Several authors and business strategists continue to provide insights, interpreting the emerging web-based business models. This note is not a complete treatise on the various themes taken up by the authors whose remarkable contributions continue to enhance the growing literature around digital platforms. The purpose is to introduce a few authors and their work to enhance the student and novice practitioner's knowledge in the area of digital platforms and ecosystems.
Alexandar Oswalder's "Business Model Generation", A handbook for visionaries, game-changers, and challengers stands out to convey the essentials in a simple visual format with a supporting online community. For starting on the journey of news on new business models, this happened to be a good book at the time of publication. Most of the models discussed are no longer a mystery even for the novice now. Yet, it falls in the must-read category not only for its appeal visually but also for the essential content nailed down early on. The building blocks for business model generation are still the standard, notes on patterns observed at the time continue to take on incumbents as challengers. For design, while the book offers a method to start, there are more options to consider – books and authors who focus on design thinking and methodologies.
Business Model Navigator by Oliver Gassman et al, is a must-read for both academics and practitioners. The focus is on the underlying themes and patterns of business models behind successful companies who stand against all odds. The authors emphasize how Business model innovation is the key to avoid drastic failures and ensure survival. Each of the patterns described comes with historical origins of the pattern establishing the time- tested nature, how it came to limelight in recent years, when and how to apply it followed by questions to ponder. This is a very systematic way of presenting business model knowledge with examples. It is a go-to toolkit to refer to for beginners and matured thinkers to navigate and prepare for tough calls. The other parts form the glue to the knowledge about business models -on how to drive and implement very useful to the business professional. The book is rich with templates, checklists, for initiation (analyzing your ecosystem), ideation (adapting patterns), and integration (shaping the business model).
Amrit Tiwana's Platform Ecosystems Aligning Architecture, Governance, and Strategy is a textbook- style with comprehensive treatment to the three areas. The principles and concepts are covered with such precision, the reader will keep referring back to the book for any vocabulary related to Platforms. The book is rich with several meaningful diagrams and figures for anyone attempting to go in-depth for practice and theory. Prof Tiwana addresses the traps that incumbents – both individuals and businesses can fall into with prior enterprise systems and their life Optionscycles.
The Business of Platforms is the latest book by Annabelle Gawer, Michael Cusumano, and David Yoffie. They command expertise among the academics and practitioners with their papers and earlier books where they treat the subject of platforms with the richness of product platforms of the Tech industry – from the mainframe and Microsoft days. The Business of platforms is a journey they took on with both a thorough understanding of the governing principles and concepts along with words of wisdom and caution on the traps and pitfalls of the complex environments of platforms. Their work is always supported by extensive research data and multi-faceted industry consulting experience. Differentiating innovative and transaction platforms, managerial decision challenges to combat with platform leaders,
Sangeet Chaudary's Platform Scale is a bold venture by a young entrepreneur who placed himself in the forefront of platform thinkers and thought leaders in the digital age. I followed Sangeet's blog mostly out of curiosity about how the young author weaves his thoughts to write a blog on a complex subject. Later, as one of the book reviewers, I have observed what it takes for a new author to form a hub of his own, enable direct and indirect network effects by the new audience of his blog in the Internet platform age. I also noticed the partnerships the author took time to grow and nurture to form a platform and an ecosystem of his own. Exposing myself to this venture reminded me of all the characteristics of the web as a network in structure as well as architecture one has to understand for conducting one's own business. Chaudary's book is an amalgam of current trends, rich with examples, simple to read and grasp the complex environment. Failures and risks come with experience – the author's work lets startups venture into the new green pastures of platforms with their basics in place along with a lot of enthusiasm.
Much of the platform growth lies in its careful orchestration aligning and not losing sight of the core principles and properties of the web as a network. The authors of today have it simple for starters, yet much more to manage to come to limelight. Chaudary is well known in the circles of platforms enthusiasts as well as followers of the platform world literature. His work recently is more focused on the regulatory and governance issues at the level of policymaking for nations in the area of platforms. The world economic forum reports and the United Nations Development programs rely on the ease of building platforms for their producers and consumers of the developing world. Platforms are becoming symbolic in presenting themselves as representatives of cultures and the souls of nations.
