“At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman.”

- Albert Camus -

photo credit: Christine Myaskovsky (chrissymckeen) via photopin cc

Do 'economic ecosystems' apply to small biz owners?

Or is it just a lofty topic better left to academics?

Is social media the bridge between communities that everyone says that it is?

I've been pondering a lot lately about how ecosystems might apply to the world inhabited by small biz owners. I hear the word community thrown around quite a bit among marketing geeks like me.  Usually it's applied to the bland go-local campaigns being heavily touted these days, or to such in-human, disconnected digital worlds such as Facebook.

So in my usual fashion I drove straight into the belly of the beast, and began gobbling up as much information as I could on ecosystems, community, symbiosis, etc...

Here's my cursory results:

DISCLAIMER: I felt seriously out-gunned writing this piece - the majority of articles I read were academic papers written by some hella smart people.  For a minute, I thought I had teleported into an episode of Numb3rs, with Charlie frenetically explaining probabilities, chaos theory and the various techniques to map complex systems.  I'm quite certain that I've screwed up some of the facts, however, my goal here is simply to distill the topic into a from digestible for small business owners like me, in the hope that it may strengthen and humanize their businesses.

Ecosystems vs. Community vs. Relationships

A community is made up of living entities and is mostly chaotic and difficult to define. An ecosystem imposes some order on that mess and includes "non-human entities".

Put simply an ecosystem contains interdependent communities.

The strength of an ecosystem, and the connections between its communities (and their members) is dictated by the following criteria:

  1. Diversity - in nature, the diversity of the elements in an ecosystem lead to more rapid evolution, which in the end leads to the survival of the species within it. 
  2. Abundance - availability of resources, food, water, electricity, etc...
  3. Stability - the ability of the elements in the ecosystem to weather change.
  4. Parasitism - a non-mutual relationship.  The parasite benefits at the expense of the host
  5. Competition - interaction between living things in which the fitness of one is lowered by the presence of another
  6. Symbiosis - loosely: separate organisms that live interdependently with one another, without competing
  7. Membership - 1) Thinkers - Produce ideas, 2) Makers - Execute ideas, 3) Traders - Get makers and thinkers in the same room

 An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system. 

- Wikipedia -

Drilling it Down: Ecosystems and the Economy

When we look at ecosystems through an economic lens, some other factors are visible.

Fitting a keystone in an igloo. Credit: Doug Alan

Small Business Ecosystems: Winners and Losers

LOSER: Film (Non-Digital)

WINNER: the Open Source Movement

AND MY ECOSYSTEM: Private / Small B2B Companies

Some Questions

Applying the Ecosystem Concept to Your Small Biz

  1. Start with your neighbors (geographic or not)
  2. Promote independence - like state sovereignty (anti-membership / anti-club)
  3. Define your boundaries ... boundaries are good thing (barriers to entry / compeititon, forces a tighter, stronger niches, higher quality relationships, etc...)
  4. Ecosystems survive because they evolve.  Diversity and its inevitable collaboration translates well into teaching.  By teaching others in your ecosystem, you strengthen its communities.
  5. Bigger is not Better ... it's easier to define the boundaries, easier to collaborate, easier to evolve, and easier to strengthen when working with smaller groups.
  6. Communities are supposed to be messy ... learn when to get out of the way.
  7. Learn to spot and identify disturbances.

BOTTOM LINE

Communities are naturally formed, and ecosystems can be manipulated.  Ultimately the reasons for this are simple, HAPPINESS in the form of safety, comfort, and pleasure.

Honestly, I didn't find the answer I was looking for, but I did uncover some important questions:

REFERENCES

Business ecosystem as the new approach to complex adaptive business environments

WikiPedia - Media Ecology

Commandment 2: Pursue the Human Connection

robot

There's a lot of paranoia flying around currently.  The news has covered it and moved on already, but everyone's deepest insecurities love to be reminded that the government is still tapping into phone lines and, yes, combing the web, extracting all our vital data.  We know they aren't the only ones doing it, either.  I love Google and their many innovative products, but they've got to know enough about me to write my biography already.

