Have you read the book of Frederic Laloux about reinventing organizations? If you have never heard of his work, we can really advise you to buy his book or watch one of his key notes.

We found his writings particularly interesting because it has clear links with our work around analyzing connected organisations, improving collaboration and mapping ecosystems.

REINVENTING ORGANIZATIONS

What is an organization? Organizations are best defined as ‘a group of individuals, large or small, that are cooperating under the direction of executive leadership in accomplishment of certain common object.’ (K.Davis, 2008).

Organizations have been around since the beginning of time. The first cavemen formed groups and tribes to create better living circumstances. These tribes are not yet organizations but are the start of forming groups. As humans evolved, so did their way of organizing.

These evolutions have, according to Laloux, resulted in 5 types of organizations.

To really get a detailed explanation on the evolution of organizations, we advise to read the book Reinventing Organizations (F. Laloux, 2012) which can be bought or downloaded on his website. We will try to capture the gist of it for you.

Evolution of organizations

Organizations have evolved because the old model didn’t fit a new situation. The first real organization were the Red (impulsive) organization. The leadership was based on power and fear. It was/is very useful in periods of chaos. This type can still be found in the mafia or militia’s.

The red organizations became Amber (conformist) organizations. These were based on hierarchy and stability and resulted in scalable organizations. This type was used for a long type and can still be found in governments and public companies.

Because Amber organization couldn’t react to quickly changing conditions, Orange (achievement) organizations, took their place as the most common used type. This is the case until today. Orange organizations used bonus and other (positive) incentives to sustain leadership and focus on competition. This has introduced innovation and meritocracy and has invented departments like marketing, research and development and product management.

This view hits his limits once workers start to feel like a part of the machine and aren’t engaged in work anymore. That is why Green ‘pluralistic’ Organizations have emerged to provide workers with more meaning and less focus on profits. They have prioritized the stakeholder-view and the need for corporate culture and empowerment.

It is now clear that this has its limits as well. Hierarchies still exist in green organizations and this clashes with the need for freedom. Decision making can be really slow by the constant need of consensus.

teal-organizations

Describing the teal organization is not easy. It goes against everything you know (or think you know) about company structures.

Laloux boils it down to 3 pillars:

1. Self-management
2. Wholeness
3. Evolutionary purpose

Self-management

This is a new way of distributing power. To quote Laloux: ‘In these organizations, no one is the boss of anyone else, there is no more pyramid, there are no more layers of hierarchy, almost no staff functions. Instead they use different types of self-managing structures and peer based processes that prove to be much more powerful, inspiring and agile than the staid old pyramid.’

This goes further than empowerment via inverted pyramid structures or self-managing teams.

Wholeness

Teal-organizations invite employees to show up ‘as a whole person’ instead of only their professional self. This way they ensure that their employees can use their passions, energy and creativity and not limit themselves to one way of thinking and handling.

Evolutionary purpose

Rather than pushing a company in one direction via KPI’s, budget plans, strategic plans,… Teal-organizations try to find their ‘natural way’. They see the organization as a living organism and try to let it grow like one.

This requires a new way of leadership where leaders have to listen to where they want to go.

Summary of the different types

You have probably already heard about the word Ecosystems. Although it’s mostly used in the context of nature, you can find them everywhere. From business ecosystems to creative ones, from a entrepreneurial tech ecosystem, over urban smart city ecosystems to the gigantic open innovation ecosystem.

But what exactly is an ecosystem? What are the differences and more important what are the similarities between them? And how can your company benefit from being part and contributing to an ecosystem and how can you tap into the resources made available in a vibrant ecosystem? In this and other posts we’ll try to explain you everything you need to know.

Business ecosystems: definition

The expression is derived from nature, where an ecosystem refers to various species thrive by  relating  in  a  dynamic  and  self-adjusting manner. With businesses it is basically the same thing.

A business  ecosystem  brings  together mutually supportive  firms grouped  around  a particular  business, technology or shared ambition to  make  differentiated  offerings  and capture value they could not attain alone.

Generally, a business ecosystem is defined as a dynamic and co-evolving community of diverse participants who create and use new value via both cooperation and competition.

These networks are made up of customers,  market  intermediaries,  companies selling complementary products, suppliers and of course the company itself. Similar concepts are clusters, federations, associations and value networks.

Why does it matter?

The capacity of an ecosystem to create and serve markets is beyond that of any one firm or any single  traditional  industry.  Its  diversity  and  collective  capability  to  jointly  learn,  adapt  and innovate   are   important   determinants of   its   long-term   success.   Greatly   enhanced   through interaction  across  specialized  resources  and  capabilities,  ecosystems  develop  and  co-create  new solutions to societal challenges and human needs and desires.

Ecosystems thrive on competition, which is highly motivational and is a perfect conductor for innovation. On the other hand, are actors also incentivized by shared values, goals and interests. The need to meet customer demands faster and better provide a perfect base for collaboration and mutual  investments  in  the longer-term from which everyone gain benefit.

This combination of these two stimulating factors, also known as coopetition, will ultimately lead to more and faster innovations.

Other benefits  of  business  ecosystems  or  clusters include  a  better  access  to employees  and  suppliers,  specialized  information  and  institutions  and  public  goods.

How can Datascouts help?

