June 25, 2024 • 20 mins
Developing an Ecosystem Playbook for Corporate Innovation with Best Buy Case Study
In this episode, we delve into the strategies corporate explorers need to develop successful partnerships and co-innovate to deliver value propositions to their consumers. Our guest, Christine Griffin, shares a six-step process for creating an ecosystem playbook, using Best Buy's expansion into the home health market as a compelling case study. We examine how Best Buy transitioned from a retail giant to an orchestrator of home health services through strategic acquisitions and partnerships. Additionally, we explore the importance of understanding value creation, identifying market breakpoints, mapping ecosystem players, and assessing financial flows. This episode also highlights the critical roles of scaling path, capabilities, capacities, and customer access in achieving business success.
Special thanks to our sponsor, Wazoku, for supporting corporate innovation.
00:00 Introduction to Corporate Innovation
00:39 Sponsor Acknowledgment and Guest Introduction
01:52 Overview of Best Buy's Home Health Strategy
03:16 Best Buy's Acquisitions and Initial Footprint
03:55 Building Partnerships in the Healthcare Ecosystem
05:12 Mapping the Ecosystem and Identifying Break Points
10:04 Understanding the Players and Their Roles
12:35 Evaluating Incentives and Profit Pools
15:12 Developing a Scaling Path
18:03 The Importance of Stakeholder Involvement
19:46 Conclusion and Further Resources
Corporate Explorers, Innovation Strategy, Innovation Ecosystems, Best Buy Case Study, Christine Griffin, Scaling Startups, Corporate Innovation, Business Ecosystems, Strategic Partnerships, Innovation Show, Wazoku, Sustainable Innovation, Hubert Joly, Ecosystem Playbook, Technology Adoption, Corporate Explorer Series, Corporate Strategy, Innovation Tools, Best Buy Health, Business Development, Innovation Leadership, Change Logic, Healthcare Innovation, Digital Health, Startup Scaling, Entrepreneurship, Business Growth, Market Strategy, Innovation Mapping, Corporate Transformation
Find Christine here: https://changelogic.com/team/christine-griffin/
Find Wazoku here: https://www.wazoku.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Aidan (00:00):
The purpose of today's session is to help corporate explorers develop
(00:03):
the strategy and structure throughwhich they can act with partners to co
innovate , and adopt an innovation todeliver a value proposition to the end
consumer, our guest today will describesix steps corporate explorers need to
take to develop their ecosystem playbook.
We'll then bring these steps tolife by using the case study of
(00:25):
the major us retailer best buy.
And if you like best buy, don't forget.
We had Hubert Joly on the show a fewmonths, probably a year ago now in an
absolutely excellent episode on his book.
Before i introduce today's guesti want to thank the sponsor of the
corporate explorer series Wazoku,Wazoku helps large organizations create
(00:47):
sustainable innovation ecosystems.
Accelerate efficiency gains and newvalue growth it does this through
intelligent enterprise software thatconnects and harnesses the power
of employees suppliers startupsuniversities and the unique Wazoku crowd
of 700, 000 global problem solvers.
Wazoku calls this connected,collective intelligence.
(01:10):
And I'm so glad so many of you listenersto the innovation show have reached
out and got in touch with Wazoku.
And if you are interested in theirtools, I'll connect you straight
to the source CEO, Simon Hill.
You can find Wazoku at www.
Wazoku.
com.
Speaking of ecosystems and connectedcollective intelligence today's episode
(01:32):
is called ecosystems building anecosystem playbook for scaling a new
venture and we're joined by the coauthor of the corporate explorer
field book , A colleague of tushmano'reilly bins and the whole nine
yards christine griffin welcome to the
show
Christine Griffin (01:50):
Thanks, Aiden.
I'm glad to be here today
i thought we'd, give an overviewof this chapter christine and give
context to this case study of best buy.
And then unpack those six stepsi'll see you up here because you say
best buys footprint in home health.
Expanded as a result of acquisitions likeGreat Call, Current Health, Biosensics,
(02:11):
and others, but nevertheless Best Buyrapidly realized that acquisitions
were only one part of the story.
Success could involve buildingpartnerships with payers and providers,
such as Anthem, Athena Health, AndGeisinger, let's share the six lessons
derived from this best buy story.
And indeed the context that any corporateexplorer can apply to increase this odds
(02:35):
of success with an ecosystem, let mestart with the story about Best Buy,,
and then we'll get into the steps.
, In 2018, Best Buy set its sightson the home health market.
They wanted to provide home healthto 5 million people within 5 years.
, Their plan was to deliver, install, andactivate the technology that was needed
to enable the care at home, and theyrealized that they couldn't do it alone.
(02:57):
Healthcare is a really complex ecosystem,it has many providers, payers, regulators,
suppliers of medical equipment,pharmaceutical companies, and Best Buy
knew that they couldn't do it alone.
