The ecosystem is a brilliant analogy for an industry. And that is where we need to recognise that everyone within the market are basically winners – not all of them win the same way just as not every specie or creature survive the same way in the economy.
You need small businesses and large ones; at any one time there will be some facing lots of survival pressures and others enjoying their spoils. There is nothing wrong with either and one cannot conclude much from a single snapshot. At the same time, it is really hard to tell what can be a winning strategy because success, like failure, is often temporary as long as it is not terminal.
Well people tend to think failure is the one that can be terminal but one needs then to develop good strategies for failing so they are not terminal but almost instructive. And as with natural ecosystems, a healthy industry has its births and deaths. Capital and talent needs to be churned around and get to experience different things in order for the overall industry to grow stronger.
We need to appreciate this different story about market capitalism that is less vicious, less about active competition, more about coping with environments and contexts. Less about winning individual battles but more about staying in the game to continue participating. That itself, is a win.