It is one thing to use the term “ecosystems” as a metaphor. It is quite another to create a new visual language to help universities and their partners see them. That is what the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab has been working on over the last few years. In partnership with Fraunhofer IOA based in Stuttgart, Germany they’ve develop a set of visual frameworks that can be used and adapted in efforts related to innovation, entrepreneurship, technology transfer and a wide variety of economic development-related strategies.

1. The Visual Language of Ecosystems
Ed Morrison
Scott Hutcheson
University Economic
Development Association
October 2018

2. The Current State
of the Practice
Agenda
Designing What’s Next:
Networks: Collaboration: Strategy
Maps: Platforms: Roadmaps: The
Five Quadrants
Proof Points:
How This Works
in Practice

3. Mapping Ecosystems:
The State of Practice

4. What’s wrong with this picture?
Source: World Economic Forum (2014). Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Around the Globe and Early-Stage Company
Growth Dynamics – the Entrepreneur’s Perspective

5. Another example: Nice logic
But is it actionable?
Erik Stam (2015) Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Regional Policy: A Sympathetic Critique, European
Planning Studies, 23:9, 1759-1769, DOI:10.1080/09654313.2015.1061484

6. Ecosystems don’t fit our existing
economic models

7. Brown, R., & Mason, C. (2017). Looking inside the spiky bits: a critical review and
conceptualisation of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Small Business Economics, 49(1), 11-30.
Here’s a different approach:
Moving toward interconnections

8. A stronger view of interconnections:
But is there a theory of change?
Source: Daniel, L., Medlin, C. J.,
O’Connor, A., Statsenko, L., Vnuk,
R., & Hancock, G. (2018).
Deconstructing the entrepreneurial
ecosystem concept. In
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (pp.
23-44). Springer, Cham.

9. Source: Pinto, H. (2018). Innovation Dynamics and Resilience: A Crucial Agenda
for the Future of Regional Studies and Policy. Available at https://
regions.regionalstudies.org/ezine/article/innovation-dynamics-and-resilience-a-
crucial-agenda-for-the-future-of-regional-studies-and-policy/
Another example:
How does this help us rebuild Puerto Rico?

10. It’s not rocket science…it’s more
like molecular biology

11. We cannot design a complex adaptive
system, but we can guide them

12. But we can design the simple rules from
which a complex system emerges
Separation:
Create some space
Alignment:
Line up with those close by
Cohesion:
Steer toward the center

13. Visualization should help us find these
rules. Outcomes should…
Communicate complexity clearly
Embed a theory of change
Make drawings simple enough to be
actionable

14. Designing What’s Next:
Networks, Collaboration,
Dancing Landscapes,
Strategy Maps

15. What effective networks look like: Tight
cores, porous boundaries, spanners

17. Collaboration: a portfolio of skills
spread across a team + a discipline

18. Collaboration skills map on to an
S Curve of transformation
Time
Growth
5
jumping to the next s-curve
1
4
3
2
1. Exploring & Innovating
2. Building & Designing
3. Optimizing & Regulation
4. Guarding & Preserving
5. Transitioning from the
Current Cycle to the Next Cycle

19. Cognitive diversity in a team is
important to managing complexity

20. Diverse teams and a discipline of simple
rules create complex strategies

21. These complex strategies can be
communicated quickly

22. Designing What’s Next:
Platforms

23. Platforms can provide coherence from
fragmented “systems”

24. Platforms can attract “networks of the
willing”

25. Platforms can be moved under existing
organizations

26. Platforms can be designed to
communicate complex relationships

27. Platforms can be design to communicate
quickly

28. Platforms can speed commercialization
of university technology

29. Designing What’s Next:
Our Civic Economy
and New Roadmaps

30. Markets belong to the family of open
networks: complex adaptive systems

31.
Research
Infrastructure
Investor
Networks
Skilled
Talent
Pool
Start-up
Firms
Innovative
Growth
Companies
Provide capital
and expertise
Provide investment
generates wealth
Recruit and
supply smart
people
Recruit and
supply smart
people
Provide networks
and mentors
Provide ideas
incubators and
smart people
Provide R&D
partners
Provide
technology
support and
training
Accelerate new
venture investment
Train and recruit smart people
Start Up
Ecosystem
Innovation
Ecosystem
University ecosystems: Overlapping
start-up and innovation ecosystems

32. Platforms can accelerate both start-ups
and innovation

33. Ecosystem development for universities
takes place on the edges

34. Ecosystems emerge through a set of
identifiable stages

35. Mapping an ecosystem for Lockheed

36. Designing What’s Next:
The Five Quadrants

37. Details can become so overwhelming
that they are no longer actionable

38. To be actionable, we need a theory of
change…

39. From different types of networks, a
complex ecosystem emerges…

41. Some Proof Points

42. Strategic Doing Started in a Parking Garage
in Oklahoma City, 1993.

43. The results start appearing
Oklahoma City, 2007.
Photo by: Luke Barrett

44. OKC is now
considered a national
model

45. We need to create a
vibrant ecosystem for
technology companies.
Designing an ecosystem in
Charleston, SC 2001
Ernest Andrade
Economic Developer
City of Charleston

46. The Charleston Digital
Corridor has also gained
national attention

47. Shoals Shift applied these models to build
their ecosystem…

48. Meet Ubaldo Cordova

49. 1
AcceleratingInnovationinPuertoRico:
StrengtheningUPR’sInnovationEcosystem
Ubaldo M. Córdova-Figueroa,
Ph.D. Interim Vice President

50. Two Pathways Moving Forward
Pathway 1: “Sustainable Start-Ups”
Replicate the startup ecosystem of
Mayagüez to other campuses and regions
• Establish a core team
• Learn agile strategy discipline
• Launch a strategic action plan
Pathway 2: “Knowledge to Money”
Generation of wealth from UPR-Knowledge
by
• Link, leverage core research
strengths across campuses
• Align strengths to companies
• Learn agile strategy discipline

51. Pathway 1: Follow the Same Protocols to Replicate the Start-Up
Ecosystem in Other UPR Campuses

52. Replication and ScalingAcross Puerto Rico: Start-Up Ecosystems
Across the Campuses of the University of Puerto Rico
Campus 1
Campus 2
Campus 3
Campus 4

53. Target Groups for Puerto Rico Transformation

54. Ubaldo

55. When people follow a strategy
discipline of simple rules,
networks can scale quickly

56. Design teams
with cognitive
diversity
A
C
B
D
Time
Growth

57. Use an open
source
operating
system to
accelerate
collaborations

58. Thank you
edmorrison@purdue.edu