How to build a unified innovation ecosystem

The cornerstone of an innovation ecosystem is the connection and collaboration fostered among key stakeholders.

• Competitive advantage can only be achieved if a culture of collaboration and interdependence is encouraged to support innovation.

Also, only through mutual collaboration among stakeholders, new markets can be created, and customer needs addressed better.

For example, as ecosystems worldwide have shown, a robust corporate-startup collaboration will democratise and promote innovation.

The entrepreneurial spirit of ecosystems can only be sustained if stakeholders provide adequate infrastructural support for startups.

Ecosystem builders should focus on creating an innovation capability that promotes policy initiatives to foster a startup culture. Entrepreneurial ecosystems can flourish only if the government takes proactive interest in formulating policies that address the needs of all ecosystem stakeholders.

Capacity-building measures include implementing an innovation policy that focuses on R&D to address new market needs, especially in the wake of the pandemic.

The development of an ecosystem also depends on the role the media plays in supporting entrepreneurs.

The mainstream media has the responsibility to cover the local and national innovation ecosystems in their reports, to shape the public perception of entrepreneurship.

In the digital era, social media also plays a powerful role in promoting local businesses and startups.

The best innovation ecosystems protect the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of entrepreneurs and innovators and focus on building partnerships with the desired stakeholders.

Silicon Valley is a fine example of how a mature innovation ecosystem has prioritised protecting the valuable IPR assets of its innovators.

The best ecosystems are also those where entrepreneurs are actively invested in giving back to the startup community through mentoring initiatives.

If ecosystems aspire to attract more investments into their region, they must nurture a varied talent pool to drive productivity and competitive advantage.

They should seek talent both from within the geography they operate in and from outside regions, too.

In an increasingly complex business environment led by disruptive tech startups, a strong talent ecosystem that supports diverse skillsets is undoubtedly the need of the hour.

For startup ecosystems to punch above their weight and seize new opportunities of growth, they need to overcome major barriers that pose an impediment to innovation.

Finally, an ecosystem’s innovation strategy should not be inward looking and layered in complexity.

The stakeholders should be customer-centric and agile in identifying new revenue streams and approach innovation from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

An inclusive and thriving innovation ecosystem should embrace a global worldview to innovate at scale and speed.

In the author's view, only when leaders are proactive and start seeing value in building such a cohesive ecosystem, will innovation-driven entrepreneurship flourish.