Platform Thinking: What Established Firms Can Learn From Big Tech and Digital Start-Ups

The platform revolution has already taken place, but we link the idea of platforms with Big Tech like Amazon or Meta and digital-native start-ups like Airbnb and Uber.

Politecnico di Milano's Daniel Trabucchi and Tommaso Buganza's article delves into how established firms can adopt platform thinking to achieve digital transformation, learning from the success of Big Tech and digital-native start-ups. The authors highlight the shift in business landscapes over the past two decades and illustrate the concept of platform thinking through case studies of companies like Telepass, John Deere, and Kl?ckner.

"We need more labels—like 'innovation,' 'transactional,' and 'orthogonal'—to capture the complexity of the value creation models around us."

Trabucchi and Buganza's article provides a comprehensive exploration of platform thinking, demonstrating its potential to revolutionize established firms. By adopting the principles and practices of platform models, traditional companies can unlock new avenues for innovation and growth, ensuring their relevance in a rapidly evolving digital economy.

Here are some takeaways:

• Evolving Business Landscape. The comparison of top companies by market capitalization from 2003 and 2023 underscores the shift from traditional product and energy companies to technology and platform companies, highlighting the importance of digital transformation.
• Diverse Platform Models. The article categorizes platforms into innovation, transactional, and orthogonal types, demonstrating that not all platforms operate under a single model, and each has distinct mechanisms of value creation.
• Breaking the "Chicken and Egg" Paradox. Established firms, unlike start-ups, often have existing user bases and resources that help bypass the initial challenges of building a platform, such as attracting the first users or partners.

Daniel Trabucchi and Tommaso Buganza are, respectively, Senior Assistant Professor and Full Professor at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano. They are featured in the Thinkers50 Radar list 2024.

You can read the full article on our website for free.

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