Platform thinking and strategy has been discussed more in the web/high tech sector for a few years now and Facebook made it more popular. Though platform thinking has been understood in different perspectives, I want to mention a core concept explaining why platform thinking is important and why it works.
The core concept is "Enablement" - It is the attitude that helps ordinary people to become influencers; It is the culture that when imbibed into the corporate setting creates sustainable success. When firms and individuals understand that only by enabling others for success, they can construct their own success, they can become winners. When this concept is well understood, the firms get out of the "User Myopia" problem and go on to create a launching pad or platform for their users to launch their own businesses using the platform. Building communities and eco-systems are some of the required competitive advantages that a company has to build to sustain their early success. When a company focuses on building a platform what does it convey - that the company cares for their user's success not just their needs. In case of Facebook and Apple, by fostering a developer community apart from user communities, they were able to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Another great example is Sales force where they have created the Force platform and make the technology available to the developers that Sale force themselves use to create their products.
When multiple communities thrive on a platform, it boosts the existing networking effects and the value of the platform. The different communities create a complex value structure that depend and build upon each other.
The platform strategy is not to be viewed in the plain terms of multiple revenue stream and business models. Enablement must be a core corporate cultural element where each employee enables each other internally and the users, customers and other eco-system members externally. Such a corporate culture in itself then becomes a competitive advantage. This creates a 360 degree win situation bringing our the maximum value creation for all the stakeholders, customers and of course the shareholders.
Few other resources:
In the below video from Tech Disrupt 2013, Mark Zukerberg explains a bit about their platform strategy.
One key takeaway from this video is the Three Pillars mentioned by Mark - Build,Grow and Monetize. Enable the eco-system members to build their product, grow their business and monetize.
Sangeet Choudary has a blog dedicated to platform thinking and strategy and below is a slide from him that was presented at Echelon 2013 conference.
The core concept is "Enablement" - It is the attitude that helps ordinary people to become influencers; It is the culture that when imbibed into the corporate setting creates sustainable success. When firms and individuals understand that only by enabling others for success, they can construct their own success, they can become winners. When this concept is well understood, the firms get out of the "User Myopia" problem and go on to create a launching pad or platform for their users to launch their own businesses using the platform. Building communities and eco-systems are some of the required competitive advantages that a company has to build to sustain their early success. When a company focuses on building a platform what does it convey - that the company cares for their user's success not just their needs. In case of Facebook and Apple, by fostering a developer community apart from user communities, they were able to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Another great example is Sales force where they have created the Force platform and make the technology available to the developers that Sale force themselves use to create their products.
When multiple communities thrive on a platform, it boosts the existing networking effects and the value of the platform. The different communities create a complex value structure that depend and build upon each other.
The platform strategy is not to be viewed in the plain terms of multiple revenue stream and business models. Enablement must be a core corporate cultural element where each employee enables each other internally and the users, customers and other eco-system members externally. Such a corporate culture in itself then becomes a competitive advantage. This creates a 360 degree win situation bringing our the maximum value creation for all the stakeholders, customers and of course the shareholders.
Few other resources:
In the below video from Tech Disrupt 2013, Mark Zukerberg explains a bit about their platform strategy.
One key takeaway from this video is the Three Pillars mentioned by Mark - Build,Grow and Monetize. Enable the eco-system members to build their product, grow their business and monetize.
Sangeet Choudary has a blog dedicated to platform thinking and strategy and below is a slide from him that was presented at Echelon 2013 conference.
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