David Ing

David Ing
Born	1957 Canada
Occupation(s)	Systems scientist, business architect, management consultant, marketing scientist
Years active	1985–2012 (IBM Canada), 2012–present (Systems Thinking Ontario and academia)
Known for	Presidency of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (2011–2012); co-founding Systems Thinking Ontario; authoring Open Innovation Learning

David Ing (born 1957) is a Canadian expert in systems science, business architecture, management consulting, and marketing science. He held the position of president at the International Society for the Systems Sciences during 2011–2012.

Ing’s career at IBM Canada spanned from 1985 until 2012, where he fulfilled various roles such as management consultant, solution architect, industry sales specialist, and planner at corporate headquarters.

Together with Antony Upward and Peter H. Jones, Ing co-established Systems Thinking Ontario in 2012, a multidisciplinary collective that facilitated open monthly discussions at universities throughout the Toronto region for more than five years.

In 2018, he authored Open Innovation Learning: Theory building on open sourcing while private sourcing, a publication derived from his doctoral research conducted at the Aalto University School of Science. The book features a foreword written by Jim Spohrer.

Biography

Ing received his B.Comm. from the Faculty of Commerce and Trinity College, Toronto at the University of Toronto in 1980, followed by an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1982. He initially pursued doctoral studies in business strategy at the University of British Columbia between 1982 and 1984 before moving into corporate research. In 2003, he resumed Ph.D. studies in Industrial Engineering and Management at Helsinki University of Technology, which is now incorporated into the Aalto University School of Science.

Starting his tenure at IBM Canada headquarters in 1985 as a business analyst with a focus on econometrics, Ing transitioned by 1987 into a role as a retail marketing specialist developing decision support systems for retail and consumer packaged goods clients. From 1992 onward, he progressed through senior consulting positions within IBM Consulting Group, Advanced Business Institute (Palisades, New York), Business Innovation Services, Business Consulting Services, and Global Business Services. Between 2006 and 2012, he acted as a business architect on IBM Software Group’s Industry Business Value Assessments North America team and Websphere Technical Sales before retiring early after nearly three decades with the company.

Personal

His primary and secondary education took place in Gravenhurst, Ontario, followed by studies at the University of Toronto. After completing graduate education in Evanston, Illinois and Vancouver, British Columbia, Ing has lived in Toronto, Ontario since 1985.

Marketing science

Between 1988 and 1993, David Ing contributed to IBM’s market development efforts for decision support systems aimed at retail clients. He created prototype solutions for merchandise planning and category management utilizing the then-emerging Metaphor Data Interpretation System, which was later commercialized by IBM. This experience paved the way for his 1994 appointment at IBM Consulting Group as an IT Strategy Consultant and subsequently leading a pioneering project alongside IBM Research.

In 1990, Ing co-founded the Canadian Centre for Marketing Information Technologies within the University of Toronto Faculty of Management, collaborating with Andrew A. Mitchell and Ray Serpkenci. He also delivered an innovative MBA course titled "Marketing Information Technologies" and contributed two chapters to The Marketing Information Revolution.

Sense-and-respond support system

Haeckel (1999) differentiates between make-and-sell enterprises—optimized for efficient production of offerings—and sense-and-respond organizations that proactively adjust to customer needs.

Building on the evolution of sense-and-respond concepts, Ing partnered with Ian Simmonds in 1998 to create a technology-neutral sense-and-respond support system framework incorporating:

• A detailed depiction of organizational context
• Facilitation of collaborative decision-making
• Monitoring of commitment statuses through defined protocols

The design of organizational context and commitment protocols was inspired by the Language Action Perspective developed by Fernando Flores and Terry Winograd. The collaborative decision-making elements drew from pragmatic inquiry models by C. West Churchman and Ian Mitroff, as well as collaborative insights from Vincent Barabba and Gerald Zaltman.

Business architecture, organization and technology

From 1997 to 2001, David Ing held an adjunct faculty position at the IBM Advanced Business Institute in Palisades, New York, where he worked alongside Ian D. Simmonds at IBM Research on applying shearing layers theory to organizational and IT architecture. This research was shaped by evolutionary ideas found in Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn and Stephan H. Haeckel's Adaptive Enterprise. By 2009, Ing’s focus had shifted toward relational governance within business partnerships and systemic transformations in organizations.

Systems sciences

David Ing became a member of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) in 1998, where he contributed conference summaries and chaired the Special Integration Group on Systems Applications in Business and Industry from 2002 to 2009. He served as ISSS webmaster between 2003 and 2007, then as Vice-President for Communications and Systems Education from 2005 to 2009, followed by Vice-President for Research and Publications from 2008 to 2010, culminating in his presidency during 2011–2012, overseeing the 2012 ISSS conference in San Jose, California. As an INCOSE member, he co-established the Systems Sciences Working Group aimed at integrating systems science with systems engineering.