The edX course on platforms strategy is based on the book Platform Revolution by the Initiatives on Digital Economy (IDE) researchers at MIT Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Chaudary of the Media Labs at MIT. Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne are well-known IDE researchers, teachers, and contributors to the platform world and more. Their presence is felt by anyone venturing into the area of complex digital systems and platforms through their talks, articles, and courses they teach in Boston. They have helped initiate and grow the visibility of the digital platform summits at MIT annually. As an aside, major universities in the USA have executive programs and courses on platform strategies fitting into their respective curricula.
Matchmakers by David Evans makes reading and grasping the insights easier. I would put this book as part of the package for the beginner reader along with the above- mentioned books with an emphasis on market place/ transactional platforms. But the pursuits begin after the course/ or reading these books. They seem to cover quite a lot of the fundamentals, yet one comes away with the urge that-- a lot is missing too. For sure, they are material for introductory courses on Platforms. Also, the perspective is mostly from the consumer side, not much for incumbent platform leadership.
Simone Cicero of Platformdesigntoolkit is an active blogger and platform designer from Europe on platforms. His extensive efforts are focused on the design of platform ecosystems, societal as well as geographical ecosystems. He certainly seems to take the platform world to unlimited boundaries along with much- grounded design tips with his regular workshops and courses around Europe and North America. His work on explaining market networks, innovation, and digital value chains through his extensive blog posts has brought clarity to the digital design thinking and tools for the platform ecosystems world. Cicero's platform design team continues to provide valuable insights and patterns for platform design on their website in addition to their courses and webinars.
Linked by Barabasi makes Network Science research easy to grasp and fun to read. Carefully written by a scientist on the properties of networks highlighting both the seriousness and understanding networks. As a student of computer science, understanding layered architectures and networks has been a part of my academic pursuits. I started reading Linked with the confidence that I knew a bit about networks already. I would think Linked is the best way to reach the semi-educated Business and Computer science students and practitioners as the first book to read about the power of the networks. Without the grasp of hubs and communities, there is not much anyone can venture into the world of platforms.
Michael Wade's Digital Vortex
Velcro hooking is a catch-all used to organize around the architectures of the web. Everything is a link away – appearing to be strong and versatile, yet so fragile. Maneuvering through the links and entanglements of the web is not an easy feat for the frail.
When you decide to get to the digital train of thought, the train would have left the station. The path to digital is neither a line nor is it circular. Getting in and out of the train, at several stations requires buying new tickets and embracing new destinations faster, being aware of the arrival time of the destination. Michael Wade aptly used the term vortex. Vortex reminds us of nature's whirlpools explains Wade where everything is drawn to the center. The digital center of a Digital vortex is where the maximum amount of disruption takes place. While the theme is not about being drained in or engulfed by changes, but to get a grasp of the extent of disruption, navigate along with the chaos, collisions, and combinations that happen to lead to both convergence as well as emergence.
IMD Wade's article on strategies for responding to digital disruption around four themes - harvest, retreat, disrupt, and occupy. This skeletal content is expanded as a chapter in the author's book "Digital Vortex" with case studies, examples and questions for leaders. Emphasis is on the Occupy strategy seeing value vacancies as contested market opportunities. The author's LinkedIn article @https://lnkd.in/gcjUTTB is a good read on this.
Mark Skilton's Building the digital enterprise covers the essentials of thinking digital.
The 25 case studies cross-cutting all industries, the well worked out diagrams and notes give pointers to embark the journey of starting anywhere with a clear compass for digital. In the chapter on techniques for building effective digital business models, useful approaches are provided with the digital workspace model notation that Skilton developed. Skilton discusses the evolution of capabilities and strategies in industry contexts. Exploring mechanisms to derive value with new thinking is the challenge that Skilton takes on with an extensive discussion on industry-wide examples.
