Value Constellations
Understanding value constellations and ecosystems by exploring how organisations configure interactions and shape shared patterns.
From the perspective of an individual actor in an ecosystem, the pattern of its interactions can be understood as its value-creating system, or value constellation. Each interaction expresses a particular quality of life that matters to that actor. Sometimes the actor is the dominant player (like a rabbit eating grass); other times it is constrained by others (like the rabbit being eaten by a predator).
Organisations shape their value constellations through their offerings — products, platforms, services, contracts, and rules of the game that structure how others interact with them.
Value constellations sit within larger shared ecosystems. In business terminology, powerful value constellations can become ecosystems in their own right. In these cases we call the dominant actor a prime mover — for example, Amazon or Apple as prime movers in their digital-content ecosystems.
When exploring an issue of concern, we look to see which value constellations matter most, which actors we care about, and whether any prime movers shape the system. Who configures the first horizon? And who might shape the third?
Exercise
Choose a topic whose future is important to you. Identify an organisation that plays a significant role in it.
Using Holism with Focus, map out that organisation’s value constellation:
its offerings,
how it configures interactions with others, and
how its own interactions are configured. Work through all the relevant offerings to understand how the constellation operates within the wider ecosystem.
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