JNTU using the Ecosystem Governance Approach Questions

1.What governance approach did John Deere appear to have adopted? Did it fit the profile of an “old” heavy industry player?

2.What difficulties do you think an “old” heavy industry player such as John Deere encountered internally when proposing to develop the MyJohnDeere platform?

3.What difficulties do you believe John Deere faced externally among the proposed users?

4.How do you think John Deere might have overcome those internal and external difficulties?

The customer is in control of the data and can share with dealers, crop consultants, and anyone in their
network of trusted advisers; securely, from any internet enabled device,” says Chris Batdorf, a marketing
manager at John Deere. 26 The MyJohnDeere project was designed with the realization that there was
synergy in linking together disparate sources of information into this “platform.” 27 W ho would be
interested in using this application? You might expect that John Deere customers and employees would
be the only parties. But according to Accenture , a multinational management consulting, technology
services, and outsourcing company, John Deere realized that there was value in opening access to its
system to farmers, ranchers, landowners, banks, and government workers. The platform is useful for all
those people because it integrates information about equipment, production data, and farm operations
and helps users improve their profi tability. 28 A farmer described how the John Deere Operations
Center allowed him to upload a treasure trove of data about planting, spraying, fertilizing, and
harvesting. He said that he accessed that information later not only to diagnose problems about the
equipment but also to make decisions about the use of land and personnel. He said that he can send
that information to consultants for real‐time recommendations on what to change even while he was
harvesting. 29 A platform such as MyJohnDeere could introduce new capabilities that can provide
strategic value to customers, other fi rms, and, of course, its host. According to Accenture, the platform
integrated the Internet of Things with social, mobile, analytics, and cloud technology. The combination
encouraged the development of new applications over time and represented a recent pivotal
technology trend. Such a platform provided reusable components that can evolve over time.