Today, many companies operate within a complex network of firms that all depend on each other for success. In this book, authors Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien use the powerful example of biological ecosystems to show how companies can leverage these emerging business networks for long-term success. The book's title, "The Keystone Advantage", is taken directly from biology - it refers to "keystone species", which proactively maintain the healthy functioning of their entire ecosystem for a simple reason: their own survival depends on it. In the same way, say the authors, companies can protect and ensure their own success by deliberately fostering the combined health of the network they operate in.

Reinvigorate your innovation approach with business ecosystems In a business ecosystem, different companies collaborate along and across previously sacrosanct industry barriers, encouraging innovation and the development of groundbreaking new products and services. Design Thinking for Business Growth delivers an eye-opening, fresh approach to designing and scaling business models and ecosystems. In this book, Michael Lewrick delivers a comprehensive procedural model for the design, development, and implementation of business ecosystems. He also presents the most critical design methods and tools you’ll need to make your own ecosystem a success. Fleshed out case studies and examples of companies with successful business ecosystem initiatives A mindset for business growth, including the use of “design lenses” and the exploitation of momentum and speed to facilitate innovation Practical exercises to better understand and implement the ideas discussed in the book Perfect for founders, managers, and executives in industries of all types, Design Thinking for Business Growth also belongs in the libraries of product managers, department heads, and non-profit professionals who wish to better understand how to develop new and innovative ideas that lead to company growth and success. With a topical view of the design paradigm, Design Thinking for Business Growth complements the international bestsellers The Design Thinking Playbook and The Design Thinking Toolbox. If you are ready to apply a new design thinking mindset for remarkable business growth, Design Thinking for Business Growth is your ultimate tool for success.

The book examines business ecosystems in an emerging industry context whilst exploring four essential areas of business ecosystems: the business ecosystems' key constructive elements, their typical patterns of the element configurations, the five phase process of their life cycle, and the nurturing strategies and processes from a firm perspective.

This book describes the state-of-the-art of software ecosystems. It constitutes a fundamental step towards an empirically based, nuanced understanding of the implications for management, governance, and control of software ecosystems. This is the first book of its kind dedicated to this emerging field and offers guidelines on how to analyze software ecosystems; methods for managing and growing; methods on transitioning from a closed software organization to an open one; and instruments for dealing with open source, licensing issues, product management and app stores. It is unique in bringing together industry experiences, academic views and tackling challenges such as the definition of fundamental concepts of software ecosystems, describing those forces that influence its development and lifecycles, and the provision of methods for the governance of software ecosystems. This book is an essential starting point for software industry researchers, product managers, and entrepreneurs.

We cannot afford to miss the remarkable rise of Chinese business ecosystems. Alibaba and their peers Baidu, Tencent, Xiaomi, and LeEco showcase unprecedented growth and success in China and are expanding their impact globally. With a combined market capitalization of close to 600 billion USD, incubating over 1,000 new ventures and an average annual growth of over 50%, they have become a force to reckon with for the likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and IBM. 'Business ecosystem' is a frequently used concept to describe the unique competitive advantages of the American technology giants. This book explores not only the application of a business ecosystem approach in the Chinese context but also deals with the key strategic question: How did these five Chinese business ecosystems grow so rapidly and successfully? The book takes the growth and transformation of Alibaba's business ecosystem as a focus case in comparison with Baidu, Tencent, Xiaomi, and LeEco. These business ecosystems developed in less than 20 years and transformed from organic growth to rapid expansion by investment and acquisition, entrepreneurship and incubation of new ventures, continuous innovation, and internationalization. This book brings insights and practical lessons on leading, creating, and disrupting markets for corporate executives and professionals in global business, a comparative case study for researchers and students of management, and food for thought on Chinese ways of doing business.