However, they decided that they wantedto create a footprint in this market.
, they did that initiallyThrough acquisitions.
(03:18):
They purchased a company calledGreat Call, which sold the personal
emergency response devices thatthey had in their store already.
If you remember, there was a commercialin the U S a while ago that said, you
know, They pushed a button on somethingthey wore around their neck and it
said, I've fallen and I can't get up.
And the help was dispatched.
(03:38):
They also purchased a company calledcritical signals technology, which was
telehealth and medication management.
And finally another of their biggestacquisitions was current health.
And that was a care athome technology platform.
, And so they established forthemselves an initial footprint.
in this market.
They realized is that they needed to winthe hearts and minds of the providers
(04:01):
and of the payers in this system.
And so, when you talk to Debra DeSanso,who's the CEO of Best Buy Health, she'll
tell you that they have carved out theirspecific role in this ecosystem, again,
as someone who will deliver, install,and activate the technology needed.
to enable care at home.
And Deborah says, boy,, all , this,you know, the CIOs and the people
(04:21):
at the payers and providers werevery happy because they didn't have
to have the headache of going intoa customer's home and helping them,
install the technology and understandhow to use it and help set it up.
So they took that headache away fromthose providers and the payers
in their ecosystem, and theyalso made it clear that they were
not there to provide the care.
(04:41):
And that would have been seen as likea competitive problem in the ecosystem.
So what you've seen them dois identify what activities
are going on in the market.
They have identified The players inthe market and the potential partners
and the potential competitors in thatmarket, and they have started to build
this ecosystem play where the value isbeing delivered to all of the partners
(05:04):
in the ecosystem, but also to thatend consumer, which is the person who
really desires to have care at home.
And so what I'd like to do is talkyou through some of the steps that
you go through when you're tryingto figure out what is this ecosystem
that I'm operating in, and how shouldI participate in the ecosystem?
Aidan (05:22):
Christine, I absolutely love the story of Best Buy help.
And it's a story many people don'tknow when they think of Best Buy, they
think of it as this big box retailer
but I absolutely love that story.
I grabbed from the library behind meHubert Joly's story, but this heart
of business book talks about How hedid it from a purpose perspective,
creating purpose and really aheart with inside the business.
(05:46):
But you reminded me of a brilliantfriend of the show, Charles Conn
and Charles Conn is speaking at ourreinvention summit in 2025 as well.
I cannot wait.
Charles is also the chairman ofPatagonia and he wrote this book,
the imperfectionists, and he talksabout this, how really clever
companies, they don't just jump in.
(06:06):
, they take these steps, these clever stepsinto a new arena, just like Best Buy did,
and he talks about Amazon, and I justwanted to share because I'll share the
links to those two shows for people whoare interested in this ecosystem building.
Because this is becoming increasinglythe role of the corporate explorer
to be the orchestrator of thisas well . This chapter is so
(06:27):
important for corporate explorers.
Over to you, Christine.
I'm going to share on the screen thediagram where you bring us through
the steps, and I'd love you to take usthrough the steps now through the lens
of what you described with Best Buy..
Christine Griffin (06:40):
So the very first step of mapping an ecosystem is to
think about the value creation journey.
What's going on for that consumer,that end user in the ecosystem?
, You'll see that you startwith the innovation, right?
And the innovation that Best Buyhad in mind was this FDA cleared
care at home platform of productsand services, both digital And.
(07:02):
physical.
And what they wanted to do is helpthe end user connect effortlessly
with the care team to recoversafely at home and to have privacy.
You know, This, this idea of healthcareinformation being electronically
transferred is highly regulatedand very important for privacy.
And so this platform thatBest Buy has is HIPAA certified.
(07:23):
So in this first step, you mapthe value creation journey.
So in each step, for example,you need to engage the, person at
home in the program, you need tohelp them install the solutions.
to monitor what's going on in thehome to coordinate that care and
to provide insights and analytics.
And so understanding the flow of,you know, where do people find
(07:44):
value in the exchange of careat home is the very first step.
And so taking time to map that andunderstand it is pretty important.
, The next thing you want to dois think about where are the
break points in this program.
, where do users struggle?
Where do providers or of theseservices or suppliers struggle?
, For example, in the healthcaresystem, technology may be too complex.
(08:07):
You know, Maybe people are strugglingto try to use a heart monitor or a
blood pressure monitor at home and theyneed help figuring out not only how
do I install and use this, but likehow do I plug it into a place where.
The data can be reportedremotely to other people.
And, you know, if you're cominghome from a hospital and to, and to
care at home, , you're already in apretty, vulnerable state of mind.
(08:31):
And so, , being able to identify thebreak points in a system and another one
that, that happened for Best Buy is that,urgent events need first responders.
To come.
