How to Thrive: The Vizability Ecosystem

What does it take for an organization to thrive? Like other forms of life, it takes an ecosystem where all the elements work towards a well-defined set of goals. In our experience, the organizations that are thriving are those that include the customer as part of the ecosystem right along side the growth and operational elements.

Customers: Customer experience (CX) is one aspect of a healthy organizational ecosystem. Companies that only focus on increased revenue goals and operational efficiencies open themselves up to competitors who DO listen to the marketplace. And example of this is Uber. Who would have thought that customers would be willing to pay more just to get a clean and convenient ride? Taxicab companies allowed the disruption in their space by ignoring this key aspect of their business.

Growth: But let’s not forget that the organizational ecosystem still needs to generate a profit. This requires effective marketing, sales, and product innovation to drive revenue. Profitability provides for investments in customer experience and operations. Investments are necessary for an organization to grow.

Operations: The operational aspect of the ecosystem needs to run effectively and manage expenses. It needs to deliver its service level agreements. An organization’s ability to execute has a direct impact on customer experience (CX) and profitability. In order to be great, operations need outside-in customer-driven thinking.

TALKING about a being healthy ecosystem won’t get you anywhere near BEING a healthy ecosystem. As a result, organizations need the clearly defined strategy and executional capabilities to make it all happen.

The dynamics of a healthy ecosystem are that all aspects are tended to and nurtured in harmony with the rest of the system. If any aspect of the ecosystem is deprived, that area will fail and the ecosystem will collapse. Typical dysfunctions in the organizational ecosystem include:

• Customer/Growth bias leads to Operational stress
• Customer /Operations bias leads to Growth stress
• Growth/Operations bias leads to Customer stress

While every organizational ecosystem experiences stress in one area or another over time, leadership must be active and accountable to ensure the stress is limited and re-aligned to the goals of the ecosystem.