Interest in ecosystems is back with a vengeance but, say Arnoud de Meyer and Peter J Williamson, setting them up and maintaining them is far from easy.

We all know that the world in which businesses operate is changing fast. Agility and speed have become more important for an organisationthan stability, predictability and control. Information and communications technologies are enablingworldwide co-ordination and interaction for even the smallest companies. We are moving into aknowledge-intensive economy where, contrary to other production factors, knowledge gains in value the more it is used.

And customers are changing too. In our mature industrial societies customers live longer and expect technology-enabled solutions. Consumer activism and government regulation are raising the bar with respect to customer protection,traceability and sustainability. Therefore, many of our companies will haveto invest in more innovation and development of new customer solutions. And once they have some of these solutions, they may have to grow at lightning speed.

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