In the traditional commercial enterprise there are three basic sets of management techniques. They are organizations, assets, and processes. If you work in a modern enterprise it’s very likely you are responsible for one or more these methods.

A relatively new and very important newcomer to the enterprise mix is graph technology. More and more graph databases, networks and graph-based applications are growing in importance and applied enterprise usage. 

Still, even with these four key planks in place the picture of the enterprise is incomplete. Complexity science teaches us a lot can be accomplished with just a piece of the puzzle. However, that does not mean we should not strive for the fuller picture.

More and more people are using the fancy word ecology to describe this fuller picture. Some go so far as to describe the enterprise as an ecosystem.

Yet, many don’t really know what either word means. Often they are code words for “I don’t know what I am talking about, so please don’t ask me any specific questions.” The irony these words are so utterly simple. 

Ecology comes from Greek. ‘Eco’ means house; ‘ogy’ means study; together they are the science of how things interact. Meanwhile, ecosystem is simply the science of plural ecologies. Whew, simple!

Because the enterprise is moving fast from transactions to interactions, then, in spite of widespread misuse, using ecology describe the modern enterprise really is excellent. 

 

So what’s the problem, why is the enterprise picture still incomplete? Well, until now, as mentioned, managers could only master, view one or two chunks of the puzzle at a time. There was really no way to see how organizations, assets, processes and networks interacted. There was no way to see the enterprise ecology.

Comprehension, visualization and mastery of the enterprise ecology is an appropriate goal for all stakeholders. The benefits are enormous. It has been difficult until now because of the lack of graph databases and visualization technology. That is changing very quickly… 

Enterprise leaders strive to use the language and concepts of graphs, but they fall short. Mostly they use anecdotes when they could be using real networks and empirical graphs.

The next great episode in enterprise productivity and innovation will originate from network comprehension and graph databases. Stay tuned as the future of the graph enterprise reveals itself.