582: McKinsey's Venkat Atluri, How to thrive in the ecosystem economy (Strategy Skills classics)
The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving1 Sep

582: McKinsey's Venkat Atluri, How to thrive in the ecosystem economy (Strategy Skills classics)

Venkat Atluri, McKinsey senior partner and coauthor of The Ecosystem Economy: How to Lead in the New Age of Sectors Without Borders, explains how value creation is shifting from stand-alone enterprises to coordinated networks of collaborators. Drawing on two decades advising leaders in technology, media, and telecom, he outlines what makes ecosystem businesses distinct from traditional conglomerates—and the governance required to make them work at scale.

Atluri emphasizes that ecosystems aren’t about diversification for its own sake, but about following a customer-led thread:

“Start with the customer and then follow the thread—what other problems does that customer have that you can solve together with partners?”

Key Insights from the Conversation

  • Beyond Suppliers: Many firms mistake a supplier list or procurement process for an ecosystem. Atluri is clear:
    “A supplier list is not an ecosystem. An ecosystem is about mutual value creation and sharing in the upside.”


  • Role Clarity Matters: Some firms will anchor the platform, continuously raising the bar for developers and users. Others will participate as contributors, protecting privacy, quality, and customer experience. Scale only comes when “responsibilities, incentives, and accountability” are explicit.

  • Discipline in Operating Models: He advises executives to integrate ecosystem thinking into strategy, but then run deeper, dedicated workstreams to define roles, economics, and governance.

  • Competition Is Ecosystem vs. Ecosystem: Scenario planning must account for new types of disruptors and ask, “What would an ecosystem leader do here?” Over time, Atluri expects the economy to consolidate into a few macro-ecosystems with multiple micro-ecosystems nested beneath them.

  • History as a Control: Symbian and BlackBerry illustrate that large user bases are not moats.

    “Unless you keep raising the bar on your proposition, you lose.”

  • Customer Experience Sets the Standard: Consumer expectations now apply in B2B as well:

    “If something doesn’t work out of the box, that tells you the company is focused on itself, not the customer.”

🎯 Practical Takeaways for Senior Leaders

  • Map a customer segment’s biggest problems and use that to prioritize expansion.

  • Deliberately choose whether to anchor a platform or participate in one—and align capital and talent accordingly.

  • Replace vendor transactions with value-sharing constructs that reward partners for enlarging the pie.

  • Establish governance, metrics, and cultural norms that enable collaboration at scale.

  • Continuously improve the platform to keep developers, customers, and partners engaged.

Atluri’s message is simple but powerful:

“Ecosystems win when they deliver ever-rising value to customers and fair economics to contributors.”

Companies that treat ecosystems as procurement exercises will stall. Those that treat them as strategic systems will build compounding advantages over time.

📚 Get Venkat’s book, The Ecosystem Economy, here: https://shorturl.at/XawOb

Here are some free gifts for you:

Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach

McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf

Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

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473: MIT Professor Deborah Ancona on How Family Ghosts End Up in the Executive Suite

473: MIT Professor Deborah Ancona on How Family Ghosts End Up in the Executive Suite

Welcome to Strategy Skills, episode 473—an interview with Deborah Ancona, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.   In this episode, we explore "family ghosts," a rarely discussed topic that significantly impacts professional growth, behavior, and attitudes toward work. We discuss how to achieve your greatest potential as a leader by recognizing your own "family ghosts" and determining which ones to embrace or leave behind.   Deborah Ancona is a distinguished Professor of Management and Founder of the MIT Leadership Center. Deborah specializes in studying, teaching, and consulting in the areas of individual leadership, team effectiveness, and organizational transformation. Her new work centers on how Family Ghosts end up in the Executive Suite.   Deborah is also the coauthor of X-Teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed, a classic book on teams and collaboration. This work demonstrates how an externally focused team model is key to driving innovation and ensuring your organization's success.   Get X-Teams here: https://rb.gy/jyzhwq   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

12 Aug 202450min

472: Top-down view of energy (Strategy Skills classics)

472: Top-down view of energy (Strategy Skills classics)

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic about the top-down view of energy. It is crucial to provide boundaries when discussing sector-wide issues or the executives may get lost in the details and miss the key levers.   Watch the video version here: Top-Down View of Energy   Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

