5 Different Layers That I See In An Ecosystem...
Jay McBain
Chief Analyst - Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems - Canalys - Channel Influencer of the Year
Quick one today...
5 different layers that I see in an ecosystem:
1. Integration/Dev/Build/Co-innovation partners (product led)
2. Strategic Alliances (strategy/ops led)
3. Influence partners (marketing led)
4. Transactional or transaction-assist partners (sales led)
5. Retention/Enrichment partners (cust. success led)
The ecosystem chief will likely be a highly-matrixed role in charge of orchestrating these activities and making sure the partner experience is consistent, the programs/processes are in place, the people are skilled/motivated, and the automation/technology stack is implemented.
The five direct reports to the ecosystem chief will have their employees report directly into the product, strategy/ops, marketing, sales, and customer success functions. Additional direct reports will be a CTO function for the tech stack, cross-layer programs lead, communities lead, finance/ops lead, GTM/RTM strategy lead, and a data/BI lead.
Sr. Director of Partner Strategy and Growth | Global Partner Ecosystem Enablement | Partner Experience Architect | Channel Growth Expert
3 年This is great. We are seeing this shift in our customers, moving from a singular, siloed partner program to thinking about a whole ecosystem of partners and how they intermix. I don't yet see many organizations with this kind of role yet, though. Are you seeing many of these roles already in place? I certainly see it as an emerging role that we will start to see a lot more of in any case.
Ecosystem Champion | Raising the bar on collaboration with partners | Polyglot | Chocoholic
3 年I like this. But what's the acronym going to be? CEO is already taken... ??
CEO | TSD | MSP | MARKETPLACE | PRM | TCMA | "TOP 100" CHANNEL CONSULTANTS - Decades of channel building and go-to-market experience. Digital transformation of the Channel Supply Chain.
3 年Yeah...... but what are you gonna pay the Ecosystem Chief?? AKA Ecosystem Conductor Asking for a friend. ??
Focusing on unlocking organizational & ecosystem potential
3 年Jay McBain right on that the Ecosystem Chief is a highly-matrixed role orchestrating the ecosystem outside and within the internal LoBs. It's a shift from the typical org model for Channels who were almost always silo'd within the Sales LoB. I think your picture might want to depict the upstream layers 1 + 2 vs the layers (3-5) to show the full Ecosystem spectrum. And now the big debate, the Ecosystem Chief must be a direct report to the CEO. If Ecosystems are to thrive they must be of equal importance to the traditional Lobs, on par with Product, Marketing, Sales and Customer Success.