Our 21 networks

There are lots of different ways to look at an organisation or business ecosystem.  To date, we have identified 21 different views of an organisation that are important for leaders:

  • Seven views that show the overall position of the organisation and its context
  • Seven views that show how the organisation really operates to create value
  • Seven views that show how the people in the organisation work together and shape its culture

Each of these views is presented as a "separate" network with bespoke analytics and reports.  Collectively they provide a complete view of the organisation  as a network.   Each of these views, and some example networks, are described in more detail below.

 

Strategic views of the organisation

The following networks provide a whole of organisation perspective that put the organisation in context.

  1. Governance: Board, Management and Owners form an Investor / ownership network, i.e. the owners and officers of the organisation have interests in other organisations as well

  2. Markets and Customers: this includes the network connecting an organisation to it's own customers. It includes the communication and information sharing between customers of a traditional organisation

  3. Competitors: a company's relative position versus competitors including new entrants and substitutes

  4. Supply Chain: the external Supply chain, including partners

  5. Government and Regulation: relationships with and between Government, regulation and the law

  6. Brand Reputation: online social media networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube)

  7. Research and Development: external research and development networks, including how the organisation is connected to the R&D community

Operational Views of the Organisation

The following networks describe the flows of knowledge and goods between groups in the organisation.

  1. Information Technology: the systems network

  2. Risk: internal controls, approvals and risk management processes

  3. Electronic Communication: this includes email, Slack, Yammer and other platforms used for electronic communication

  4. Innovation: how are new ideas generated, shared and executed on within the organisation?

  5. Financial: the intra-organisational flow of funds, i.e. revenue and expenses

  6. Projects: typically a mapping of employees and/or teams to projects / initiatives

  7. Content: relationships between individuals and teams and content, i.e. who is working / has worked on which documents / content?

Human views of the organisation

The following networks describe the real relationships across the organisation.  Collectively, they allow analysis of the real culture of an organisation.

  1. Individual: the personal network of each individual in the organisation

  2. Formal: the organisational hierarchy, i.e. who reports to whom

  3. Social: the “friendship” network in the organisation

  4. Technical: the advice and expertise network

  5. Trust: who trusts / mistrusts whom in the organisation

  6. Physical: who is proximate to who based on the office layout and who meets in person

  7. Identity: networks that connect based on identity, e.g. gender, ethnicity, other areas of diversity etc.