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

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

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158: Location is leverage or proximity is leverage (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #29, part 3)

158: Location is leverage or proximity is leverage (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #29, part 3)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo To get a copy of some of the previous issues you might have missed, get the Strategy Insights book. If you love Strategy Insights and support it with reviews on Goodreads and Google Play (and support on Amazon is very much appreciated) by May 30th 2021, please email support@firmsconsulting.com as we will be sending 1-month access to the accompanying course as a gift to members who loved and supported the book with reviews. P.S. If you want to support the Monday Morning 8 a.m. and our other work, there are many ways you can do that, including reviews on iTunes / Amazon / Goodreads / app, purchasing our memberships / books, applying to join our prelaunch team, or just spreading the word. Some links above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

26 Maj 202115min

157: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook's AI advantage (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #29, part 2)

157: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook's AI advantage (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #29, part 2)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo To get a copy of some of the previous issues you might have missed, get the Strategy Insights book. If you love Strategy Insights and support it with reviews on Goodreads and Google Play (and support on Amazon is very much appreciated) by May 30th 2021, please email support@firmsconsulting.com as we will be sending 1-month access to the accompanying course as a gift to members who loved and supported the book with reviews. P.S. If you want to support the Monday Morning 8 a.m. and our other work, there are many ways you can do that, including reviews on iTunes / Amazon / Goodreads / app, purchasing our memberships / books, applying to join our prelaunch team, or just spreading the word. Some links above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

25 Maj 20219min

156: 7-Eleven's inconvenient truth about convenience (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #29, part 1)

156: 7-Eleven's inconvenient truth about convenience (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #29, part 1)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo To get a copy of some of the previous issues you might have missed, get the Strategy Insights book. If you love Strategy Insights and support it with reviews on Goodreads and Google Play (and support on Amazon is very much appreciated) by May 30th 2021, please email support@firmsconsulting.com as we will be sending 1-month access to the accompanying course as a gift to members who loved and supported the book with reviews. P.S. If you want to support the Monday Morning 8 a.m. and our other work, there are many ways you can do that, including reviews on iTunes / Amazon / Goodreads / app, purchasing our memberships / books, applying to join our prelaunch team, or just spreading the word. Some links above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

24 Maj 202110min

155: Taming the beast tech has become with actionable solutions. With Cognizant's Ben Pring

155: Taming the beast tech has become with actionable solutions. With Cognizant's Ben Pring

How can we take back control of technology so it will shape the society we want for ourselves instead of becoming a monster we can no longer tame? Monster: A Tough Love Letter On Taming the Machines that Rule our Jobs, Lives, and Future - https://amzn.to/3fAeX8T Ben Pring co-founded and leads the Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant, an American multinational technology company that provides consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. Ben sits on the advisory board of the Labor and Work Life program at Harvard Law School. In 2018 Ben was a Bilderberg Meeting participant. Ben was named as one of 30 management thinkers to watch in 2020 by Thinkers 50. He was recently named a leading influencer on the future of work by Onalytica. In 2007, Ben won Gartner's prestigious Thought Leader Award. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the London Times, the Drucker Forum Report, Business Insider, Forbes, and Fortune. Based near Boston since 2000, Ben graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Manchester University, in the UK where he grew up. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get a bonus).

20 Maj 20211h 1min

154: Harvard's Gorick Ng on career secrets

154: Harvard's Gorick Ng on career secrets

"The book demystifies what managers expect but never explain and what top performers do subconsciously. These unspoken rules create an unlevel playing field between insiders and outsiders. My book bridges the divide by giving all early-career professionals the concrete, tactical advice they need to excel." The Unspoken Rules: https://amzn.to/2Rwzx1L Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get a bonus).

19 Maj 202159min

153: The experience economy strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #28, part 2)

153: The experience economy strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #28, part 2)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo To get a copy of some of the previous issues you might have missed, get the Strategy Insights book. If you love Strategy Insights and support it with reviews on Goodreads and Google Play (and support on Amazon is very much appreciated) by May 30th 2021, please email support@firmsconsulting.com as we will be sending 1-month access to the accompanying course as a gift to members who loved and supported the book with reviews. P.S. If you want to support the Monday Morning 8 a.m. and our other work, there are many ways you can do that, including reviews on iTunes / Amazon / Goodreads / app, purchasing our memberships / books, applying to join our prelaunch team, or just spreading the word. Some links above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

18 Maj 202111min

152: The checkmate asset the world doesn't know China is attracting (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #28, part 1)

152: The checkmate asset the world doesn't know China is attracting (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #28, part 1)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo To get a copy of some of the previous issues you might have missed, get the Strategy Insights book. If you love Strategy Insights and support it with reviews on Goodreads and Google Play (and support on Amazon is very much appreciated) by May 30th 2021, please email support@firmsconsulting.com as we will be sending 1-month access to the accompanying course as a gift to members who loved and supported the book with reviews. P.S. If you want to support the Monday Morning 8 a.m. and our other work, there are many ways you can do that, including reviews on iTunes / Amazon / Goodreads / app, purchasing our memberships / books, applying to join our prelaunch team, or just spreading the word. Some links above are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

17 Maj 202117min

151: Jonathan Byrnes, MIT. Build a targeted business that the likes of Google & Amazon can't match

151: Jonathan Byrnes, MIT. Build a targeted business that the likes of Google & Amazon can't match

Every year, managers at companies large and small are finding it harder to compete with the likes of Google and Amazon, who are muscling into their businesses, stealing their customers, and cornering every conceivable market and service. Jonathan Byrnes, MIT-based expert on profits, pricing, and strategy, is a co-author of CHOOSE YOUR CUSTOMER: How to Compete Against the Digital Giants and Thrive (McGraw-Hill, May 11, 2021). The book illustrates how companies can survive—and win. CHOOSE YOUR CUSTOMER is a powerful and timely guide for managers to level the playing field against their biggest competitors by choosing and providing value to the right customers by: Identifying and focusing on the customers who are the most profitable. Providing services and experiences that can't be replicated by the tech giants, no matter how much data they have, or how much automation they use. Supporting your chosen customers' diverse and rapidly evolving needs to accelerate profitability and growth. These customer-driven strategies enable leaders to build a uniquely targeted business that the digital giants just can't match. From unbeatable customer service to superior pricing and product selection, CHOOSE YOUR CUSTOMER provides detailed and actionable advice on how to compete successfully with the aggressive giants and how to increase profits as a result. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get a bonus).

16 Maj 20211h 13min

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