What is the ecosystem to focus on when scaling business agility? Which are the components that shouldn’t be overlooked in that endeavour? These are important questions that business leaders and entrepreneurs need to ponder on.
Unfortunately, the answers are not always easily forthcoming. Or rather, it’s easy to miss some of the most important elements that constitute the ecosystem.
So, here, we give you the comprehensive list of elements that form an ecosystem. For every element, explanations and their significance are also mentioned.
The ecosystem is the world that contains all elements to focus on while scaling agility
Company
When talking about the elements that make up the ecosystem which needs to be considered for scaling business agility, perhaps the most obvious component is the company. After all, on many occasions, the word “company” is used as a synonym for an organization.
However, the term here shouldn't be understood to mean the physical infrastructure of an organization. There are other- more important- elements at play here. The most significant of these are the employees who form the backbone of the organization. Then, there are hierarchies to be considered. Different firms, depending on their type of business and their vision, would adopt different types of hierarchies that function as the structural framework for the whole organization.
These structures exist to facilitate efficient workflow and smoothens the process of demarcating work. These structures often also form an important part of what needs to be scaled up.
Customers
Business philosophies may not be the first thing that come to your mind when you think of Mahatma Gandhi. And yet, it was India’s legendary freedom fighter who said one of the most profound(yet simple) facts about business:
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.”
It’s hard to overstate the importance of customers for a business. However, one rarely thinks of them as a part of the ecosystem. The conventional thinking follows that the organization stands separate from the customer. But factoring in the customer in the business decisions makes for more profitable thinking.
Partners
Like with customers, partners to the company are also something we have come to think of as other- or at least a little in the periphery to an organization. But the fact is that every partner brings his or her own unique values and skill-sets which become part of the organization. Their contributions strengthens the organization more than how it could do on its own.
This means that scaling them up should have a proportional positive effect on the organization. Unfortunately though, even when organizations take scaling seriously, partners are rarely in the picture. And that’s one pitfall you should avoid.
Partners are more a part of the ecosystem than you may think
Community
Regardless of the type of business, all organizations are linked to a community. This could be by virtue of the location of the business’ functioning.
It maybe that the said business doesn’t serve their immediate community with their products. Perhaps, the products are exclusively exported out of the country for an expatriate population.
But whether you serve the community with your products or not, the organization is sharing resources- and at times part of the revenue- with the immediate community, which makes them an intricate part of the ecosystem.
Government
Any organization functions under a governmental umbrella-at least the ones that are relevant to this post do. There are norms to be followed, rules to be adhered and duties fulfilled in this backdrop. Under these governing aspects, the organization works towards greater progress, not just for itself but also everyone who is associated with it.
The governing principles are synonymous to the rules that help define a sport or a game. While some see rules as inhibition on occasions, the fact remains that they are necessary. For without them, there exists no game!