So when you press that personal alert,that says I've fallen and I can't get
up, there needs to be somebody on theother end who says, okay, I'm coming,
you know, just I'll be there in a minute.
And so that idea of identifyingbreak points, that's really like
(08:54):
the 1st critical part of this thing.
Aidan (08:57):
It's so interesting how the, I know as myself as a corporate explorer,
you're so eager to achieve somethingto get going, to build this bias
for action that you often skip thesesteps and they are absolutely crucial.
They'll always come backand bite you in the ass.
If you skip these steps andthe other thing that dawned
on me, I'm preparing a show.
For proximity with KaihanKrippendorf and Rob C.
(09:21):
Walcott, and they talked about how manyof these innovations it's so difficult
to get somebody to try it the first time.
And sometimes you need the benefit of acrisis like the pandemic to get us to even
use tools like zoom and Microsoft teams.
And I'm using squad cast here.
Many, many people didn't use thosetools until the crisis pushed them.
(09:42):
And then they had nochoice, but to use that.
And I think that's reallyinteresting to realize is there.
A break point there where peoplejust won't, it's not good enough
for them to have to change.
So they'll just use a lesser version ofwhat you have to offer, even if yours
is way better that these are thingsthat you only really get to by mapping
it out and going through these steps.
Christine Griffin (10:04):
So the next thing to think about is, who are the players who
are participating in this ecosystem andthese are players who can get in your way.
They could block the adoption ofyour innovation or they can help.
Or they could be competitors, so youhave to really think about who are the
different players and we identify theseas a set of different classifications.
(10:24):
So it's the customer is part ofyour ecosystem, the producer.
So the people who providing and supplying,complementary products or channels,
there's regulators that you have tothink about, particularly in this example
of health there are intermediaries.
Who are people who are in between.
So they could be someonewho's selling your product.
(10:45):
It's, it could be a wholesaleror a distributor who is selling
your product to someone.
It could be an integrator.
So somebody who puts all thepieces together to deliver
some value to that end user.
And it could be an orchestrator.
And that, that is someone that I, a rolethat , Best Buy talks about playing,
you know, they have this platform,this digital HIPAA certified platform
(11:06):
that they use that enables all ofthe participants to kind of come onto
that platform and coordinate the care.
Data is exchanged, services are changed.
They have omni channels, you can go toa store to buy some products, you can
go online to buy products, so mappingThe players, and then also understanding
what is your interface or what'sthe interface between those players?
(11:30):
Are you selling through them?
Are you selling with them?
Are you co innovating , in the case ofBest Buy Health, they are working closely
with Anthem and they're working closelywith , Mass General to be sure to be able
to , Deliver care in an integrated way.
So they're co innovating side by side.
They worked through pilots andthen they ended up, you know,
(11:51):
scaling farther into the market.
So this idea of really understandingwho are the players, what
role are they playing and howare we interacting with them?
And then here's thereally important thing.
Show me the money,
Aidan (12:04):
Show me the money, Jerry Maguire.
I'll show on the screen as well,Christine, because this, for those
people watching us, you can, by theway, watch us now on YouTube and
spotify have reached out to uson the innovation show to feature
us as a video supplier, whichis just absolutely fantastic.
So I can share that on those peoplewho are watching Spotify as well.
Video is now available on Spotify.
(12:25):
Christine will talk us through this.
This is a brilliant diagram.
So useful to be able to map wherethe value is in your ecosystem and
where do you play and derive value
Christine Griffin (12:35):
So it's important to evaluate the different players, assess
what is their motivation and why are,why do they want to participate in this?
And so if you look at this template,the ecosystem evaluation template
that we use, you identify the player.
Think about the capabilities, , whatare they doing that helps you deliver
value , to the end user in this ecosystemand , what are their incentives?
(12:59):
If you think about some ofthe , the pieces of the Best Buy
ecosystem, you think that , thereare payers , who want to reduce the.
, they want to reduce the cost that'sbeing incurred , that they have to cover.
If you think about theproviders, they want compliance.
They want compliance fromdifferent , patients who are at home.
They want compliance with the processesthat they're trying to use or install.
(13:23):
And . so, , think about the incentives.
And most often people want, Cost control.
They want some kind of health quality.
They want the quality of services, and , they are getting paid for
their against those dimensions.
Sometimes there are, ,, players who,the innovation poses a risk for them.
Maybe it's not, in thiscase, well controlled.
(13:45):
The quality is not well controlledor , maybe the innovation is
gonna compete directly with someof the services that players.
, Provide themselves.
So they see the innovation as a risk.
, And you think about like, sowhere is money in this flow?
And how much is it?
And one time I was mapping a system with aclient and , they've mapped the system and
(14:05):
they said where they played and then theyrealized that all the money was being made
in the other parts of the value chain.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And they're like, well, isn't it?
