Ecosystems aren't just buzz
Here are 5 things you need to make it work.
Last month, Elia Asset Management gathered us in Ghent for an offsite. The theme: ecosystems. Sounded a bit fluffy at first. But after two packed days of deep dives and hard conversations, one thing was clear: we don’t get to decide whether we work in ecosystems. We only decide how smartly we do it.
Here’s what really stuck with us ...
1. Problems > Your company
Climate, mobility, energy: today’s challenges don’t fit inside neat boxes. One standout example: TM ROCO, where seven big construction companies—normally competitors—joined forces to tackle a huge infrastructure project in Antwerp. Their real win wasn’t just technical; it was rethinking how to collaborate at scale.
2. Trust Is Infrastructure
Trust is often treated like a “soft” thing. But here’s what hit home: in ecosystems, trust needs to be built into your structure. Not with vague promises, but with clear systems, shared goals, and radical transparency.
One speaker nailed it: “Work in the open by default.” That turns collaboration from a risk into a superpower.
3. Collaboration needs structure (just not hierarchy)
Lots of people think ecosystems are loose and unstructured. They’re wrong. The strongest examples—like imec, where even competitors work together on deep tech—have rock-solid agreements. But those frameworks stay flexible enough to evolve fast.
That’s what keeps them both quick and resilient.
4. Start Before You’re Ready — But Learn Fast
One of the most consistent patterns across all cases was this: nobody waited for perfect clarity. They started, they tested, and they adapted.
Projects like The Beacon’s smart city pilots, or Proximus’ evolving ecosystem platform, showed how experimentation, when paired with structure, can accelerate learning while containing risk. Leaders didn’t chase perfection—they designed for iteration. That agility made the difference between ideas that stayed in the lab and ideas that reached people.
5. Purpose makes everything move faster
The difference between a fragile network and a thriving ecosystem? A clear, shared mission. BOOST (Brussels Airport’s baggage innovation program) works because everyone is laser-focused on one thing: making travel frictionless. Imec keeps winning global partners because its deep-tech vision is simple and clear. Shared purpose is the fuel that speeds everything up.
From Insight to Action
At the end of the offsite, each participant made a commitment—not to a grand plan, but to one concrete action they’d take back to their team. Because ecosystems don’t scale on slides. They scale through decisions, behaviors, and conversations.
You’re already in an ecosystem—whether you designed it or not.
The question is: Are you shaping it, or is it shaping you?
The future isn’t something we can build alone.
The future is collaborative, no doubt!
