2 What Is a Workforce Ecosystem?

Today's markets are global and interconnected, with interdependencies between suppliers, customers, partners, and other stakeholders. Since the early 1990s—beginning with the work of James Moore, Marco Iansiti, and others, and continuing with research by Ron Adner, Rahul Kapoor, and Carmelo Cennamo—authors, executives, consultants, and academics have considered biological ecosystems apt metaphors for the complex relationships characterizing today's business environment.1 Referred to often as business ecosystems, and sometimes more specifically as innovation ecosystems or networks of ecosystems, these models capture how organizations interact with each other to accomplish separate and joint goals.2