Cause if you're, what, what wouldbe the worst thing to happen?
You don't do the work you get thereand you realize, oh no, we've built
this entire thing and there's no moneyhere . And it all comes tumbling
down for the corporate explorer.
Maybe there'll be spectacularlyjettisoned and from the
organization as a result of that.
So this is the value of this.
(14:32):
And I know also, again,Christine, I'm sure you see this.
So many of us.
Don't want to throw it away.
, we fall in love with our own ideassometimes, and we don't want to go through
this cause we don't want to prove itwrong, but it is part of the process.
Christine Griffin (14:46):
It is just to be careful and just think
through all of these differentparts before you jump head first.
And another thing I'll make anotherabout the profit pool is that, you
can't have all the money for yourself.
You need to be able to figure out howdo you distribute value across the
ecosystem in to motivate those partnersto participate to support the adoption of
your innovation and to share in the valuebeing created for the end user ultimately.
(15:12):
So after you figure out the money flow, you start to build your scaling path.
And we talked in the beginningabout deciding what your entry,
what your entry point is.
And for a Best Buy, it was this, youknow, personal emergency um, services,
and they acquired that position.
Um, They acquired, theyacquired the technology, the
call centers to support it.
(15:33):
and they started to think about,now what are the other capabilities
that That we need, who are thecustomers that we need to serve?
How can we broaden our reach beyondpeople who are just using these personal
emergency And how can we capacity?
They started with this acquisition,having a certain number of call centers.
(15:53):
And then they ended up buildingmore of their own call centers
in order to support network.
When you think about this when youthink about the idea of a scaling path,
you're, you're trying to start from whatis our, what's the entry point and What
are What are the steps that we take?
Aiden, I think you'll put up path.
The capacity is about thisability to manage volume.
(16:17):
So it's around fulfillment,manufacturing, customer call
centers, and customer service.
The other thing to think about is what arethe capabilities that you need to draw on?
What are the technologies, the products,or the Even business models that you need.
Maybe you need to move from a feefor service subscription model.
What different things thatyou need to be able to do?
(16:38):
finally, like customers are yourcustomers just the original end user?
Are they, are these the suppliersthat are helping provide that service
and really thinking about how doyou get access to more customers?
And that's the way you,that's the fundamental steps
of building a scaling path.
Aidan (16:55):
It's so important that, Christine, I was thinking about this, again, a
great guest we've had become a greatfriend, the guy Paul Nunez, I'm sure
you know, he talked about that, whenwe talk about S curves, most people
think of the organization gettingto the top of the S curve as it's
no longer a need for their product.
Or service, but actually,so to does your capability.
(17:16):
It starts to wane and if you're going tojump to a new S curve and create a new
business, you will need new capabilities.
And I say that to say, I'm sure yousee this work with change logic where,
when you're working with organizations.
Oftentimes you're hired by strategyor by innovation people inside the
organization, but I really truly believeL and D and H or they need a seat at
(17:41):
that table because they too will haveto bring in new leadership programs and
find budget to be able to train peoplein this new mindset and also HR might
realize actually, you know what we need tohire new people inside the organization.
This is somewhere that's so oftenoverlooked, and because of the siloed
nature of large organizations, theyoverlook this such crucial step.
Christine Griffin (18:03):
Yeah, it's important to think about the stakeholders
from the very beginning andgetting them involved, particularly
around this step around scaling.
So if you think about the threedisciplines of innovation, and it
is ideate, incubate, and scale.
Scaling is one of the mostoverlook disciplines in innovation.
Everybody's all excited aboutideation and incubating.
They're so great.
(18:23):
But, part of it is is preparing thosestakeholders very early in the process
to be able to understand what it's goingto take to scale this so that you don't
want to show up someday with a multibillion dollar request for investment.
You want to hold their hand and bringthem through the journey with you.
And Therefore, it's importantto think about what your scaling
(18:46):
path is from the very beginning.
Have a hypothesis aboutwhere this might go.
And it may be multiple differenthypotheses that you have about how
you're going to scale this business.
And, that it can be, are yougoing to build some of these parts?
Are you going to partnerwith other people?
Are you going to buy it?
And what are the customers capabilitiesand capacities that you're going to need?
(19:07):
So set that frame early on and thatyou won't give people a heart attack
end when you when you ask for money,because when you get to scaling,
you're probably asking for a lotmore money than you have in the past
Aidan (19:18):
To your point, if I do that and I surprise people, or I often, what
happens is many corporate explorersnow is we'll blame the organization and
go, those dinosaurs, they don't get it.
And you're kind of going now, butyou had a lot to play on that.
You didn't bring them on the journey.
You didn't make them feel that it'stheir idea to and I get that because
(19:38):
you want to take credit for theseideas because you get so little
credit as a catalyst for change.
Christine, fantastic job.
