Pub-lesson #1: Ecosystems
It was not a likely spot to learn about emerging ecosystems but next to my hotel in Barcelona was a pub. This was very convenient. It was continuously raining while there, so I could dip out of the hotel and into the pub whilst barely getting wet. While there I could relax, drink, still use the hotel Wi-Fi (that close) AND eat. They had a very simple menu which for me was perfect. I ended up having chicken three nights in a row, while doing my day job which is normally based in the Silicon Valley. Now I am not sure what that says about me as a person or what it says about my life in the Networked Society…but it worked very well.
It was only on the last day while I was sitting close to the entrance that I realized my food was being delivered from the café next door. They literally walked it in through the front door already on a plate! Then I realized the pub did not do food at all but just ordered from the café next door. Come to think of it, I’d never go to the café next door to eat, but I was going to this pub because it did the simple food that I wanted. I had no idea how much more expensive the food was in the pub, and I did not care. It gave me the experience I needed. The pub sold more beer, the café sold more food and I received the complete simple experience that meant I kept coming back.
The combination of pub+café created more wealth than the existence of just the pub and/or just the café – even if they would charge the same price for the food as they did next door (which I am sure they did not). Brilliant, simple and obvious. And therein lies the simplicity of a beautifully functioning ecosystem. Obvious isn’t it?
So why are ecosystems so hard for us to see? Let me give you a theory. If we were the pub owner, we would say:“We can cook food.That’s not hard!” In that simple sentence the concept of the ecosystem is destroyed. You CAN do everything but WHY would you? In a very technology-centric industry like ICT we sometimes make the mistake to think that the goal of what we do is to build the capability to do everything ourselves. That is not why we exist. We exist to create the best experience we can for our customers and through that create the best return for our business.
If our customers want food and somebody next door already does food that meets our needs, why would we do it ourselves? Yet time and time again we seem to do exactly that. Sometimes we choose to use the café next door but we really don’t like it so we keep them as far away from our business as we can, because really we know we want to cook the food ourselves but we are “being forced” to use the café. The café knows this too, so they never really prioritize food for our customers since they know at any point we’ll be looking for a reason to justify our own kitchen. From our customers, comments such as “that food was cold, slow, expensive…” start to arise. In the pub that I kept returning to, the relationship between bar and café was one of absolute mutual respect, which is key to a functioning ecosystem.
In our industry the best example of an ecosystem is the Apple Appstore: “Let me help you monetize your apps”. Why do wein the network industry not have the mindset, “let me make sure your app is served the best way”, since the experience of the app is fundamentally delivered through the networks we build?
So I challenge all of us, the next time we have the feeling of being the bar AND the café, I suggest we take a step back and ask, “Is that the best approach for our customer and our business?”
Written by Geoff Hollingworth
Head of IP Services, Region North America Geoff is responsible for implementing Ericsson’s future IP Services Strategy in North America. Before this, Geoff led Ericsson’s next generation multimedia initiative to drive the three screen experience for the Volvo Ocean Race. He joined Ericsson 17 years ago and has been actively involved in delivering and promoting Mobile Broadband software. Follow Geoff on Twitter @50b
