Power of the Ecosystem

The US election is around the corner. 2008 saw a seismic shift in the World view of American politics. The world is watching even more closely this time around. Politics is unforgiving – you are as good (or bad) as your last victory (defeat). The unforgiving nature of a for-profit entity is in the fact that it doesn’t change much as the business and generations evolve – at least for the traditional ones like manufacturing or industrial production. In the Internet era, decades are as good as generations in terms of the amount of churn that happens in technologies or experiences in a fairly short span. Prior to the iPhone’s debut in 2007, not many would have placed their bets on App Stores driving mobile phone sales, or the platform having as much of an impact. Even the most hard core of Android fan boys would rue (in private, of course!) the seeming divide between the iOS and Android app stores. You look to the third and fourth best – Windows Phone and Blackberry – they would literally even bet their futures on App Stores being the sole reason why they aren’t market leaders today. Leaders and Laggards usually have different reasons for their place in history but never has the ecosystem played a more prominent role in predicting a product’s success or market adoption, however technologically proficient or adept the product or service may be. You bring in a networked realm like the Cloud and the importance of the ecosystem, the reliance on it cannot be quantified enough. Forget the time to market advantage; one cannot hope to be better than and outlast / outclass each chain of the Cloud workflows as there as enough established players that have made a niche mark for themselves. You better embrace your ecosystem – the Cloud after all, has no place for Jack of all, master of none! As the African proverb says: Walk fast if you want to walk alone; walk together if you want to walk far. Success in the Cloud space is about how best you fit in the ecosystem and provide the best of what your partners have to offer and differentiate where the workflow and experience matters. The sum of the parts should be greater than the best of the parts themselves – that alone, is where true differentiation can occur.