Ecosystem Engineering
Companies act as ecosystem engineers when they build infrastructure, platforms, or market structures that reshape competitive dynamics for themselves and other players.
A beaver doesn't ask permission. It doesn't wait for conditions to improve. It constructs a new environment - one where it thrives.
Ecosystem engineers are organisms that modify their physical environment in ways that alter resource availability and selection pressures for themselves and other species. Beavers are the canonical example - a 45-pound rodent can delete a stream and replace it with a pond, raising water levels by 1-3 meters across 5-100+ hectares. This creates habitat heterogeneity (variety of different habitat types), increases local biodiversity, and fundamentally alters selection pressures for all species in the affected area.
Business Application of Ecosystem Engineering
Companies act as ecosystem engineers when they build infrastructure, platforms, or market structures that reshape competitive dynamics for themselves and other players. Amazon's API mandate, Apple's App Store, and Ørsted's offshore wind supply chain all represent ecosystem engineering that created new market structures.