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NOVEMBER 19, 2019

ARTICLE
BUSINESS MODELS
The Delicate Balance
of Making an
Ecosystem Strategy
Work
by Michael G. Jacobides

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 BUSINESS MODELS

The Delicate Balance of

Making an Ecosystem
Strategy Work
by Michael G. Jacobides
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

PHOTOALTO/FREDERIC CIROU/GETTY IMAGES

Business ecosystems are becoming all the rage. In my recent HBR article, I argued that to embark on
shaping an ecosystem strategy, leaders should tackle key questions, including: How can you help
other firms create value? What role should you play—orchestrator, partner, participant? How can
your organization adapt? Yet these questions only get you to the starting line. To execute an
ecosystem strategy, you must also understand how to make an ecosystem work—in particular, this
means not only offering a seamless value proposition but also doing the hard work of brokering

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 attractive partnership arrangements and ensuring value capture. These two seemingly opposed, yet
interlinked forces form the Yin and Yang of ecosystem success.

All successful ecosystems have a strong Yang—a value proposition that rests on seamlessly
integrating various services for a customer. Consider Tencent, whose WeChat platform bridges the
gap between Chinese mobile subscribers’ lives and their activities—from social media to payments.
In Europe, Tencent built WeChatGo, which provides a pre-paid SIM card that saves Chinese
customers from costly roaming charges—but also offers an interface connecting Chinese tourists to
local shops, museums, and attractions. It offers them discounts in the app and delivers a seamless
and intuitive experience.

Another example is Hyundai’s BlueLink, which allows Hyundai owners to manage their cars with
their mobile phones. Through the BlueLink ecosystem, owners can have their car washed, or order
groceries to be delivered to its trunk while it sits in a parking lot.

Drucker Forum 2019

This article is one in a series related to the 11th Global Peter Drucker Forum, with the theme
“The Power of Ecosystems” taking place on November 21 & 22, 2019 in Vienna, Austria. #GPDF19

Then there’s PingAn, the world’s most valuable insurance company. Its strength today rests partly on
its move into healthcare via Good Doctor, which 300 million Chinese customers rely on to help them
manage their healthcare. In Europe, Babylon Health, a smaller, entrepreneurial venture, similarly
offers seamless access to healthcare services, integrating AI diagnosis, links to healthcare providers
and pharmacy services.

In all of these cases, ecosystems—groups of companies linked (though mostly not owned) by an
orchestrator—provide a new, integrated, customer-focused solution. It’s not just a bundle of “what
we do,” foisted on the customer. It’s about what consumers actually need; it’s not about the
company’s ego.

Underpinning this simplicity for the customer lies a less visible but critically important challenge of
careful strategic planning: the ecosystems’ Yin. This refers to building the intricate, strategically
calculated web of relationships that make an ecosystem work. When Tencent set up WeChatGo in
Europe, it contracted with KPN, the Dutch telco operator, to obtain European SIMs with pre-paid
airtime that Tencent could send to Chinese tourists before they even stepped on a plane. Then,
Tencent built an entire platform around KPN, hammering out deals with European retailers and
attractions to make their offering truly valuable—both to Chinese tourists and those who wished to
serve them.

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 PingAn, meanwhile, has a complex set of relationships with hospital providers: It owns just a few,
and it brokers collaborative arrangements, shares revenues, and creates standardized collaboration
templates for the rest. Similarly, the success of Europe’s BabylonHealth rests not merely on its
intuitive user experience, but also on strategic relationships.

This web of relationships requires straddling sectors, countries, and modes of engagement. It obliges
ecosystem orchestrators to share revenues—typically, starting low (or even negative) as the
ecosystem vies for customers, and then grabbing a bigger slice of the pie as it grows. The success of
an ecosystem often depends on multiple arrangements: revenue share deals, join ventures, minority
or majority participation, and M&A. And it demands a strong focus on internal KPIs within
organizations that engage in ecosystems, to ensure strategic alignment.

Of course, companies can’t just build a system that benefits customers and aligns with partners. The
orchestrator must also derive some value—sooner or later. Some ecosystems generate cash. Others
rely on building future success by increasing customer stickiness, facilitating growth, or heightening
excitement for the customer. But, ultimately, all ecosystems need to create some tangible value for
the orchestrator—a requirement that may be forgotten in a world where funding flows freely and
Private Equity dry powder creates competition for investable opportunities, where platforms are the
flavor of the day.

Consider WeWork, the co-working space venture. It burst into the limelight in a blaze of pizzazz and
excitement, offering an alluring proposition (Yang) for its tenants and attracting partners to provide
community, support, and complementary services. A big problem is that its ecosystem strategy and
business model (Yin) remain unclear. While WeWork can clearly create growth, its ability to drive
positive cash flow going forward is uncertain. Customer excitement and complementor buy-in, alas,
are necessary but not sufficient.

This imbalance crops up because we’re drawing the wrong lessons about what makes ecosystems
work. A few, atypical platforms, like Google or Facebook, can impose such powerful lock-in that once
an ecosystem achieves critical mass, the orchestrator can rule it as they wish. They can charge what
they want and turn ecosystems into cash cows. In other words, an attractive value proposition to the
customer (Yang) is enough to secure excitement of collaborators and power over final customers.
Yang, in these few cases, assures Yin, and drives business success.

However, most ecosystems don’t work that way. Uber is finding this out the hard way, with growth
begetting losses and no end in sight. Riders are a fickle lot; they are not locked in — and neither are
drivers, who can multi-home. That’s why Uber, emulating Grab, is broadening out, moving into food
delivery, transport, and lifestyle. By doing so, it’s trying to improve its value proposition (Yang) by
offering customers more value and becoming a super-app. Yet it is also trying to rebuild its ecosystem
strategy and value capture approach (Yin), hoping to strengthen customer lock-in and improve its
margins by broadening up. A bold move, with the jury still out.

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 As the world of ecosystems matures, we will see both impressive success stories and spectacular
failures. These stories will illustrate that we need both the customer value proposition and the ability
to work with partners and add value for the orchestrator. The two have to fit together, complement
each other, and co-evolve in harmony, as Taoism suggests. It’s time for a new philosophy of strategy-
making: Successful ecosystem strategy means shaping a Yin that matches your Yang.

This article is part of a series connected to the 11th Global Peter Drucker Forum.

Michael G. Jacobides holds the Sir Donald Gordon Chair for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the London Business
School.

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This document is authorized for use only by Carlo Baiardi (REDAZIONE@HBRITALIA.IT). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact
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