Please visit: www.accenture.com/EcosystemCollaboration. Not too long ago, playing fields used to be neat. Bordered. Companies stayed within their industry lines, rarely venturing outside of them. But digital technology has changed all that, lowering entry and exit barriers to digitally contestable markets. The increased complexity and potential of markets like these is requiring companies to make and execute corporate strategy differently. Welcome to a new age of competitiveness. Welcome to the age of the ecosystem.

1. Ecosystem
Collaboration
New Engines for Growth and
Competitiveness in the Digital Age

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Ecosystem
[ek-oh-sis-tuh m, ee-koh-]
noun
1. A company’s competitiveness network: an increasingly global,
multi-industry nexus of partners (suppliers, institutions, customers)
and stakeholders through which business problems are solved and
outcomes are shaped.
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From strict industry lines to digitally contestable
markets
Then
Playing fields were neat.
Companies stayed within
industry lines.
Now
Digital technology has blurred
industry lines and lowered entry
and exit barriers to digitally
contestable markets.

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For a company to grow and compete, the organization
must be ecosystem-ready.
Highly effective ecosystem collaboration needs to flow from the
company’s core, including all of an organization’s:
People
Culture Process
Technology
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Did You Know…?
78% of executives plan to pursue growth in new areas by using flexible
organizational forms of collaboration, such as:
Strategic Alliances Joint Ventures M&A

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How to transform business through ecosystem
collaboration:
Reach outside
Be open to
analog
connections
Lay the right
foundation
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Harness and leverage
the skills and talents of
interested outsiders
with both “hard” and
“soft” skills.
Reach outside to develop partners across the customer
value chain.

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Reinvigorate your
company culture and
make every employee
responsible for
collaboration and
innovation.
Be open to analog connections as unexpected sources
of innovation.
Consider: 2/3 of companies that out-
performed peers over the last 3 years
say they encourage employees to be
proactive in building relations with
external stakeholders, compared with
just over 1/3 of under-performers.

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Focus on upgrading
capabilities in three areas:
Lay the right ecosystem foundation.
Strategy. Leadership must set the tone
by signaling a shift away from products
and services alone, toward how the
company can help customers achieve
better outcomes.
People. Recognize that employees at
all levels have connections that could
serve the company’s ecosystem
strategy.
Technology. Integrate collaborative
technology that can help employees
connect with each other, with outside
organizations and with customers.

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All ecosystems “go:” Powering future growth and
competitiveness
Those that succeed will gain the agility
and adaptability needed to power
future growth.
Companies now
need to create
organizations that are:
•More open
•More flexible
•More collaborative
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conversation:
@AccentureStrat
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