When you see these benefits, you want to better understand the ecosystem you are part of and the value network of your company. 

That’s where we can help you. Datascouts provides a platform in which you can create a business ecosystem map, monitor your value network and be aware of what happens in your ecosystem, the trends in your sector and the achievements of peers.

The DataScouts platform combines public data, own private data and extra content which is relevant to the specific use case. Without any problem you can visualize tons of information in no time.

We are proud to present the next generation of the DataScouts application! 

Besides a completely new look and feel, we have incorporated as much as possible the valuable feedback we received from our end users. DataScouts has not just changed in terms of look & feel, but the new DataScouts also offers a wide range of new capabilities to build ecosystem intelligence. DataScouts allows to visualize, explore and monitor a portfolio of companies, a creative ecosystem, an industry cluster or the competitive landscape of a corporate.

New Layout

You will immediately notice the new layout of the application. DataScouts offers richer company profiles and a new way of exploring a directory of companies. The top left menu allows to easily switch between different interactive views of the ecosystem. All filters incl. the legend, keywords and tags are grouped on the left. The top navigation provides direct access to all companies profiles.

The powerful search capabilities allow to set multiple selection criteria and to visualize a portfolio of actors by using the interactive filters. Moreover, it is possible to combine the map or network view with the gallery or list view, allowing for a more complete ecosystem overview.

Actor Profile

The actor’s full profile groups all available information about a member of the ecosystem and automatically places the most relevant information on top of the page. The labels on top of the profile indicate whether the profile’s data is publicly available and/or it is claimed by the owner of the profile. Editing an ecosystem profile now happens all in one go.

Ecosystem Configuration

With the new version of DataScouts, admins gain flexibility and autonomy in setting up the configuration of the public ecosystem views. Admins will be able to see and edit the company profiles of all the actors in their ecosystem and play around with multiple parameters and views, while visitor will only see the information, company profiles and views an admin decides to publish.

Ecosystem Relationships

As relationships are key in extracting ecosystem intelligence from your data, we have included the capability to add persons as actors and link products to companies. Persons include advisors, entrepreneurs, and key opinion leaders, which can be linked to organizations, allowing to visualize the interrelationships between the persons and organizations within your ecosystem. Moreover, the capability to distinguish a company from their projects and products, makes the concrete relationships in your ecosystem between persons, companies, and products clearer, allowing to extract more ecosystem intelligence!

Sirris, Startups.be and DataScouts joined forces to build an online visualisation of the Belgian tech start-up scene. The online platform provides start-up insights and inspiration for everybody involved or interested in the startup movement in Belgium.

Sirris’ database covers over 1,500 software companies and start-ups. DataScouts’ EcoSystem Platform lets users explore the database interactively, allowing to filter according to their specific needs, geographically on a zoomable map as well on an interactive infographic.

Interactive inforgraphic of the Belgian Tech Startup Scene

Users can filter results on the map and in the infographic by:

• Location
• Industry or sector
• Maturity of the company,i.e. start-up, scale-up, deadpool and acquired
• Type of the business: B2B or B2C
• Year the company was founded

When it comes to innovation and creativity, we often assume that there are a small number of super smart people who always think of great new ideas. Through my daily involvement with entrepreneurs, researchers, incubators and accelerators, it has become clear to me that it are not the smartest and most driven people who bring their ideas successfully to market, but those who are most skilled in capturing ideas (from others), validating and improving these ideas and in working with people who are on the same wavelength.

The people who are most creative and have a feel for trends and new technologies are actually continuously scouting. They meet new people everywhere and catch new ideas at every moment in time. They are always open to listen to people with different views and new insights. They have the ability to filter out the best ideas and to validate those ideas in their next talks with other people, with again their own perspectives and experiences. The ideas that provoke interest from different people, are truly valuable. They translate these ideas in a new story that will change the world. The most productive people are continually working to create a new story. From their continuous exploration, they’re adding elements to their story, until they decide that time has come to take action and validate their idea in reality!

Social interactions are crucial in gathering information and in decision making. By combining input from various people we reach a judgment that is based on a group’s wisdom, collective intelligence. We collect the best ideas and make better decisions by learning from successes and mistakes of others!

The most productive people are therefore constantly in contact with others to gather and validate new ideas by engaging partners in exploratory conversations, resulting in even more and better ideas. A good mix of social learning and personal information guides them in their exploration.

There are a couple of important aspects to keep in mind when collecting and testing ideas within a network:

• Combining experiences of others with individual information leads to better decisions.
• The size and the diversity of the network determine the quality of the ideas that emerge.
• IF everyone runs in the same direction, be aware of group think (or herd behaviour), a major risk of social learning.
• Study the opinion of loners! When people behave independently, they are likely to have other information to which they attach great importance and they resist against social influences.

Digital transition yields many benefits for entrepreneurs, opening new business opportunities and new solutions for current problems as well. Connecting data to boost efficiency is one of those opportunities.

At [Y] Factor 2016, an inspiring event organised by the European Committee of the Regions, young entrepreneurs, local authorities and successful start-uppers engaged in an interactive discussion, on two key issues: “New Paths of Cooperation” and “How Big Data Drives Innovation”. In a co-creative format, the speakers and the audience explored the added value that start-ups bring to local and regional communities, what barriers young entrepreneurs face and how they can be avoided.