Bring us through the stages andindeed the case study of Best Buy.
Again, I highly recommend it.
It's there behind me on the shelf.
The corporate explorer field book.
And indeed the first book, the corporateexplorer, absolutely brilliant reads.
(20:00):
Christine, for people who want to findyou, find out more about your work,
maybe lean into this area of expertiseyou have about building ecosystems.
Where's the best place to find you?
Christine Griffin (20:08):
Best places on change logics website.
You can do change logic dot com andyou can also reach me through LinkedIn.
That's probably the bestplace at Christine Griffin.
Aidan (20:19):
Before I finish, thanks again to our sponsor of the
Corporate Explorer series, Wazoku.
Recently, Wazoku acquiredInnocentive, a company that I've
studied for many, many years.
They've also acquired Change inColumbia, Mindpool, IdeaDrop,
and most recently, PosterLab.
And Wazoku now offersa great idea ecosystem.
(20:41):
You can find it on www.
wazoko.
com.
It was a pleasure to join you todayand host our guest, Christine Griffin.
Thank you for joining us.
. Thanks.
It was great to be here.
The purpose of today's session is to help corporate explorers develop
(00:03):
the strategy and structure throughwhich they can act with partners to co
innovate , and adopt an innovation todeliver a value proposition to the end
consumer, our guest today will describesix steps corporate explorers need to
take to develop their ecosystem playbook.
We'll then bring these steps tolife by using the case study of
(00:25):
the major us retailer best buy.
And if you like best buy, don't forget.
We had Hubert Joly on the show a fewmonths, probably a year ago now in an
absolutely excellent episode on his book.
Before i introduce today's guesti want to thank the sponsor of the
corporate explorer series Wazoku,Wazoku helps large organizations create
(00:47):
sustainable innovation ecosystems.
Accelerate efficiency gains and newvalue growth it does this through
intelligent enterprise software thatconnects and harnesses the power
of employees suppliers startupsuniversities and the unique Wazoku crowd
of 700, 000 global problem solvers.
Wazoku calls this connected,collective intelligence.
(01:10):
And I'm so glad so many of you listenersto the innovation show have reached
out and got in touch with Wazoku.
And if you are interested in theirtools, I'll connect you straight
to the source CEO, Simon Hill.
You can find Wazoku at www.
Wazoku.
com.
Speaking of ecosystems and connectedcollective intelligence today's episode
(01:32):
is called ecosystems building anecosystem playbook for scaling a new
venture and we're joined by the coauthor of the corporate explorer
field book , A colleague of tushmano'reilly bins and the whole nine
yards christine griffin welcome to the
show
Christine Griffin (01:50):
Thanks, Aiden.
I'm glad to be here today
i thought we'd, give an overviewof this chapter christine and give
context to this case study of best buy.
And then unpack those six stepsi'll see you up here because you say
best buys footprint in home health.
Expanded as a result of acquisitions likeGreat Call, Current Health, Biosensics,
(02:11):
and others, but nevertheless Best Buyrapidly realized that acquisitions
were only one part of the story.
Success could involve buildingpartnerships with payers and providers,
such as Anthem, Athena Health, AndGeisinger, let's share the six lessons
derived from this best buy story.
And indeed the context that any corporateexplorer can apply to increase this odds
(02:35):
of success with an ecosystem, let mestart with the story about Best Buy,,
and then we'll get into the steps.
, In 2018, Best Buy set its sightson the home health market.
They wanted to provide home healthto 5 million people within 5 years.
, Their plan was to deliver, install, andactivate the technology that was needed
to enable the care at home, and theyrealized that they couldn't do it alone.
(02:57):
Healthcare is a really complex ecosystem,it has many providers, payers, regulators,
suppliers of medical equipment,pharmaceutical companies, and Best Buy
knew that they couldn't do it alone.
However, they decided that they wantedto create a footprint in this market.
, they did that initiallyThrough acquisitions.
(03:18):
They purchased a company calledGreat Call, which sold the personal
emergency response devices thatthey had in their store already.
If you remember, there was a commercialin the U S a while ago that said, you
know, They pushed a button on somethingthey wore around their neck and it
said, I've fallen and I can't get up.
And the help was dispatched.
(03:38):
They also purchased a company calledcritical signals technology, which was
telehealth and medication management.
And finally another of their biggestacquisitions was current health.
And that was a care athome technology platform.
, And so they established forthemselves an initial footprint.
in this market.
They realized is that they needed to winthe hearts and minds of the providers
(04:01):
and of the payers in this system.
And so, when you talk to Debra DeSanso,who's the CEO of Best Buy Health, she'll
tell you that they have carved out theirspecific role in this ecosystem, again,
as someone who will deliver, install,and activate the technology needed.
to enable care at home.
