All the World Is a Stage, and You're the Star
In this chapter (Page 183):
- Platforms to the Rescue (Page 185)
- Platforms for Web Services and Communities (Page 188)
- Platform Dilemmas (Page 189)
- Platforms Go Mainstream (Page 192)
- Platforms for Commerce (Page 193)
- Platforms for Grassroots Action (Page 199)
- Platforms for Public Disclosure (Page 201)
- Platforms for Neighborhood Knowledge (Page 203)
- Platform Incentive Systems: Beyond the Culture of Generosity (Page 205)
- Winning with an Open Platform (Page 210)
Platform Leadership is a concept put forth by Annabelle Gawer and Michael A. Cusumano in their book Platform Leadership. The book examines how Microsoft, Intel and Cisco drove innovation by developing platforms that could be leveraged by their partners to create value. Many companies struggle with IP Issues - they are reluctant to share a platform based on their own intellectual property.
The authors identify 4 levers which each company used in creating such a platform:
1) Scope of the Firm
What to do inside the firm, and what to let external firms do (level of vertical integration).
2) Product Technology
Make decisions regarding system architecture (the degree of modularity), interfaces (the degree of openness of the interfaces to the platform), and intellectual property (how much information about the platform and its interfaces to disclose to outside firms).
3) Relationships with external complementors
How collaborative versus competitive should relationships with complementors be?
4) Internal Organization: How to organize the firm to support the above three levers.
The example of the USB was given: "As with the PCI Bus, Intel had a vision not only of what the USB could do, but also of what the rest of the industry could do with the USB: Create new peripherals that would augment the usefulness of any PC with a USB interface."
There are also other concepts known as Keystones and Value Networks, which add to the above. Keystones are the key players in any network of players that create value (value network). Keystones tend to capture more value than other individual player in a network. Keystones also tend to make the value pie bigger for everyone. Losing the keystone in a network could be incredibly disruptive for that specific industry. Amazon and Ebay would be considered Keystones in their networks, as they make pie bigger and they capture more value than any other individual player in their network.
Another collaborative way in sharing tasty "take away" morsels of published books are Manifestos such as those offered with rankings on the side and bubbling blogs for dessert at ChangeThis. The catch: They say, "you are given the unlimited right to print this manifesto and to distribute it electronically (via email, your website, or any other means)." If that is not value, I don't know what is. Three Cheers.
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contributed by on Mar 10 6:59pm