JARGON WATCH

[from Greek oikos + systema: home + organized whole] “Leaving the Apple ecosystem can be a tough thing to do.” ( Business Insider, Jan. 15, 2017)

How “ecosystem” went corporate

Coined in the 1930s to denote a biological network of organisms and their environment, the term ecosystem has spread from the natural to the corporate world. In 1993, a Harvard Business Review article suggested that “a company be viewed not as a member of a single industry but as part of a business ecosystem.” Another take, from a 2015 Deloitte business trends report: many ecosystems “form to achieve something together that lies beyond the effective scope and capabilities of any individual actor” –witness the iphone, ipad and App Store.