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Open Approaches

Strategically making software, data, standards, or APIs open to drive adoption, commoditisation, and ecosystem growth.

"Encouraging competition through open source, open data, open APIs, open processes by removing barriers to adoption and encouraging a focus for competition."

– Simon Wardley

🚦 Open Approaches Strategy Assessment Tool

Quickly assess how ready you are to apply the Open Approaches strategy. Explore signals in your map and organisation that suggest a good fit, and check your readiness to execute effectively.

🤔 Explanation​

What are Open Approaches?​

Open Approaches are the deliberate act of making a technology, standard, data set, or interface openly available, removing proprietary restrictions to encourage widespread adoption and rapid evolution.

This can include:

  • Open source software
  • Open standards
  • Open data
  • Open APIs

The goal is to eliminate friction (cost, licensing, integration) and create a foundation others can build on. This accelerates commoditisation, enables network effects, and often shifts competition to higher layers of value. Open Approaches are frequently used to undercut incumbents, set de facto standards, or build robust ecosystems.

Why use Open Approaches?​

  • To drive adoption and become the standard in a market
  • To commoditise a layer and move competition elsewhere
  • To build a vibrant ecosystem of contributors and partners
  • To undercut a rival’s proprietary advantage
  • To accelerate innovation through community involvement

How to use Open Approaches​

  • Identify a component that is not your core differentiator but is critical to the ecosystem
  • Remove barriers: open the code, data, or interface
  • Foster a community and governance model
  • Ensure you have a business model that benefits from openness (e.g., services, higher-order offerings)

🗺️ Real-World Examples​

Netscape/Mozilla​

In 1998, Netscape open-sourced its browser code, creating Mozilla, in a bold move to counter Microsoft’s dominance. This rallied a global community and accelerated browser innovation, whilst also shifting industry momentum toward open standards. The Mozilla project became a driving force in the W3C and web standards ecosystem, championing interoperability and pushing for a more open, standards-driven web. While Netscape itself did not survive, its open approach fundamentally reshaped the browser market and laid the groundwork for modern web collaboration.

Google Android​

Google released Android as open source, eliminating licensing fees and restrictions for device manufacturers. This openness fueled rapid adoption and made Android the world’s leading smartphone operating system. While the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) allowed anyone to use and modify the core OS, Google maintained significant influence through proprietary Google Play Services and the app ecosystem. By requiring manufacturers to include these services for full compatibility and access to popular apps, Google retained strategic control and monetised the platform through services and advertising, even as the base OS remained open.

Open Data Initiatives​

Governments and organizations releasing open data sets, such as GPS signals, weather information, or public transport data, have enabled entire industries to emerge and thrive. For example, Transport for London (TfL) provides open APIs for real-time transit data, empowering developers to create journey planners, accessibility tools, and mobility apps. This has resulted in more innovation, ecosystem growth, and unlocked new business opportunities.

🚦 When to Use / When to Avoid​

🚦 Open Approaches Strategy Self-Assessment Tool

Find out the strategic fit and organisational readiness by marking each statement as Yes/Maybe/No based on your context. Strategy Assessment Guide.

Landscape and Climate

How well does the strategy fit your context?

  • Our map shows a component that is utility-like or becoming a commodity.
  • There is significant friction (cost, licensing, integration) in adoption.
  • Competitors or the market are held back by proprietary barriers.
  • Ecosystem growth or network effects will impact our other components.
  • We are positioned to capture value above the open layer.

Organisational Readiness (Doctrine)

How capable is your organisation to execute the strategy?

  • We are skilled at community management and governance.
  • We have a clear alternative revenue model (e.g., services, premium features).
  • We can outpace competitors that might benefit from our openness.
  • We can maintain quality and security in an open environment.
  • We have the resources to support an open community.

Assessment and Recommendation

Strategic Fit: Weak. Ability to Execute: Weak.

RECOMMENDATION
Consider alternative strategies or address significant gaps before proceeding.

LowHighStrategic FitHighLowAbility to Execute

🎯 Leadership​

Core challenge​

Balancing the benefits of openness (adoption, ecosystem, innovation) with the risks (loss of control, monetisation challenges, competitor advantage).

Key leadership skills required​

  • Strategic ecosystem thinking
  • Community building and governance
  • Communication and transparency
  • Business model innovation
  • Risk management

Ethical considerations​

Leaders must ensure openness is genuine (not “open-washing”), respect contributor rights, and avoid exploiting community labor. Consider the impact on users, partners, and the broader ecosystem.

