Ecosystem approach
to start and grow innovative
technology companies
Tony Bailetti, Ph.D.
Carleton University
[email protected]
Vitesse OTI
August 6, 2008
Motivation
Serial technical entrepreneurs are regional treasures,
how to best enable them and benefit Ottawa?
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More serial technical entrepreneurs
Innovation is key to making money
Innovation is distributed globally
Harnessing innovation distributed globally requires cash,
talent, partnerships and approaches/tools that scale
• Barriers to entry are lower
• ICT has made world flat
• Successful companies use “ecosystem approach” to grow
2
Couple serial entrepreneurs with ecosystems
and establish keystones in Ottawa
Benefit
Opportunity
Clarity
act to make
market
act to align
with existing
market
Time
Acting earlier results in more value created globally
and appropriated locally
3
Next steps
• TFN to organize meeting with serial
entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders
• Set economic goals
• Establish keystone of keystones in Ottawa
• Establish as many keystone organizations in
Ottawa as it makes sense
• Ensure tight coupling between serial
entrepreneurs and global ecosystems
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Approaches to value creation and
appropriation
Model
Tech
transfer
Cluster
Ecosystem
Method
• Focus on research
• Invest to move research
to line of business
• Pick a winning domain
• Invest to grow domain
• Align investments in
distributed innovation, find
mutually supportive roles, and
move towards shared vision
• Invest in ecosystem health
Focus
# of patents and licenses
to existing firms or spinoffs and patent process
Goals of bureaucrats that
make a living running 4th
pillar organizations and
cluster size
Orchestrate innovation around
the world and lever local
strengths to create and
appropriate value
Attributes
• Poor commercialization
skills with high overhead
• Difficult to scale
• Weak companyacademic relationships
• IP controlled go-tomarket strategy
• Ineffective given
investment required
• Static relationships
• Difficult to scale
• Slow and inflexible
• Fails to uncover growth
niches
• Does not evolve codependence
• No customer
empowerment
• Leadership role is valued and
process to identify leaders is
transparent
• Strong relationships based on
co-dependence
• Strength from risk sharing,
diversity with common
purpose, and size
• Scalable
• Innovative SMEs and
customers play central roles
• Self-adjusting and flexible
5
Example
1. Sandbox
Large
Competitor
Components +
prototype environment
2. Entrepreneurial
$ + people
lead project
3. Commercial
Services
Business
plan expert
4. Knowledge &
Dissemination
Research
5. Business
Development
Keystone
Substitutes
Customers
Company
Whole
product
Early
Customers
Orchestrator
x
x
x
x
x
x
Members
x x
x x
Coral CEA Ecosystem
Complex
networks
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Example of groups in an ecosystem
Inputs
Competitors
Substitutes
Suppliers
Inputs
Company
Outputs
Complementor 1
Inputs
Complementor 2
Intermediary stage 1
Intermediary stage 2
Leader
Influences
+
Customers
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Main benefits of entrepreneurecosystem coupling
• Aligns entrepreneur’s energy with resources from large number of
diverse companies, organizations, and individuals all over the world
• Combines entrepreneur’s contributions with those of others to create
significant value for customers
• Increases likelihood service providers and suppliers will share risks
with entrepreneur in return for long term relationships
• Increases entrepreneur’s legitimacy and options to grow market
• Increases likelihood of selling to governments
• Decreases investment to enter new markets, adopt and advance
technology as well as raise capital
• Reduces cost of recruiting excellent teams
• Fosters collaboration with other serial entrepreneurs
• Provides gateways to relationships in other ecosystems
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Ecosystem approach requires technical
entrepreneur to:
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Use community’s shared vision and then contribute to it
Launch market offers using ecosystem’s foundation platform
Compete for leadership positions in space, niche and governance
Draw on talent around the world
Develop capability to collaborate
Incorporate ecosystem realities into:
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–
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–
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Managing product interdependencies
Accelerating adoption of company’s products
Raising funds
Working with talented teams distributed worldwide
Creating and appropriating value
• Open development and commercialization processes to customers
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Ecosystem collaboration is not
outsourcing
Collaborate to
Outsource to
Grow revenue
Reduce costs
Create new assets that deliver
value to customers
Produce existing product at lower
cost
Access skills dispersed globally,
share risks
Procure commodity assets
Build capabilities to differentiate
offers for which customers pay
Avoid investing in capabilities for
which customers will not pay
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Keystone organization
What is it?
• Advances foundation platform
which anchors economic
community
– Combined base of:
technologies, architectures,
designs and assets used to
build market offers;
components, products and
services; contracts; and
processes
• Strengthens ecosystem health
• Enables value co-creation with
customers
Benefits?
• Increases awareness of global
environment
• Reduces cost and time of
coordinating innovation and
collective action globally
• Supports all stages of growth,
not just the start
• Increases trust among
entrepreneurs' company,
complementors, intermediaries,
suppliers and leaders
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Thank you!
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