To equip strategists with the advanced frameworks needed to analyze, compete within, and strategically shape complex business ecosystems, platforms, and network effects for sustainable advantage:

• Corporate Strategists, Directors, and General Managers.
• Business Development and Partnerships Executives.
• Innovation and Product Leaders building platform or network offerings.
• Consultants specializing in digital and technology strategy.
• Executives in high-tech, financial services, or consumer platform industries.
• Leaders responsible for M&A and strategic alliance decisions.

• Intensive case studies of platform battles (e.g., operating systems, e-commerce).
• Group exercise in mapping and analyzing the strategic role of a firm in a complex ecosystem.
• Workshop on applying network effect models to a new product idea.
• Role-playing a strategic negotiation with a powerful ecosystem partner.
• Structured debate on strategic openness vs. control.

Unit 1: Shifting from Industry to Ecosystem Analysis

• Defining a business ecosystem and differentiating it from traditional industry value chains.
• Understanding the strategic implications of **network effects** (direct and indirect).
• The core concept of co-opetition and managing simultaneous collaboration and competition.
• Identifying the strategic role of orchestrator, participant, and complementor.

• Revisiting Porter's Five Forces in an ecosystem context.
• Applying Game Theory concepts to strategic moves and competitor reactions.
• Analyzing the cost structures and strategic flexibility of competitors.

Unit 2: Platform Strategy and Value Capture

• Differentiating between transactional, innovation, and integrated platforms.
• Strategies for generating and managing critical mass and ignition.
• Defining the pricing and governance strategies for multi-sided markets.
• The strategic risk of **disintermediation** and managing network loyalty.

• Identifying the profit pools within the ecosystem (e.g., data, ancillary services).
• Strategies for controlling bottlenecks and leveraging strategic power within the network.
• The risk of over-reaching and inviting anti-trust or regulatory scrutiny.

Unit 3: Ecosystem Governance and Alliance Management

• Developing clear strategic criteria for selecting ecosystem partners.
• Governing complex, multi-firm relationships without formal equity control.
• The strategic trade-off between control, flexibility, and reach.

• Strategic decisions regarding platform openness versus exclusive control.
• Protecting core intellectual property while enabling partner innovation.
• Managing the strategic threat of technology leakage to partners.

Unit 4: Strategic Moves and Competitive Dynamics

• Strategies for attacking an entrenched ecosystem leader (e.g., niche entry).
• Techniques for using regulatory and political action as a strategic lever.
• The role of non-market strategy in ecosystem competition.

• Leveraging the ecosystem as a source of rapid, distributed innovation.
• Strategies for strategically pivoting an existing business into a platform.
• Forecasting competitive disruption through ecosystem mapping.

Unit 5: Execution and Future Trends

• Defining strategic KPIs for network health (e.g., active users, transaction volume, complementarity).
• Measuring the firm's strategic position and influence within the network.

• The strategic implications of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
• The future of B2B and industrial Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems.