored in depth and refined as understanding of the opportunity grows.
Find and Attract the Right Partners
To create an Adaptive Innovation Ecosystem, it may be required for the Orchestrator to seek collaborators outside of its industry. It may need to employ unorthodox methods to attract them.
Partnering with unusual entities has produced some of the most effective Adaptive Innovation Ecosystems strategies, according to past experience.
Partnering entities are occasionally on the industry's periphery or even outside of the industry in which the firm works. The difficulty in this phase is identifying the required competencies for innovation.
Connect Uncommon Partners
In Centralized Innovation Ecosystems, partners are frequently kept apart from one another. The efficacy of Adaptive Innovation Ecosystems is reliance on direct cooperation between partners. Orchestrators are responsible for bringing together these unique partners. Bringing together unconventional partners might be challenging because many of the participants have never collaborated before. Additionally, there are rare precedence of such teamwork.
Companies that have operated in Adaptive Ecosystems have concluded that collaborative effort does not follow a predetermined pattern.
Interested in learning more about all the phases of Adaptive Innovation Ecosystem Strategy development? You can download an editable PowerPoint on Adaptive Innovation Ecosystem Strategy here on the Flevy documents marketplace.
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To be competitive and sustain growth, we need to constantly develop new products, services, processes, technologies, and business models. In other words, we need to constantly innovate.
Ironically, the more we grow, the harder it becomes to innovate. Large organizations tend to be far better executors than they are innovators. To effectively manage the Innovation process, we need to master both the art and science of Innovation. Only then can we leverage Innovation as a Competitive Advantage, instead of viewing Innovation as a potential disruptive threat.
Learn about our Innovation Management Best Practice Frameworks here.
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