Towards collaborative business ecosystems Last decade was fertile in the emerging of new collaboration mechanisms and forms of dynamic virtual organizations, leading to the concept of dynamic business ecosystem, which is supported (or induced ?) by the progress of the ubiquitous I pervasive computing and networking. The new technologies, collaborative business models, and organizational forms supported by networking tools "invade" all traditional businesses and organizations what requires thinking in terms of whole systems, i. e. seeing each business as part of a wider economic ecosystem and environment. It is also becoming evident that the agile formation of very dynamic virtual organizations depends on the existence of a proper longer-term "embedding" or "nesting" environment (e. g. regional industry cluster), in order to guarantee certain basic requirements such as trust building ("Trusting your partner" is a gradual and long process); common interoperability, ontology, and distributed collaboration infrastructures; agreed business practices (requiring substantial engineering Ire-engineering efforts); a sense of community ("we vs. the others"), and some sense of stability (when is a dynamic state or a stationary state useful). The more frequent situation is the case in which this "nesting" environment is formed by organizations located in a common region, although geography is not a major facet when cooperation is supported by computer networks.

How to succeed in an era of ecosystem-based disruption: strategies and tools for offense, defense, timing, and leadership in a changing competitive landscape. The basis of competition is changing. Are you prepared? Rivalry is shifting from well-defined industries to broader ecosystems: automobiles to mobility platforms; banking to fintech; television broadcasting to video streaming. Your competitors are coming from new directions and pursuing different goals from those of your familiar rivals. In this world, succeeding with the old rules can mean losing the new game. Winning the Right Game introduces the concepts, tools, and frameworks necessary to confront the threat of ecosystem disruption and to develop the strategies that will let your organization play ecosystem offense. To succeed in this world, you need to change your perspective on competition, growth, and leadership. In this book, strategy expert Ron Adner offers a new way of thinking, illustrating breakthrough ideas with compelling cases. How did a strategy of ecosystem defense save Wayfair and Spotify from being crushed by giants Amazon and Apple? How did Oprah Winfrey redraw industry boundaries to transition from television host to multimedia mogul? How did a shift to an alignment mindset enable Microsoft's cloud-based revival? Each was rooted in a new approach to competitors, partners, and timing that you can apply to your own organization. For today's leaders the difference between success and failure is no longer simply winning, but rather being sure that you are winning the right game.

Understanding Business Ecosystems: How Firms Succeed in the New World of Convergence? builds on strategic management and innovationmanagement academic contributions to better understand theoreticaland empirical challenges of business ecosystems. Even if the concept ofbusiness ecosystem was coined in 1993, it will lie fallow during more than tenyears before gaining scholars' interest. Managers will however recognize therelevance of this concept as it grasps the complexity of their business realityin terms of new collaborative and innovative strategies.Thus, the main purpose of this book is twofold. On the one hand, the objective is to identify the epistemological and theoretical fundamentals of business ecosystems, and on the other hand, the purpose is to analyse the various managerial challenges. This volume analyses in particular the issues of knowledge management, coopetition strategies, platforms, governance, etc. Understanding Business Ecosystems: How Firms Succeed in the New World of Convergence? is finally a key reference book that innovates by integratingfor the first time well known French speaking scholars' contributions from the strategy and innovation management fields.

By bringing together elements of a radical new approach to the firm based on a biological metaphor of the ecosystem, this unique book extends the limits of existing theories traditionally used to investigate business networks.

A business ecosystem may be defined as a dynamic group of largely independent economic players that create products or services that together constitute a coherent solution for customers. Business ecosystems are high on the agenda of many business leaders. They are now highly prevalent, frequently disruptive, and all companies should add the required capabilities to their strategy toolbox. Business Ecosystems is based on more than three years of research by the BCG Henderson Institute, their work with dozens of companies on their ecosystem strategies, and hundreds of conversations with academics, managers, investors, entrepreneurs, and government employees. Part I reviews the fundamentals of business ecosystems – definition, design, success factors, governance, strategies. Part II elaborates on special topics, such as trust and data, industry applications, and their potential for sustainability. Ecosystems might not be a solution for all problems, but they are also not a transitory phenomenon. The field is evolving fast and as the success factors for creating, managing and participating in business ecosystems are increasingly accepted and understood, many established and emerging companies have the opportunity to put themselves in a position to unlock great innovation and value creation potential by engaging in ecosystem business models. This book will support business professionals and executives on this journey.