And Deborah says, boy,, all , this,you know, the CIOs and the people
(04:21):
at the payers and providers werevery happy because they didn't have
to have the headache of going intoa customer's home and helping them,
install the technology and understandhow to use it and help set it up.
So they took that headache away fromthose providers and the payers
in their ecosystem, and theyalso made it clear that they were
not there to provide the care.
(04:41):
And that would have been seen as likea competitive problem in the ecosystem.
So what you've seen them dois identify what activities
are going on in the market.
They have identified The players inthe market and the potential partners
and the potential competitors in thatmarket, and they have started to build
this ecosystem play where the value isbeing delivered to all of the partners
(05:04):
in the ecosystem, but also to thatend consumer, which is the person who
really desires to have care at home.
And so what I'd like to do is talkyou through some of the steps that
you go through when you're tryingto figure out what is this ecosystem
that I'm operating in, and how shouldI participate in the ecosystem?
Aidan (05:22):
Christine, I absolutely love the story of Best Buy help.
And it's a story many people don'tknow when they think of Best Buy, they
think of it as this big box retailer
but I absolutely love that story.
I grabbed from the library behind meHubert Joly's story, but this heart
of business book talks about How hedid it from a purpose perspective,
creating purpose and really aheart with inside the business.
(05:46):
But you reminded me of a brilliantfriend of the show, Charles Conn
and Charles Conn is speaking at ourreinvention summit in 2025 as well.
I cannot wait.
Charles is also the chairman ofPatagonia and he wrote this book,
the imperfectionists, and he talksabout this, how really clever
companies, they don't just jump in.
(06:06):
, they take these steps, these clever stepsinto a new arena, just like Best Buy did,
and he talks about Amazon, and I justwanted to share because I'll share the
links to those two shows for people whoare interested in this ecosystem building.
Because this is becoming increasinglythe role of the corporate explorer
to be the orchestrator of thisas well . This chapter is so
(06:27):
important for corporate explorers.
Over to you, Christine.
I'm going to share on the screen thediagram where you bring us through
the steps, and I'd love you to take usthrough the steps now through the lens
of what you described with Best Buy..
Christine Griffin (06:40):
So the very first step of mapping an ecosystem is to
think about the value creation journey.
What's going on for that consumer,that end user in the ecosystem?
, You'll see that you startwith the innovation, right?
And the innovation that Best Buyhad in mind was this FDA cleared
care at home platform of productsand services, both digital And.
(07:02):
physical.
And what they wanted to do is helpthe end user connect effortlessly
with the care team to recoversafely at home and to have privacy.
You know, This, this idea of healthcareinformation being electronically
transferred is highly regulatedand very important for privacy.
And so this platform thatBest Buy has is HIPAA certified.
(07:23):
So in this first step, you mapthe value creation journey.
So in each step, for example,you need to engage the, person at
home in the program, you need tohelp them install the solutions.
to monitor what's going on in thehome to coordinate that care and
to provide insights and analytics.
And so understanding the flow of,you know, where do people find
(07:44):
value in the exchange of careat home is the very first step.
And so taking time to map that andunderstand it is pretty important.
, The next thing you want to dois think about where are the
break points in this program.
, where do users struggle?
Where do providers or of theseservices or suppliers struggle?
, For example, in the healthcaresystem, technology may be too complex.
(08:07):
You know, Maybe people are strugglingto try to use a heart monitor or a
blood pressure monitor at home and theyneed help figuring out not only how
do I install and use this, but likehow do I plug it into a place where.
The data can be reportedremotely to other people.
And, you know, if you're cominghome from a hospital and to, and to
care at home, , you're already in apretty, vulnerable state of mind.
(08:31):
And so, , being able to identify thebreak points in a system and another one
that, that happened for Best Buy is that,urgent events need first responders.
To come.
So when you press that personal alert,that says I've fallen and I can't get
up, there needs to be somebody on theother end who says, okay, I'm coming,
you know, just I'll be there in a minute.
And so that idea of identifyingbreak points, that's really like
(08:54):
the 1st critical part of this thing.
Aidan (08:57):
It's so interesting how the, I know as myself as a corporate explorer,
you're so eager to achieve somethingto get going, to build this bias
for action that you often skip thesesteps and they are absolutely crucial.
They'll always come backand bite you in the ass.
If you skip these steps andthe other thing that dawned
on me, I'm preparing a show.
For proximity with KaihanKrippendorf and Rob C.
(09:21):
Walcott, and they talked about how manyof these innovations it's so difficult
to get somebody to try it the first time.
And sometimes you need the benefit of acrisis like the pandemic to get us to even
use tools like zoom and Microsoft teams.
And I'm using squad cast here.
Many, many people didn't use thosetools until the crisis pushed them.
(09:42):
And then they had nochoice, but to use that.
And I think that's reallyinteresting to realize is there.
A break point there where peoplejust won't, it's not good enough
for them to have to change.
