Greg Sarafin wrote an article for EY titled Seven business models for creating ecosystem value (1 Dec 2021).
« An ecosystem business model is a commercial arrangement among two or more companies to collectively create value propositions that are greater than each can create individually. EY has identified seven distinct types of ecosystem business models to aid business leaders in incorporating ecosystem into their business strategy and operating models. »
« We have explored the evolution of business ecosystem in previous articles, defining what business ecosystem means, why it matters and how organizations can create value through ecosystem integration. As more organizations explore and begin their journey towards business ecosystem value creation, it is essential that they are able to understand and identify the correct models to participate in or orchestrate themselves. »
« Through our client interactions and research, we’ve observed, identified and utilized seven distinct ecosystem business models, each with distinct go-to-market, risk sharing and commercial characteristics. »
« #1. The symbiotic ecosystem business model. We refer to the ecosystem business model employed by most technology platform companies as the “symbiotic” model. »
« #2. The marketplace ecosystem business model… Amazon, Apple and Google are modern day examples of marketplace operators. Uber is an example of a marketplace operator who created a supply of vendors (e.g. people with cars, available time, and a desire to earn money) that wouldn’t have the ability to be vendors if it weren’t for the platform and the marketplace Uber created. »
« #3. The scaling ecosystem business model… A business example would be the alliances the airlines have formed to create global scale, giving their customers the convenience of booking global travel through any of the members of the alliance and getting some measure of “status” recognition across the network. »
« #4. The accretive ecosystem business model. This model is typically an arrangement between two, or just a few, entities, where all parties have a portion of an overall customer value proposition that combined is worth substantially more than the sum of its parts. »
« #5. The coopetive ecosystem business model. Ray Noorda, the former CEO of Novell, coined the term “coopetition,” a model where competitors cooperate to create higher customer value… An example of a true coopetive relationship can be found in the relationship between P&G and Clorox. P&G owns the Febreze product line, the category leader in odor elimination, and Clorox owns the Glad trash bag product line, a category leader as well. Though the two compete across multiple product categories, they agreed that the innovation of embedding Febreze in Glad trash bags would create a more compelling product for consumers, and thus signed a coopetive agreement to jointly deliver that to the market. The product line has been a resounding success. P&G and Clorox are both the orchestrators and the participants in this ecosystem of two mega-brands. »
« #6. The value chain ecosystem business model. There are many examples of value chains world-wide. Value chains sit between original suppliers and end consumers of goods and services and are characterized by many participants across many different role types. The participants in the value chain all manage their pieces, but without an orchestrator at the center of a value chain, the overall efficiency of the collective participants is not optimizable. »
« #7. The integrator ecosystem business model. An orchestrator, referred to here as the “ecosystem integrator,” brings together a bespoke set of ecosystem participants to create a fully integrated end-to-end solution for customers… The ecosystem integrator offers full commercial responsibility for the workings of the solution delivered to the client… This model effectively replaces solutions that were historically delivered as systems Integration projects. »
Articles of Interest 