Maximizing stakeholder value

In biology, an ecosystem is a system of biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) elements coexisting in equilibrium. If some elements increase, others decrease to keep the overall energy of the system at some nominal level. For example, plant-eating animals multiplying in an ecosystem will deplete the vegetation, thereby reducing the capacity of that ecosystem to support them, at which point the number of these herbivores will start to drop as they die off. Decaying animals will enrich the soil and reinvigorate the production of more plants, which restarts the entire cycle.

Every element in an ecosystem both needs something from it and provides something to it. In that sense, an economy can be thought of as an ecosystem, as can an organization. So, what are an organization’s biotic and abiotic elements? Its stakeholders are certainly biotic, and the functions and applications utilized therein are obviously abiotic. Together, stakeholders, functions, and applications form the business capabilities that support an organization’s value proposition.

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