Ing’s academic influences include Russell L. Ackoff, C. West Churchman, David L. Hawk, and Timothy F. H. Allen. In 1999, he participated in a conference dedicated to honoring Ackoff’s contributions. He also led curriculum development for systems thinking within Aalto University’s master's program in Creativity Sustainability, delivering lectures focused on systemic approaches for sustainable communities and urban planners.

He engaged actively in several International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR) biannual conversations between 2004 and 2010, contributing to their published proceedings. Ing holds a research fellowship at the University of Hull Centre for Systems Studies and co-founded the Systemic Business Community, a platform dedicated to exploring systemic principles applied to business.

In recognition of his work, Ing was awarded best student paper at the UK Systems Society Conference hosted at Oxford University in 2008.

Service systems science

David Ing played a pioneering role in the field of service science, management and engineering, collaborating with Jim Spohrer since the ISSS 2005 conference in Cancun and engaging actively within IBM networks.

His contributions to service systems research draw extensively on the Theory of the Offering developed by Richard Normann and Rafael Ramirez. Ing is noted for integrating systems thinking and systems science frameworks into the design and management of service systems.

Between 2008 and 2012, Ing was a visiting scholar at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, facilitated by Kyoichi Kijima, where he supported research initiatives focused on Service Systems Science.

From 2006 to 2008, Ing was involved in Finland’s Rendez project, which concentrated on implementing business innovations and was funded by Tekes. Concurrently, he contributed to the creation and teaching of the master's curriculum in Service Business Management at Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia.

During the period from 2001 to 2006, Ing’s research in service systems science was deeply influenced by his tenure as a senior management consultant at IBM Business Consulting Services.

Open Innovation Learning

An analysis of seven IBM case studies conducted between 2001 and 2011, centered on open sourcing communities within the context of Open Innovation, led to the development of novel theoretical frameworks through multiparadigm inquiry.

These frameworks include three descriptive theory streams that correspond to distinct paradigms:

• Sequencing that generates quality within Architectural problem seeking;
• Wayfaring through affordances in Inhabiting disclosive spaces;
• Appreciative anticipation in Governing subworlds.

Additionally, three normative theory streams relate to co-responsive dynamics:

• Innovation learning for—focusing on cultivating attentional skills and episteme;
• Innovation learning by—emphasizing the weaving of flows in form-giving, or techne;
• Innovation learning alongside—involving agencing strands associated with phronesis.

The concept of teleonomy is derived from teleology within a philosophical framework addressing alternative stable states.

Selected publications

Key publications by Ing with a business orientation include:

• 1994. The Marketing Information Revolution, Harvard Business School Press. Chapter discussing transformation of marketing via point-of-sale data.
• 1998. Separating Context and Coordination: Lessons from Design Wisdom and Social Theory Leading to Adaptivity Through Shearing Layers, IBM Research.
• 2000. A Shearing Layers Approach to Information Systems Development, IBM Research.
• 2000. Managing by wire, revisited, White Paper from IBM Advanced Business Institute.
• 2003. Governance and the practice of management in long-term inter-organizational relations, ISSS Proceedings.
• 2005. "Negotiated Order and Network Form Organizations," Systems Research and Behavioral Science.
• 2008. "Offerings as Commitments and Context: Service Systems from a Language Action Perspective," UKSS International Conference.
• 2008. "Business Models and Evolving Economic Paradigms: A Systems Science Approach," ISSS Proceedings.
• 2009. "Envisioning Innovation in Service Systems: Induction, Abduction and Deduction," ISSS Proceedings.
• 2010. "The Science of Service Systems," IFSR Conversation Proceedings.
• 2010. "Panel on Service Systems and Systems Sciences in the Twenty-First Century," INCOSE Insight.
• 2011. "Systems Science and Systems Engineering Synergies," INCOSE International Symposium report.
• 2011. "Systems Thinking Courses in the Master's Programme on Creative Sustainability at Aalto University," ISSS Proceedings.
• 2011. The Science of Service Systems, Springer, chapter addressing service systems amid evolving paradigms.
• 2013. "Rethinking Systems Thinking: Learning and Coevolving with the World," Systems Research and Behavioral Science.
• 2014. "Design Flaws and Service System Breakdowns: Learning from Systems Thinking," FORMakademisk.
• 2018. Open Innovation Learning: Theory building on open sourcing while private sourcing, Coevolving Innovations Inc.
• 2018. "Wicked problems, systems approach, pattern language, ecological epistemology, hierarchy theory, interactive value: Multiparadigm inquiry generating service systems thinking," Proceedings of Pursuit of Pattern Languages for Societal Change conference.