So they'll just use a lesser version ofwhat you have to offer, even if yours
is way better that these are thingsthat you only really get to by mapping
it out and going through these steps.
Christine Griffin (10:04):
So the next thing to think about is, who are the players who
are participating in this ecosystem andthese are players who can get in your way.
They could block the adoption ofyour innovation or they can help.
Or they could be competitors, so youhave to really think about who are the
different players and we identify theseas a set of different classifications.
(10:24):
So it's the customer is part ofyour ecosystem, the producer.
So the people who providing and supplying,complementary products or channels,
there's regulators that you have tothink about, particularly in this example
of health there are intermediaries.
Who are people who are in between.
So they could be someonewho's selling your product.
(10:45):
It's, it could be a wholesaleror a distributor who is selling
your product to someone.
It could be an integrator.
So somebody who puts all thepieces together to deliver
some value to that end user.
And it could be an orchestrator.
And that, that is someone that I, a rolethat , Best Buy talks about playing,
you know, they have this platform,this digital HIPAA certified platform
(11:06):
that they use that enables all ofthe participants to kind of come onto
that platform and coordinate the care.
Data is exchanged, services are changed.
They have omni channels, you can go toa store to buy some products, you can
go online to buy products, so mappingThe players, and then also understanding
what is your interface or what'sthe interface between those players?
(11:30):
Are you selling through them?
Are you selling with them?
Are you co innovating , in the case ofBest Buy Health, they are working closely
with Anthem and they're working closelywith , Mass General to be sure to be able
to , Deliver care in an integrated way.
So they're co innovating side by side.
They worked through pilots andthen they ended up, you know,
(11:51):
scaling farther into the market.
So this idea of really understandingwho are the players, what
role are they playing and howare we interacting with them?
And then here's thereally important thing.
Show me the money,
Aidan (12:04):
Show me the money, Jerry Maguire.
I'll show on the screen as well,Christine, because this, for those
people watching us, you can, by theway, watch us now on YouTube and
spotify have reached out to uson the innovation show to feature
us as a video supplier, whichis just absolutely fantastic.
So I can share that on those peoplewho are watching Spotify as well.
Video is now available on Spotify.
(12:25):
Christine will talk us through this.
This is a brilliant diagram.
So useful to be able to map wherethe value is in your ecosystem and
where do you play and derive value
Christine Griffin (12:35):
So it's important to evaluate the different players, assess
what is their motivation and why are,why do they want to participate in this?
And so if you look at this template,the ecosystem evaluation template
that we use, you identify the player.
Think about the capabilities, , whatare they doing that helps you deliver
value , to the end user in this ecosystemand , what are their incentives?
(12:59):
If you think about some ofthe , the pieces of the Best Buy
ecosystem, you think that , thereare payers , who want to reduce the.
, they want to reduce the cost that'sbeing incurred , that they have to cover.
If you think about theproviders, they want compliance.
They want compliance fromdifferent , patients who are at home.
They want compliance with the processesthat they're trying to use or install.
(13:23):
And . so, , think about the incentives.
And most often people want, Cost control.
They want some kind of health quality.
They want the quality of services, and , they are getting paid for
their against those dimensions.
Sometimes there are, ,, players who,the innovation poses a risk for them.
Maybe it's not, in thiscase, well controlled.
(13:45):
The quality is not well controlledor , maybe the innovation is
gonna compete directly with someof the services that players.
, Provide themselves.
So they see the innovation as a risk.
, And you think about like, sowhere is money in this flow?
And how much is it?
And one time I was mapping a system with aclient and , they've mapped the system and
(14:05):
they said where they played and then theyrealized that all the money was being made
in the other parts of the value chain.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And they're like, well, isn't it?
Cause if you're, what, what wouldbe the worst thing to happen?
You don't do the work you get thereand you realize, oh no, we've built
this entire thing and there's no moneyhere . And it all comes tumbling
down for the corporate explorer.
Maybe there'll be spectacularlyjettisoned and from the
organization as a result of that.
So this is the value of this.
(14:32):
And I know also, again,Christine, I'm sure you see this.
So many of us.
Don't want to throw it away.
, we fall in love with our own ideassometimes, and we don't want to go through
this cause we don't want to prove itwrong, but it is part of the process.
Christine Griffin (14:46):
It is just to be careful and just think
through all of these differentparts before you jump head first.
And another thing I'll make anotherabout the profit pool is that, you
can't have all the money for yourself.
You need to be able to figure out howdo you distribute value across the
ecosystem in to motivate those partnersto participate to support the adoption of
your innovation and to share in the valuebeing created for the end user ultimately.
(15:12):
So after you figure out the money flow, you start to build your scaling path.
And we talked in the beginningabout deciding what your entry,
what your entry point is.