📋 How to Execute​

  1. Identify the component to open (not your core differentiator)
  2. Choose the right open model (source, standard, data, API)
  3. Remove proprietary barriers (licensing, access, documentation)
  4. Establish governance and community processes
  5. Communicate the value and invite participation
  6. Monitor, support, and evolve the open asset
  7. Capture value through complementary offerings

📈 Measuring Success​

  • Growth in adoption and usage
  • Number and quality of external contributors
  • Ecosystem development (partners, integrations)
  • Acceleration of innovation and improvement
  • Achievement of strategic objectives (e.g., commoditisation, market share)

⚠️ Common Pitfalls and Warning Signs​

No clear monetization​

Opening something without a plan to make money elsewhere (e.g., open sourcing software but not capitalising on services) can hurt revenue.

Community misalignment​

If you don’t manage the community well, the project may fork or drift away from your strategy, risking loss of control.

Competitor benefit​

Competitors can freely use what you open. If they are better positioned to monetise it, you may inadvertently strengthen them.

Open-washing​

Pretending to be open while retaining hidden restrictions damages trust and undermines the strategy.

🧠 Strategic Insights​

Openness as an Engine of Commoditisation​

Openness is not altruism: it’s a tool to accelerate evolution. When you open a component that’s already heading toward commodity status, you can outpace competitors still clinging to proprietary models. This not only reshapes user expectations but collapses margins across the market, forcing rivals to adapt or die.

In mapping terms, open approaches work best on components moving from product to commodity. You’re lubricating the movement. You’re not driving evolution, rather than responding to it. But if you open too early (while a component is still in genesis or custom), you may invite chaos and fragmentation. Openness is powerful, but only when timed to evolutionary context.

Ecosystem as a Strategic Weapon​

The real benefit of open isn’t the code or the API, it’s the ecosystem it enables. By removing friction, you invite others to build, integrate, extend. This is leverage, where your strategic footprint grows without linear investment. You become the gravitational centre.

This creates a positive feedback loop: more users → more contributors → more integrations → more value → more users. Over time, your open component becomes the de facto standard, and your position in the ecosystem hardens. The open code is the kernel of a vast, self-reinforcing ecosystem that can be monetised indirectly.

Counterplay and Strategic Signalling​

Openness is not a safe play. It’s a signal to others. It invites counterplay: embrace-and-extend, fork-and-commercialise, regulatory capture via “open standards” bodies. You have to anticipate the likely responses, and design your openness accordingly. Licences, governance, branding and community structure all become weapons or shields.

For example, if your competitor is slower-moving or dependent on licensing, opening your stack could force them into a corner. But if they’re faster or better capitalised, they may simply build on what you’ve opened and outcompete you. That’s why open approaches must be paired with a clear value capture model above the open layer: services, analytics, integrations, brand, or trust.

❓ Key Questions to Ask​

  • Value: What do we gain by making this open?
  • Control: How will we manage and govern the open asset?
  • Monetisation: What is our business model above the open layer?
  • Community: How will we attract and sustain contributors?
  • Risk: Are we prepared for competitors to benefit from our openness?

🔀 Related Strategies​

  • Co-creation – Inviting others to build on your open platform and drive innovation.

  • Undermining Barriers to Entry – Making a technology free removes a barrier and enables new entrants.

  • Embrace and Extend – The inverse: a competitor may embrace your open tech, then extend it with proprietary features.

  • Market Enablement – Creating conditions for a market to grow, often by reducing friction.

  • Patents & Intellectual Property Rights - navigating IP frameworks to balance openness with necessary protections and clarify what can be shared.

  • Innovate, Leverage, Commoditize (ILC) - fostering community-driven innovation on an open foundation, then commoditizing and leveraging successful contributions at scale.

  • Press Release Process - leveraging strategic communications to announce open milestones, rally contributors, and build momentum around the platform.

  • Fool's Mate - baiting competitors into underestimating the strategic value of openness before executing differentiated or closed plays.

  • Center of Gravity - focusing on key open components or community hubs whose control can shift platform influence or disrupt the ecosystem.

  • Education - shaping perceptions by teaching stakeholders the principles and benefits of open collaboration and governance.

  • Licensing - choosing license terms to encourage adoption and contributions while maintaining control over derivative uses.

  • Harvesting - extracting strategic value or revenue after an open ecosystem has matured and scaled.

  • Standards Game - using openness to seed protocols or formats that become de facto standards, locking in an ecosystem.

  • Value Chain Disaggregation and Re-aggregation - Open approaches can facilitate the disaggregation of value chains by promoting interoperability and standard interfaces between components, and enable new forms of re-aggregation by fostering collaborative ecosystems.

⛅ Relevant Climatic Patterns​

📚 Further Reading & References​

Author

Dave Hulbert
Dave Hulbert
Builder and maintainer of Wardley Leadership Strategies