At ImagineNation™ we have spent 2 years researching, deciphering and evolving the concept of innovative eco-systems and explored how this concept could be applied at the individual, team, organisation and national levels. We found that the concept of a business eco-system transcends systems thinking and embodies a more practical approach towards enabling collaboration and the flow of ideas between different innovation factors. Essentially as a means of effectively shaping and leveraging talent and your capacity for innovation by harnessing the power of collaboration as a lever for competitiveness in an VUCA world.
What is an eco-system?
The Global Innovation Index (GII 2012), recently aptly reinforced this need for collaboration in an eco-system context;
“Collaboration, the flow of ideas between different innovation factors, and access to knowledge are all increasingly important ingredients of innovation. So-called innovation ecosystems have become more complex and are now built on more internationalized, collaborative, and open innovation models and knowledge markets.”
The 2012 GII report also underlines the importance of linkages and of supporting the optimal infrastructure for these innovation ecosystems. http://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii/
James F Moore in The Death of Competition: Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Business Ecosystems defined a “business ecosystem” as:
“An economic community supported by a foundation of interacting organizations and individuals—the organisms of the business world. The economic community produces goods and services of value to customers, who are themselves members of the ecosystem. The member organisms also include suppliers, lead producers, competitors, and other stakeholders. Over time, they co-evolve their capabilities and roles, and tend to align themselves with the directions set by one or more central companies. Those companies holding leadership roles may change over time, but the function of ecosystem leader is valued by the community because it enables members to move toward shared visions to align their investments, and to find mutually supportive roles.”
ImagineNation™ Case Study
As our case study, we researched how Israel, the Start-Up Nation, successfully evolved the Michael Porter concept of economic clusters into a unique collaborative innovative eco-system. This was achieved by its necessity driven, unique entrepreneurial cultural attributes and by the suppotive, structured government support initiatives. Working this way enabled this tiny, resource poor, isolated nation to create high levels of social and intellectual capital. It also enhanced its ability to react speedily to a changing reality and enabled it to create shortcuts to accelerate innovation. Finally it established and set the foundations for shaping their capacity for innovation by harnessing the power of collaboration as a lever for competitiveness in an VUCA world.
Israel created a business eco-system where all of the pieces and parts that support and enable people and businesses to be adaptive, sustainable and successful in an uncertain and unstable world.
Our research revealed that understanding, developing and leveraging innovative eco-eystems creates significant benefits that enabled individuals, teams and organisations, and nations, towards shaping and leveraging their capacity for innovation by;
- Finding new ways of responding to and balancing the fluctuating levels of uncertainty and instability now occurring at all levels of society.
- Generating imaginative solutions to adaptive challenges, key problems as well as to improbable and unexpected events.
- Building something memorable that may not have existed previously.
- Re-inventing or re-energizing organisations and industries.
- Getting to the future faster and out think the competition.
- Ultimately building something worthwhile, sustainable and enduring.
At ImagineNation™ we evolved the concept of an innovative eco-system, by identifying and defining the cultural attributes required enable individuals, teams and organisations to develop innovative eco-systems that:
- Ignites people’s passionate purpose.
- Enables people to work, collaborate and flow in the emergent space.
- Allows for experimentation and the development of innovative prototypes without fear of failure.
- Empowers people’s courage to play in uncharted waters and an ever changing reality.
We suggest that every individual, team, community, organisation and country already sustains an inherent and implicit eco-system, which may have emerged and operates mostly unintentionally. This enables them to shape and leverage these into collaborative innovative eco-systems that can then achieve exponential results through:
- Understanding and identifying their current and existing eco-system,
- Paying attention to the unique attributes and patterns of each eco-system,
- Intentionally leveraging their eco-system towards specific and desired outcomes,
- Developing action plans to deliver and sustain these results.
Facilitating deep learning
At ImagineNation™ we have deciphered, defined and modeled these eco-system attributes and applied and integrated them into a coaching and deep corporate learning model and methodology, which is then adapted and customized to suit specific individual and organisational needs.
Using our unique and successful Innovation Learning System, we focus on the way people feel, think, talk and behave, on the way they coach and lead, and on the way organisations deliver results.
We enable individuals, teams and organisations to change their game through a powerful new integrated method of leading from the future, discovery learning and generative problem solving by:
- Building the foundations for the intrinsic motivation for innovation.
- Teaching people how to flip their current mindsets and adopt mindsets that support innovative eco-systems.
- Translating mindsets into day to day innovation behaviours, skills and practices that sustain innovative eco-systems.
- Aligning people, processes and systems to the organisational eco-system.
- Installing the cultural attributes that underpin a successful innovative eco-system.
The Results!
An increased capacity to create the mindset flips and fresh lines of sight to perceive and respond to the world differently and make innovation everybody’s job, everyday!
At ImagineNation™ we provide innovation coaching, education and culture consulting to help businesses achieve their innovation goals. Because we have done most of the learning and actioning of new hybrid mindsets, behaviors and skill-sets already, we can help your businesses also do this by opening people up to their innovation potential.
Contact us now at janet@imaginenation.com.au to find out how we can partner with you to learn, adapt and grow your business in the digital age.