And for a Best Buy, it was this, youknow, personal emergency um, services,
and they acquired that position.
Um, They acquired, theyacquired the technology, the
call centers to support it.
(15:33):
and they started to think about,now what are the other capabilities
that That we need, who are thecustomers that we need to serve?
How can we broaden our reach beyondpeople who are just using these personal
emergency And how can we capacity?
They started with this acquisition,having a certain number of call centers.
(15:53):
And then they ended up buildingmore of their own call centers
in order to support network.
When you think about this when youthink about the idea of a scaling path,
you're, you're trying to start from whatis our, what's the entry point and What
are What are the steps that we take?
Aiden, I think you'll put up path.
The capacity is about thisability to manage volume.
(16:17):
So it's around fulfillment,manufacturing, customer call
centers, and customer service.
The other thing to think about is what arethe capabilities that you need to draw on?
What are the technologies, the products,or the Even business models that you need.
Maybe you need to move from a feefor service subscription model.
What different things thatyou need to be able to do?
(16:38):
finally, like customers are yourcustomers just the original end user?
Are they, are these the suppliersthat are helping provide that service
and really thinking about how doyou get access to more customers?
And that's the way you,that's the fundamental steps
of building a scaling path.
Aidan (16:55):
It's so important that, Christine, I was thinking about this, again, a
great guest we've had become a greatfriend, the guy Paul Nunez, I'm sure
you know, he talked about that, whenwe talk about S curves, most people
think of the organization gettingto the top of the S curve as it's
no longer a need for their product.
Or service, but actually,so to does your capability.
(17:16):
It starts to wane and if you're going tojump to a new S curve and create a new
business, you will need new capabilities.
And I say that to say, I'm sure yousee this work with change logic where,
when you're working with organizations.
Oftentimes you're hired by strategyor by innovation people inside the
organization, but I really truly believeL and D and H or they need a seat at
(17:41):
that table because they too will haveto bring in new leadership programs and
find budget to be able to train peoplein this new mindset and also HR might
realize actually, you know what we need tohire new people inside the organization.
This is somewhere that's so oftenoverlooked, and because of the siloed
nature of large organizations, theyoverlook this such crucial step.
Christine Griffin (18:03):
Yeah, it's important to think about the stakeholders
from the very beginning andgetting them involved, particularly
around this step around scaling.
So if you think about the threedisciplines of innovation, and it
is ideate, incubate, and scale.
Scaling is one of the mostoverlook disciplines in innovation.
Everybody's all excited aboutideation and incubating.
They're so great.
(18:23):
But, part of it is is preparing thosestakeholders very early in the process
to be able to understand what it's goingto take to scale this so that you don't
want to show up someday with a multibillion dollar request for investment.
You want to hold their hand and bringthem through the journey with you.
And Therefore, it's importantto think about what your scaling
(18:46):
path is from the very beginning.
Have a hypothesis aboutwhere this might go.
And it may be multiple differenthypotheses that you have about how
you're going to scale this business.
And, that it can be, are yougoing to build some of these parts?
Are you going to partnerwith other people?
Are you going to buy it?
And what are the customers capabilitiesand capacities that you're going to need?
(19:07):
So set that frame early on and thatyou won't give people a heart attack
end when you when you ask for money,because when you get to scaling,
you're probably asking for a lotmore money than you have in the past
Aidan (19:18):
To your point, if I do that and I surprise people, or I often, what
happens is many corporate explorersnow is we'll blame the organization and
go, those dinosaurs, they don't get it.
And you're kind of going now, butyou had a lot to play on that.
You didn't bring them on the journey.
You didn't make them feel that it'stheir idea to and I get that because
(19:38):
you want to take credit for theseideas because you get so little
credit as a catalyst for change.
Christine, fantastic job.
Bring us through the stages andindeed the case study of Best Buy.
Again, I highly recommend it.
It's there behind me on the shelf.
The corporate explorer field book.
And indeed the first book, the corporateexplorer, absolutely brilliant reads.
(20:00):
Christine, for people who want to findyou, find out more about your work,
maybe lean into this area of expertiseyou have about building ecosystems.
Where's the best place to find you?
Christine Griffin (20:08):
Best places on change logics website.
You can do change logic dot com andyou can also reach me through LinkedIn.
That's probably the bestplace at Christine Griffin.
Aidan (20:19):
Before I finish, thanks again to our sponsor of the
Corporate Explorer series, Wazoku.
Recently, Wazoku acquiredInnocentive, a company that I've
studied for many, many years.
They've also acquired Change inColumbia, Mindpool, IdeaDrop,
and most recently, PosterLab.
And Wazoku now offersa great idea ecosystem.
(20:41):
You can find it on www.
wazoko.
com.
It was a pleasure to join you todayand host our guest, Christine Griffin.
Thank you for joining us.
. Thanks.
It was great to be here.
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