The prevailing view of global competition remains largely company-centric. As businesses go multinational, they often overlook the fact that they are forming part of a single, large-scale ecosystem.
It is worth internalizing the idea that companies do not compete as isolated entities but through the ecosystems they help build within their industries. That shift in perspective drives changes in thinking and, ultimately, in behavior.
Managing a global company now demands an "ecosystem strategy." The industrial ecosystem a company belongs to spans multiple supply chains — from materials and components to finished-product manufacturing, logistics and sales. Optimizing processes across the entire supply chain is what creates competitiveness.
When that optimization effort pays off, competitive advantage is secured, and over time an insurmountable gap opens up — what some call an "ultra-gap." Irreplaceability follows. This reveals that technological superiority alone does not produce such a gap. The supply chains within the ecosystem must, however, remain unobstructed.
From raw materials and components through final assembly and sales, supply chains anchored by a handful of large companies depend on a wide network of partners. A tightly linked chain forms around the shared value of mutual benefit. Even when large companies pursue vertical integration and in-house strategies, the need for partner firms does not disappear.
The law of nature — that an ecosystem collapses when it loses its health — applies equally here. A robust ecosystem mindset and strong bonds are essential.
Maintaining those bonds and fostering cooperative partnerships to prevent supply chain disruptions become critical in this environment. With the international trading order in turmoil, supply chain instability is a constant risk. No company can afford to feel secure simply because its own operations are running smoothly.
At the heart of cooperative partnership is not the supply of products but the supply and exchange of value — value that encompasses not only money but intangible elements such as closeness, trust and support. Over time, these ties harden into a more resilient relational structure. Yet the nature of such networks is fragile, and mutual consideration is indispensable.
If a large company ignores the difficulties of its partners rather than sharing in them, the supply chain and the broader ecosystem can collapse in an instant. The reverse is equally true.
Recently, a major semiconductor company announced it would cover up to 50 percent of the early-stage research and development costs that partner firms incur on high-risk projects, reimbursing those costs after the fact regardless of whether the projects succeed or fail. The move drew attention as a concrete step toward strengthening bonds between large companies and their suppliers.
Jung Woon-chan, chairman of the Shared Growth Institute, said co-prosperity and shared growth represent "the highest-level management strategy for maximizing corporate value," adding that they "can serve as the means to sustain a robust industrial ecosystem that no one can challenge."
freiheit@heraldcorp.com
