Overview of New Business Trends, or Labor Market Ecosystems

When you hear the word "ecosystem", something from the plant world probably comes to mind. But in the “Business Trends” report, recently published by Deloitte Consulting, it was discovered that ecosystems are a relevant metaphor for the modern labor market , where everything must evolve in order to remain operational within an ecosystem.

The 108-page report is entitled “Business Ecosystems Come of Age”. It states: everything that previously worked for organizations and leaders : rules, best practices, business models, mental attitudes - is shifting.
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The concept of business ecosystems is not new. In 1993, business strategist James Moore transferred this idea from botany to business.
It is easy to see why the metaphor is appropriate. After digitizing every bit of data and getting rid of paper media, the global business landscape has become a network with close internal connections. As stated in the report:

“Ecosystems are dynamic and co-developing communities consisting of diverse actors creating and receiving new content in the process of both interaction and competition.”

The essence of the ecosystem is transformation. The report Deloitte noted: ecosystems are hardy and durable, but they are characterized by constant internal changes. While the media, software, commerce, and so on, are moving in the direction of increasingly clear product individualization, other systems, such as technological infrastructure, absorb small players and create large firms that offer resources, information, and platforms to others. According to the report, there is an ecosystem for each type of business: from small to international.

Disappearing borders, opening up opportunities and new challenges

Borders between sectors blurred. Buyers become active participants. Platforms support new products and services. Access to communication with intellectuals and more resources accelerates learning and innovation. It is also expected that the Internet of physical objects in the next 5 years will expand, and will include from 26 to 75 billion connected devices (excluding smartphones and tablets). The disappearance of boundaries and empowerment is good news.

But opportunities without strategic management are not real prospects at all . Leaders need to define a new range of tasks focused on the effort of ecosystems. Main areas:

Information Security and Data

One of the largest ecosystems is the Internet. It concentrates a huge amount of information that needs protection. Therefore, maintaining an open and reliable global system is a massive task. The number of recorded cyber attacks increased by almost 50%, and in 2014 was about 120,000 per day (!).

Hackers are destroying public confidence, and companies are becoming more dependent on data. This puts in a difficult position the leaders who perceive the information created together with clients as valuable assets.

Talent

Since most of the tasks performed by newcomers and low-skilled workers are automated, the traditional personnel structure is transformed from a pyramid into an hourglass based on highly specialized employees.

According to Intuitreport, by 2020 more than 60 million Americans will become temporary workers. Against the background of the transition from permanent employment to the contract system, 87% of the leaders of the world's leading recruitment agencies have already changed their talent search strategy to a parallel selection of temporary workers and experienced employees (or plan to do so). This implies a reassignment of temporary work through freelance platforms (Odesk). Product marketing and improvement takes place on creative crowdsourcing resources (Tongal or Quirky). Preparation for passing international tests is carried out in online tutor search services ( TESTutor ).

Strategy

As the state is now recruited on the Web, success strategies now depend on both collaboration and competition. The review reveals: it is not necessary to have basic abilities or to control them directly, it is often necessary to create new business models and increase the efficiency of actions. Accordingly, emphasis will be placed on the establishment of external relations, as well as on large data sets and analytics.

More opportunities - more potential solutions.

Thanks to the development of technology, today the opportunities to establish communication between specialists and other employees are wider than ever. Such an expert group, in turn, sets the task for international business ecosystems related to solving complex problems, such as the spread of diseases or the depletion of resources.

The report refers to these issues as “unpleasant prospects.” It is clear that the search for a way out of such situations requires the participation of a large number of people.

How to make all the players sit at the table and work on the overall result? The Deloitte report assumes that there are organizers who “control everything” and create the space necessary for the concerted actions of everyone else. For example, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) increased immunization in the poorest countries of the world, bringing together developing countries' demand for vaccines and stable long-term funding.

The report also notes: there should not be one best solution coming from all these different groups put together. Sometimes a massive approach with creating a complete list of potential exits is the only way to achieve a goal .
There are other ways for leaders to develop, leading to increased efficiency within ecosystems.

Leaders are more interested in social influence.

Managers need to go beyond their sector and keep in mind a complete picture of the problems and solutions. In this regard, there is a new kind of leader. Deloitte found out: the best graduates of business schools , who used to get jobs in high-paying areas like finance or consulting right after graduation, are now being supplanted by "hard-minded people who are expected to be able to combine business acumen and public influence."

Leading universities offer more social entrepreneurship courses, social investment and social enterprise management, and social innovations create a combined human resource potential that operates freely in business and social fields.

The report notes:

“The leaders in the coming decades will become“ triathletes ”capable of managing personnel, interacting and influencing the results in all areas, and using the term management guru, Peter Senge,“ system leaders ”who can accelerate the change of structures over which they have no formal control.

Leadership Self Control

Advanced technologies and business models not only create new ecosystems, but also test the constraints imposed by existing regulatory frameworks (hi Lyft and Uber). Instead of relying on traditional regulation, promising business ecosystem leaders find it necessary to include self-control. The 2014 Deloitte survey on reputational risk found that 87% of executives surveyed considered the risk of losing business reputation more important or significantly more important than other strategic risks they face.

“In ecosystems, the interdependence of subjects and the fact that any weak link threatens the success of the whole is more acutely felt,”

- noted in the report. An example of this is the openness and availability of reputation control tools in eBay services. Social media also acts as a system that keeps corporate behavior in check, since any violation can spread like a virus in a few minutes.

Leaders as landmark makers

Top managers approve projects and understand their value for both the creator and the participants. The most easily customizable platforms benefit thousands, if not millions of independent users who benefit from specialization and flexibility. The ability of participants to focus on the actions they do best, and providing the remaining aspects to others, as in a commercial platform from Amazon, also have tremendous value for everyone.

Within the smaller groups established on the project, deep, trust-based relationships can be created, which will also help establish relationships with broader structures.

A competent leader will understand: the greatest opportunity on the platform is to find benchmarks that will allow you to get the most of the values ​​created there. Finding such points is like understanding where relationships begin to concentrate. Tracking these landmarks will provide an opportunity to notice signals that predict future trends and allow leaders to work ahead of the curve. The report states:

"When you are in the center of the stream, a slight dexterous action can set in motion large objects."

PS We recommend another article on the topic - Secrets to create a team of managers .

Translated by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult .