Zero Distance Award

2021 winners announcement

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We are committed to the core values evident in successful ecosystems:

The Business Ecosystem Alliance will create forums for the sharing of knowledge, learning and experience on the subject of ecosystems.

We are dedicated solely to the furtherance of knowledge and understanding and working towards a better world through ecosystems.

Co-founders

The Business Ecosystem Alliance is a project managed and led by Thinkers50 with support from the Haier Group. All revenue generated by the project is re-invested in events and publishing.

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Blog

Last musings on Rendanheyi – Humanizing the Future

Dr. Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor-at-large of Fortune Magazine, will be joined by experts…

The New Frontier of Ecosystem – Making sense of the new reality for organizations

To mark the publication of a brand new ebook, The Power of Ecosystems: Making Sense of the…

Zero-distance user engagement to create value cycles

In 2020 the Business Ecosystem Alliance launched the Zero Distance Awards to identify and…

EMC OS: Overcoming hierarchies through software-based contracts and agreements

As global enterprises transform towards maximizing human value, many will face the seemingly impossible…

Transforming GEA with Rendanheyi – Illuminating the transformation journey towards ‘human value maximization’ with GEA’s transformation journey

The Rendanheyi Silicon Valley Center will unveil the Transformation of GE Appliances 2021…

Announcing 2021’s inductees into this elite group

Presented by Business Ecosystem Alliance & Global Rendanheyi Research CentersAnnouncing 2021’s inductees into this elite group Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date:Sign up hereSHARE THIS ARTICLE:

Rendanheyi@Work – MAQE’s Transformational Journey in Thailand

Andreas Holmer is the young CEO of MAQE, a Thai IT consulting firm. He decided and started implementing the Rendanheyi model …

Exploring Rendanheyi – How Fortune 500 companies have shattered bureaucracy to reconfigure their organizational structure

One-year updates from Fujitsu Western Europe after embarking on the RDHY transformation journey last year …

Inauguration ceremony of the Global RDHY Certification Center

Haier’s Rendanheyi approach is making inroads into organizational practice. …

Innovation Ecosystems thrive by deals and perish by theatre

In our monthly webinar session, we explore the latest insights and best practice around ecosystems.  Our September webinar will…

The Zero Distance Awards 2021

In 2020 the Business Ecosystem Alliance (BEA) launched the Zero Distance Awards.  The winners included Jaipur Rugs, Happy, Severstal, Ner Group, Fujitsu Europe and Centigo.

The philosophy and ecosystem of Hidden Champions

In 1987, the Harvard professor Theodore Levitt invited me to a conversation…

Harnessing the rising power of ecosystems: how to win in a post-COVID-19 world

“There are decades”, the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin noted, “where nothing happens, …

A playbook for creating adaptive ecosystems

Ecosystems have become a critical part of how industry leaders create new growth and capture competitive advantage. But how we…

The COVID-19 test: is your company perfect for its business ecosystem?

When on March 3, 2020, we asked how he was dealing with the COVID-19 crisis the manufacturing director of a large multinational…

The sea star syndrome: on the strategic choices of ecosystem participation

As two career consultants, it’s safe to say that we tend to get grouped with folk…

Building a butterfly brand

Mikkel Bjergso loves beer. So much so that the tattooed Dane, who was previously a physics teacher, has become the global leader of…

What if management models ate ecosystem strategies for breakfast?

In a recent article, Scott D. Anthony and Michael Putz examined an interesting question. How can it be that so many companies still…

Inside Ecosystems: optimized for fulfillment

In our monthly webinar series we explore the latest insights and best practice around ecosystems. Our August webinar…

A step-by-step approach to experiment with ecosystems

In the earlier article, “Ecosystems: the how factor,” we shared concrete, how-to guidelines to help executives design an ecosystem strategy that can be summarized…

The first step in improving an ecosystem

In 1878 Leo Tolstoy released what would become one of his most acclaimed works, the novel Anna Karenina. The book starts with a quote..

Ecosystems: The new CSO agenda

The profusion of ideas, tooks and frameworks seeking to better understand ecosystems means…

Turnstile logic: the new rules of strategy in an ecosystem world

The term ecosystem has been used in a business context for 20 years. Companies like Volkswagen and Toyota have been…

How do digital ecosystems defend their business?