So why don't they?  

Aside from the fact that doing so would be admitting that they're watching us (cue spooky music), it occurs to me that not many folks would want to read my biography.  It's probably too eclectic to hold anyone's interest for long, plus there's not enough rock and roll.

On the other hand, maybe my biography as written by Google would be mildly interesting.  There are a lot of Seths in the world, and the search engine robots can't always tell them apart.  My biography according to Google would probably begin with an overview of my contributions to the field of Chemistry, my experience with Ruby programming, and then get into the more popular stuff like how I created "Family Guy", or jump-started my acting career when I played a sensitive stoner on "Freaks and Geeks".  

None of that stuff is true, by the way.  Might make for a fun episode of "To Tell The Truth" though.

Somehow, while details of the real Seth Rasmussen (sorry dudes) are embedded in that Google search, they're just details.  Having those details, with no context, doesn't give you the power to influence me.  Sorry Google, but half your ads are inane and the other half are too obnoxious to take seriously.

Do you see what I'm getting at here?  

I'm not saying that you shouldn't be paranoid about web surveillance or what have you. I'm not going to preach one way or another. All I'm saying is that for all the data at its disposal, Google is at a loss with what to do with little old me.

All they have is info provided by robots chasing my shadow.

On the other hand, the folks at the coffee shop down the street from my place know just a little more about me than this short list:

I suppose they could tell you my credit card number if asked, though please don't.  These folks have earned themselves a long term customer through a few seemingly small acts:

Also, the fact they don't try to imitate Starbucks is a godsend.  And once a year, on the anniversary of their opening for business, they have a small party and invite their customers.  Live music + beer + cake = lifetime customers.  I don't even like cake, which is another thing they now know about me, but getting invited to a private party after hours was totally cool.

So what's the point here?

Well for one, not everyone who showed up to the private party was a regular.  Aside from inviting folks personally from the store, they also invited folks who like their Facebook page.  That is a point of data that provides you with some kind of information: they have been to the coffee shop (at least once) or they love German bakeries/coffee shops enough to like one without having ever been there.  Rather than contain their interaction with these less-than-regulars purely to a digital platform, they used that connection/info to get real folks out to an enjoyable evening.  An evening that left an impression.  Through their party, they turned one evening into a room full of repeat customers.

I was able to thank them in person for this event, which I did more than once.  Google has never invited me to any parties, and doesn't have a face, so even if I was invited to a Google party, I'd be forced to express my gratitude through an email like this one:

FROM: [email protected]

TO: [email protected]

SUBJECT: Great party!

Dear Google,

I have gotten quite familiar with your robots, spiders, and data farmers.  I wish I could say I knew them on a first name basis, but I believe you consider that proprietary information.  

Anyhow, it's nice to know that you watch over me, care about my browsing and spending habits, and guide the adolescent internet from somewhere shadowy and mysterious.  Also the party was awesome.  But for the love of all that is holy, stop with the ads for Freshbooks at the bottom of every email I receive.  I already use Freshbooks, and I swear on the aforementioned holy everything that I will never EVER click on that ad. Doesn't matter if it's a picture of a cute kitten, full season of Doctor Who on DVD, whatever.  I'm not buying it.  

Please knock it off, and have a great day.

Thanks again!

-Seth Rasmussen

See the rest of the commandments here:

10th Commandment - Be Human

9th Commandment -  Leave No Interaction on the Table

8th Commandment -  Remain Relevant

7th Commandment -  Rock Your Niche

6th Commandment -  Get Uncomfortable

5th Commandment -  Don't Dilute

4th Commandment - Practice Confident Exclusion

3rd Commandment - Don't Rush

2nd Commandment - Pursue the Human Connection

1st Commandment - wouldn't you like to know 😉 Get notified by signing-up here for our monthly newsletter 

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