Metasystems have no manual

👉 How timing, culture & leadership are crucial for successful metasystems

For our book ‘Metasystems, how trust can change the world’, we interviewed 15 different people from very different backgrounds. We had the pleasure to speak to Rudy Moenaert, Professor of strategic marketing — TIAS school for business and society.

We were very eager to speak to Professor Rudy Moenaert to see how our ideas would be perceived by an academic who has many insights in literature, on collaboration and networks in business. “I’m a real fan of rock music and I’m currently reading the book Rockonomics. It’s amazing to see how many songs have been recorded through collaboration in the past 20 years. Musicians work together to leverage each other’s skills and networks more and more.

Businesses too can hugely benefit from partnerships and ecosystems, especially for innovation, but it’s really not as easy as it sounds. Most companies are driven by the 3 E’s: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Ego. That’s not really the right recipe to engage in partnerships.”

In order for metasystems to be successful very strong leadership is needed according to the professor. “Companies are led by people and the question is are people actually willing to be equal? There is a quote saying: We have a similar interest in building the pie, but we have an opposite interest in dividing the pie. To me, engaging in metasystems is therefore really about culture, more than about strategy.” The more players, the more fragile the network becomes. A bigger goal and complementary business models will help to align the interests and to grow the pie for all.

“Working together is a heavyweight responsibility, and that requires heavyweight leaders. Light weight people create heavyweight problems.”

Traditional companies will need to find a way to collaborate more, as the big digital giants have formed their own ecosystems and expand their so-called ‘kill zones’: areas or industries in which they want to dominate.

Rudy Moenaert, Professor of strategic marketing — TIAS school for business and society.

Rudy shared the case of the wolves of Yellowstone with us to illustrate the impact new entrants can have in an ecosystem. Grey wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 (after the wolves were driven to extinction in the region nearly 100 years ago), leading to a trophic cascade through the entire ecosystem. The presence of wolves ultimately changed the course of the rivers in Yellowstone.

Photo by Stephen Walker on Unsplash

“This is what is happening today with the rise of the digital tech giants like Amazon and Alibaba that entered different industries. They’re changing the course of the industry.” Just like in Yellowstone, business ecosystems can be impacted heavily by new entrants, and it’s important to constantly monitor what’s happening.

“It’s not only important to know where and how to compete. It’s also important to know when to compete.”

Although the professor is a true believer in the power of purpose, he feels that most businesses are unfortunately not in that stadium yet. “For most companies purpose is an option today, it’s not an economic duty. We might need to break it down in smaller parts to make it happen.

Sometimes you need indirect goals to achieve a bigger ambition. It’s the concept of ‘obliquity’ which is described very well in the book by Julian Birkinshaw, “Reinventing Management”. Professor Birkinshaw says, quoting the pioneering Austrian psychiatrist Victor Frankl: “Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.”

In the Anglo Saxon world, it has always been about value for the company (shareholder) and value for the customer. Rudy believes that there are four value creation layers that companies will need to take into account if they want to be sustainable: the value for the customer, the value for the employee, the value for the company and the value for society at large.

RUDY’S TIPS:

1. The sooner you observe interesting networks, the more choice you have to which one to join. You create optionality. Be out there and be fast to act. If you are too late you might be left with the suckers of the class.
2. Knowing when to compete is as important as where and how.
3. Define your four value creation layers: customer, employee, company and society.

This text is an excerpt from the book ‘Metasystems, how trust can change the world’ by Dado Van Peteghem and Nils van Dam. Discover more via http://www.metasystemsbook.com

You can buy the book via https://www.diekeure.be/nl-be/professional/10275/metasystems