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WHAT is PuRCHAsing And suPPly sTRATEgy? 161
However, competitors can be complementors, and vice versa. For example, adjacent
restaurants may see themselves as competitors for customers’ business. A customer
standing outside and wanting a meal will choose between the two of them. Yet, in
another way they are complementors. Would that customer have come to this part
of town unless there was more than one restaurant for him or her to choose between?
Restaurants, theatres, art galleries and tourist attractions generally all cluster together
in a form of cooperation to increase the total size of their joint market. It is important
to distinguish between the way companies cooperate in increasing the total size of a
market and the way in which they then compete for a share of that market. Historically,
insufficient emphasis has been put on the role of the supplier. Harnessing the value of
suppliers is just as important as listening to the needs of customers. Destroying value in
a supplier in order to create it in a customer does not increase the value of the network
as a whole. For example, pressurising suppliers because customers are pressurising you
will not add long-term value. In the long term it creates value for the total network
to find ways of increasing value for suppliers as well as customers. All the players in
the network, whether they be customers, suppliers, competitors or complementors,
can be both friends and enemies at different times. This is not ‘unusual’ or ‘aberrant’
behaviour. It is the way things are. The term used to capture this idea is ‘co-opetition’.

The idea of the ‘business ecosystem’ 2
An idea that is closely related to that of co-opetition in supply networks is that of the
‘business ecosystem’. It can be defined as: ‘An economic community supported by a founda-
tion of interacting organisations and individuals – the organisms of the business world. The
economic community produces goods and services of value to customers, who are themselves
members of the ecosystem. The member organisms also include suppliers, lead producers,
competitors, and other stakeholders. Over time, they coevolve their capabilities and roles, and
3
tend to align themselves with the directions set by one or more central companies’. One of
the main differences between this idea and that of the supply network generally is the
inclusion in the idea of the ecosystem of businesses that may have no or little direct
relationship with the main supply network, yet exist only because of that network.
They interact with each other, predominantly complementing or contributing signifi-
cant components of the value proposition for customers. Many examples come from
the technology industries. The innovative products and services that are developed in
the technology sectors cannot evolve in a vacuum. They need to attract a whole range
of resources, drawing in expertise, capital, suppliers, and customers to create coopera-
tive networks. For example, the app developers that develop applications for particular
operating system platforms may not be ‘suppliers’ as such, but the relationship between
them and the supply network that supplies the mobile device is mutually beneficial.
Building an ecosystem of developers around a core product can increase its value to the
end customer and by doing so complements increase the usage of the core product.
Such an ecosystem of complementary products and services can also create significant
barriers to entry for new competitors. Any possible competitors would not only have to
compete with the core product, but also have to compete against the entire ecosystem
of complementary products and services.
The terminology and metaphors used to describe business ecosystems are obvi-
ously based on that used to describe ‘natural’ biological systems, where elements in
the ‘ecosystem’ affect and are affected by others. This creates a constantly evolving set
of relationships where, if they are to survive, businesses must be flexible, adaptable,

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