Many of the most valuable public companies, like Google, Alibaba, and Amazon, are digital platforms. Valuable startups, such…

Managing the excess of ecosystems

In 2013, game developers Ziba Scott and Alex Schwartz set out to create a very bad game. This might seem…

Project-based ecosystems

7th February 2014, 20:14, Fisht Olympic Stadium, Sochi, Russia: 2.1 billion people are watching Vladislav Tretiak, an all star ice hockey player,…

Ecosystem maturity and the stepping stone strategy

One of the great puzzles in business is why some entrepreneurs benefit…

The end of strategy in business ecosystems?

There has finally been a consensus among strategy scholars that a new era demands a new way of organizing business…

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems with Annika Steiber and Victor Hwang

This unique LinkedIn Live session brings together two compelling voices offering new perspectives on ecosystems…

From vertical to horizontal: unleashing change through ecosystems

In my Still Moving: How to Lead Mindful Change, I write of the changing context for change in today’s world: the collapse …

Ecosystems as an engine for innovation and learning

The acceleration of industry change, as measured in shorter S-curve periods, and the profound changes that are taking place …

Inside Ecosystems with Ashley Dudarenok & Shameen Prashantham

The first session in the Inside Ecosystems webinar series features two leading China-based thinkers: Ashley Dudarenok and Shameen Prashantham. …

Gorillas can dance: partnering effectively with innovative small firms in ecosystems

Over a decade ago, I wrote an article titled “Dancing with gorillas” with Julian Birkinshaw about …

The age of community capitalism

We first visited Haier headquarters in Qingdao, China in 2017 and enjoyed an extended conversation with …

Business Ecosystem Execution

IMD’s Mark Greeven focuses on supporting executives of incumbent businesses to build business ecosystems …

Becoming a platform, enabling an ecosystem

Simone Cicero of Boundaryless navigates the route between platforms and ecosystems, explaining …

Designing a winning ecosystem

What does it take to create and sustain a successful business ecosystem?  Thinkers50 ranked thinker …

What makes a good gardener? Managing diverse partners in an innovation ecosystem

Collaboration between diverse partners, facilitated by digital technologies, can enable firms to create a …

Ecosystematic: a multidimensional process to navigate, learn, and shape the future

Christian Sarkar (founder of Double Loop Marketing) is the developer of ecosytematic, an ecosystem visualization …

Moore on Ecosystems

James F. Moore pioneered the study and understanding of business ecosystems. His 1993 article, ‘Predators …

How Microenterprises Really Work

Microenterprises have been utilized to dramatic effect at companies including Haier and …

Making Sense of Ecosystems

As business ecosystems are attracting more and more attention, as well as …

The growth ecosystem

As the weeks went by during the COVID-19 pandemic, and most countries were shutdown …

How Haier created an ecosystem solution for a Thai opportunity

William Malek of the South East Asia Center and the Innovation Management Research …

Transformation towards an ecosystem: how to establish an ecosystem business while sustaining success in the core business

Can you think of a mobile operating system that does not rely on various players coming together, …

On Ecosystems

Amit Kapoor (Institute of Competitiveness, India), Sangeet Paul Choudary (Platformation Labs)…

Ecosystems: the how factor

Ecosystems are the flavour of the organizational month. But, amid the hype and …

Towards knowledge economy 2.0: how new models of collaboration need to be evolved

Just as the steam engine triggered the first industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th century, and …

Ecosystemic evolutions: organizing beyond boundaries

As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, organizations face stunning …

From competition to coordination: adopting a strategic ecosystem mindset

The competitive landscape is evolving. Rather than vying for market share amongst themselves, organizations are …

The Power of Ecosystems ebook

The Power of Ecosystems

Making sense of the new reality for organizations

Insights from the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners.

Ecosystems are the new reality for organizations of all shapes and sizes no matter where they are in the world. They make sense of a complex, tech-led world and enable individuals and organizations to maximise their resources to make an impact. The Business Ecosystem Alliance brings together organizations and individuals to capture best practice and the latest thinking on ecosystems. The Power of Ecosystems, curated by Stuart Crainer, brings together a unique and compelling collection of fresh thinking on ecosystems from experts throughout the world.

Download the book