Recently in Case Studies Category

I promised my readers on ChristianSarkar.com that I'd dig into the October HBR article on shaping strategy by JH3 and JSB.

What is a shaping strategy?

A shaping strategy is "an effort to broadly redefine the terms of competition for a market sector through a positive,galvanizing message that promises benefits to all who adopt the new terms."

Think Apple's iTunes, Salesforce.com's AppExchange, or IBM's role in eclipse.org.

A "shaping" company builds a platform for others to engage in the co-creation of value.

The shaping company builds a critical mass of participants in its ecosystem and becomes the platform of choice in its industry.


In essence, the "shaper" is the critical hub in building out the dominant ecosystem. 

In our work, we sometimes find multiple "shapers" in an industry, all trying to build critical mass with their ecosystem partners. When this happens, it is often the consumer who decides which  platform or ecosystem will prevail.

Download the article here >>

What can companies learn from SAP's efforts to build a scalable ecosystem at the edge of its enterprise?

- Effective ecosystems generate differentiation and specialization

- Ecosystems evolve over time, but the orchestrator plays a key role in seeding and feeding participant initiatives

- Robust ecosystems are helpful to individuals, not just institutions

- Robust ecosystems require mobilizing large numbers of specialized third parties, not just the vendor and its customers

- Ecosystems at the edge bleed into the core of the enterprise

- Ecosystems are not just about connecting to existing resources--they help provide platforms for distributed innovation and learning

More here from John Hagel and John Seely Brown >>

Virtually all executives now buy into the wisdom of Bill Joy's observation that "there are always more smart people outside your company than within." Almost everyone pay lip service to the idea of open-innovation -- that coming up with new value in the marketplace often depends upon connecting effectively with other companies and individuals.

For the past eight years, I have been studying online ecosystems, learning to discern patterns of traffic, relationships between sites, and the relative positioning of competitors in a crowded (or not so crowded) marketspace.

In this blog I look forward to sharing my insights and discoveries as we learn about different types of online ecosystems.  Join me as we discover, analyze, measure, and  learn to leverage online ecosystems 

Feel free to contact me >>