7 Aug 20249min

471: Management consulting storyboards (Strategy Skills classics)

471: Management consulting storyboards (Strategy Skills classics)

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we share one of our more in-depth episodes taken as a sample video from one of our strategy studies. This episode is complimentary and available on iTunes, Youtube, Spotify, and many other podcast players.   Watch the video version here: How do I build the storyboard and why is it done so early?    Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

5 Aug 202420min

470: Audemars Piguet & leadership (Strategy Skills classics)

470: Audemars Piguet & leadership (Strategy Skills classics)

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we explain how leadership is defined at great firms like McKinsey and BCG, and how we also manage leadership transition at FC. It will surprise you to see how different the mindset can be and that we think about these issues all the time.   The most important role of a partner is to leave the firm in a better place than when she/he joined, and to hand over a client relationship to a newer partner. The ability to maintain this cycle is critical.   If the mechanism is not there, even proud and great firms suffer during leadership changes. You want to avoid that. The cycle must be continuous.   Click here to see the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

31 Juli 202415min

469: Market trends analysis (Strategy Skills classics)

469: Market trends analysis (Strategy Skills classics)

Let’s be honest. Most consultants simply go into Google and search for any reports / analyses to compile market trends/an industry analysis fact pack. In other words, they do not put much thought into it beyond ensuring they are not caught for plagiarism. This is because many consultants think of the market trends or industry analysis as an output to deliver, which will never be used, and it does not matter what comprises the analysis.   For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic from week 4 of the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study, where we discuss how/why we built a bespoke market trends pack for the client addressing the issues important to them and them only. We used this market trends analysis to guide the executives on the issues we considered important to their strategy.   Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study.   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

29 Juli 202413min

468: How to overcome career frustrations with New York University’s Dr. Tessa West

468: How to overcome career frustrations with New York University’s Dr. Tessa West

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 468, an interview with the author of Job Therapy: Finding Work That Works for You, Dr. Tessa West. In her book, Dr. Tessa West helps you figure out the real reason you’re unhappy and shows you how to find a new position in which you’ll thrive, whether in a different role, company, or new industry altogether.   Dr. Tessa West is Professor of Psychology at New York University, where she is a leading expert on the science of social relationships. Her academic research and writing for the media focuses on how to improve communication between employees, bosses, and hiring professionals across workplace settings.  She has over 100 academic publications and is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal. Her work has been covered by Scientific American, the New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, CNN, CNBC, ABC World News, TIME, Bloomberg, HBR, Fast Company, and the US Supreme Court. Her first book Jerks at Work published to rave reviews.   Get Dr. Tessa's book here: https://rb.gy/e1iwmg   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

24 Juli 20241h 4min

467: How to convert insights into strategy maps (Strategy Skills classics)

467: How to convert insights into strategy maps (Strategy Skills classics)

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic where we discuss how to convert insights into Strategy Maps. It is a powerful tool to create prescriptive / forecasting models to explain and predict strategy options. This is how to move from being a consultant to thinking and presenting like a partner. It is complimentary and available on iTunes, Youtube, Spotify, and many other podcast players.   The Video version of this episode is available on youtube - https://youtu.be/hcStB7fjsJ0   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

22 Juli 202424min

466: Former McKinsey partner on How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World's Toughest Places

466: Former McKinsey partner on How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World's Toughest Places

Welcome to Strategy Skills episode 466, featuring an interview with the coauthor of Business on the Edge: How to Turn a Profit and Improve Lives in the World’s Toughest Places, Viva Ona Bartkus. In this book, they argue that by entering markets in the world’s frontline regions—areas stuck in cycles of violence and extreme poverty—businesses can actually create stability and expand opportunity for communities and corporations alike. Business on the Edge shows how businesses can reduce risks, cut costs, and increase profits, all while creating economic opportunities that transform communities.   Viva Ona Bartkus is Paul E. Purcell Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. She is a former partner at McKinsey & Company and the founder of the revolutionary course Business on the Frontlines.   Get Business on the Edge here: https://rb.gy/a505d2   Here are some free gifts for you: Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach   McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf   Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

17 Juli 202450min

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