Testimonials
What is it like to work with me?
I have been fortunate to work a wide range of organisations and people. Some were kind enough to share their views of the experience and I share them with you here.
Michael is a leading expert on ecosystems and it was a privilege to work with him on series of practitioner-oriented papers on the subject, drawing upon not only his expertise, but his pragmatism in articulating opportunities for action.
Martin Reeves Chairman at BCG Henderson Institute
We were thrilled to welcome Professor Michael Jacobides during three of our fall 2020 client meetings. Michael presented to the fortune 500 C-level executives on “Winning the Ecosystem Game: Why Bother?”. Michael was flexible to adjust his content to our clients’ specific interests and facilitated rich insightful and very dynamic conversations. One of our clients commented that Michael IS the premier voice when it comes to platform ecosystems expertise.
Thomas Storck Vice President, Global CIO Practice Lead, Gartner Research Board
In MASMOVIL we collaborated with Michael G. Jacobides in refining our business strategy and to incorporate the ecosystem logic in our growth plans. Our discussions with Michael have been eye-opening and helpful in defining in which complementary businesses to our telecom core activity we want to act and how we want to do that. We learned to consciously select our role in orchestrating providers, partners and subsidiaries in new ventures and first results of our new activities are promising!
Meinrad Spenger CEO of MASMOVIL
Michael is a technologically savvy, multicultural polymath. In our complex times this allows him to shed light from different angles and help synthesize in new ways. Conversations with Michael alternate constantly between eye-opening and fun, especially when fueled by one of his inspired pasta- dish creations.
Dimitris Papalexopoulos CEO of Titan Group, Chairman of Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV)
Michael is a true pioneer in the field of ecosystem strategy and management. His work is guiding academics, executives, and regulators, and provides a deep understanding of this crucial and incredibly complex field.
Marco Iansiti Professor at Harvard Business School, co-Chair of HBS Digital Initiative, Cofounder and Chairman of Keystone Strategy LLC
Strategy meets competition policy! That’s exactly what’s needed now, in the complex space of regulation of Big Tech we all are dependent on.
Tommaso Valletti Professor at Imperial College London,
Former Chief Economist for DG Competition for the European Commission
Professor Michael Jacobides contributed to our fall 2020 research on platform ecosystems. His insights and breadth of experience on the subject was valuable for our published report. Specifically, we resonated with Michael’s thoughts on the evolving competitive landscape caused by the digital economy. His predictions on tightening EU regulations are starting to come true.
Andrew L. Yam Research Director, Gartner Research Board
Michael is one of the best people with whom I’ve collaborated in my career. It’s not just that he is one of the world’s leading authorities on business ecosystems. First and foremost, he is an incredible team leader who has always been able to draw into his projects other world class experts and to motivate and get the best out of his collaborators, whether they are junior consultants or indeed world’s leading authorities in the given domain.
Martin Bruncko Founder and Managing Partner at Steam Capital, Evolution ltd Senior Advisor; former Innovation Minister of Slovakia & Head of Europe for the WEF
Competitive strategy is an eternal subject. Professor Michael Jacobides has made an era-leading breakthrough in this field. His insights and research inspired me. In the era of the Internet of Things, business competition has changed from a finite game among companies to an infinite game among ecosystems.
Zhang Ruimin Chairman and CEO of Haier Group
Michael has been a brilliant contributor to the Global Peter Drucker Forum during recent years – on the big stage as well as in small group top executive discussions. He is clearly inspired by Drucker with his focus on practical relevance of his research and by helping his audience to see important shifts that are not yet visible to most, such as the rise of business ecosystems.
Richard Straub Founder & President of the Global Peter Drucker Forum
Michael’s support, advice, and strategic analysis have been key in developing open ecosystem strategies that enabled the growth of our ventures. He has been one of my best advisors in building Velocia and growing Blanc Labs. Michael is an effective communicator, phenomenon thinker, rigorous researcher, and a global thought leader in digital ecosystems.
Hamid Akbari CEO at Blanc Labs, Chairman at Velocia
In Enel X our vision is to develop an ecosystem around the needs of customers, creating content in addition to the sale of power. Michael helped us understand the value of ecosystems better, which is becoming the new basis of competition. Suggestions about what to do and what to avoid to build great ecosystems were very inspiring.
Francesco Venturini Chief Executive Officer of Enel X
I had the pleasure to work with Professor Jacobides for some of our clients on strategy formulation and ecosystem design. Jacobides’ fresh ideas and practical solutions – an unusual combination for someone coming from academia – changed the way our clients of large organizations looked at strategic issues. His ability to provide open and candid feedback pointing to the jugular of the strategic issue to solve is incomparable. Rethinking the strategic framing is difficult for leaders but is an essential step before starting a new change journey. Professor Jacobides is excellent in helping business leaders to think differently and reframe strategic issues in a novel way.
Alessandro Di Fiore Founder & CEO of ECSI
I have enjoyed partnering with Michael on management ideas at the interface of theory and practice for the past 10 years. Particularly memorable was our collaboration in 2014, when we co-convened a gathering of strategists from academia, leading companies, and McKinsey & Company's strategy practice. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the McKinsey Quarterly, of which I served as editor-in-chief for more than a decade. Our focus was the future of strategy as a management discipline. Michael helped me assemble a crack group of academics who also understood the demands facing real world strategists, helped lead a lively debate that we subsequently published, and also contributed some follow up reflections that helped round out this effort to explore next frontiers in management.
Allen Webb Global Content Leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers; former Editorial Director at McKinsey & Co
Michael is a very special blend as he combines a rigorous and searching-for-novelty academic mindset and a systematic search for applicability and practical impact in the real world. Working with him on joint-projects is what I believe is the closest to practicing dialectic! This is how you make things move forward!
François Candelon Managing Director & Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group, Global Director at BCG Henderson Institute
Michael spoke for us mid-2020 at The Recovery Summit on 'Rethink, Reshuffle, Reallocate to win in the new normal'. As one of a line-up of more than 70 world-class speakers, he stood out with an engaging presentation, clear insights and valuable advice. The feedback from our audience placed Michael's talk as one of the most popular and well-received during the 5 day summit.
Patrick Nelson Head Of Marketing at Speakers Associates Ltd, Co-Founder of Oratorical, Summit Director of the The Recovery Summit
2020 has been the year of tech regulation, and Michael has done a great job bridging academia, policy and industry, helping us try to work out how not just how tech changes, but how regulation theory and practice can evolve.
Benedict Evans Former Partner of Andreessen Horowitz; Tech Influencer
MGJ needs no introduction. A doing thinker, he knows how to create value for entrepreneurs and large businesses in the global ecosystem, to the same great extent he does for his students of innovation strategy. Michael truly understands both worlds which makes for a rare blend of practical and thought-leading insights. With his contributions throughout the years, he's helped make the FoundersLane's journey more eventful, buoyant and pleasant.
Felix Staeritz Co-Founder and CEO of Founders Lane
Michael is a true thought leader in the area of ecosystems, an academic with decades-long experience in research but also a strong understanding of corporate realities. In highly interactive workshops and speeches, he clearly shows to Boards and senior executives the impact of ecosystems on their strategy and operations.
Dr. Nikolaus S. Lang Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG,
Global Leader of Global Advantage Practice
Very few business school academics can decode trends in the world and make sense of them for practitioners in the way Michael Jacobides does. His work is required reading for all those involved in shaping the organizations of the future — and that is why we feature him on the Thinkers50 ranking of the world’s leading management thinkers.
Stuart Crainer, co-founder Thinkers50
Working with Michael in Evolution ltd has been the most groundbreaking stuff I did in my career, and I had the most amount of fun in this project / team ever (even considering glamorous L'Oreal parties!). I am glad that we were able to combine serious hard work with hospitality we had in Kea- impossible to match such treatment of team members and colleagues.
Nikita Pusnakovs Engagement Manager at Evolution ltd