A sequel to this book is his work on Building digital ecosystems. I wrote a review of Mark Skilton's Building digital ecosystems architectures here
Here are a few URLs to online courses related to platforms and Digital business ecosystems:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/bcg-uva-darden-digital-transformation
https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-competition-financial-services
A few related and relevant courses to understand the theories behind digital models in depth.
An Introduction to complexity course bridges the discoveries and history of sciences to computing. It is a relevant course to envision the digital capabilities, providing the background to what it is about going digital in any industry. Melanie Mitchell's book titled Complexity, a guided tour is a sincere effort to bring the several core principles behind complex systems in easy to navigate and confront the world of complexity.
https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/27-introduction-to-complexity-summer-2015
A many model thinker is both wise and practical to set his compass to confront and solve problems of a gigantic scale with unique and robust tools that meet the purpose. Scott Page's "The Model Thinker" provides the theoretical background introducing the models behind complex systems. When taking up complex challenges, systemic and complexity thinking becomes a necessity. Prof Page gives a solid explanation of why we need many models in his introduction to model thinking. To achieve a basis for realistic decisions in the world of business and policy, to be comprehensive in making statements. As models cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, they are useful to predict and act on complex phenomena.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-thinking
Research web sites:
SSRN
ResearchGate
MIT CISR
World wide initiatives, symposiums, and summits are beginning to happen in the platforms and ecosystems world. Stay tuned as the theories and practices evolve.
Alexandar Oswalder's "Business Model Generation", A handbook for visionaries, game-changers, and challengers stands out to convey the essentials in a simple visual format with a supporting online community. For starting on the journey of news on new business models, this happened to be a good book at the time of publication. Most of the models discussed are no longer a mystery even for the novice now. Yet, it falls in the must-read category not only for its appeal visually but also for the essential content nailed down early on. The building blocks for business model generation are still the standard, notes on patterns observed at the time continue to take on incumbents as challengers. For design, while the book offers a method to start, there are more options to consider – books and authors who focus on design thinking and methodologies.
Business Model Navigator by Oliver Gassman et al, is a must-read for both academics and practitioners. The focus is on the underlying themes and patterns of business models behind successful companies who stand against all odds. The authors emphasize how Business model innovation is the key to avoid drastic failures and ensure survival. Each of the patterns described comes with historical origins of the pattern establishing the time- tested nature, how it came to limelight in recent years, when and how to apply it followed by questions to ponder. This is a very systematic way of presenting business model knowledge with examples. It is a go-to toolkit to refer to for beginners and matured thinkers to navigate and prepare for tough calls. The other parts form the glue to the knowledge about business models -on how to drive and implement very useful to the business professional. The book is rich with templates, checklists, for initiation (analyzing your ecosystem), ideation (adapting patterns), and integration (shaping the business model).
Amrit Tiwana's Platform Ecosystems Aligning Architecture, Governance, and Strategy is a textbook- style with comprehensive treatment to the three areas. The principles and concepts are covered with such precision, the reader will keep referring back to the book for any vocabulary related to Platforms. The book is rich with several meaningful diagrams and figures for anyone attempting to go in-depth for practice and theory. Prof Tiwana addresses the traps that incumbents – both individuals and businesses can fall into with prior enterprise systems and their life Optionscycles.
The Business of Platforms is the latest book by Annabelle Gawer, Michael Cusumano, and David Yoffie. They command expertise among the academics and practitioners with their papers and earlier books where they treat the subject of platforms with the richness of product platforms of the Tech industry – from the mainframe and Microsoft days. The Business of platforms is a journey they took on with both a thorough understanding of the governing principles and concepts along with words of wisdom and caution on the traps and pitfalls of the complex environments of platforms. Their work is always supported by extensive research data and multi-faceted industry consulting experience. Differentiating innovative and transaction platforms, managerial decision challenges to combat with platform leaders,
Sangeet Chaudary's Platform Scale is a bold venture by a young entrepreneur who placed himself in the forefront of platform thinkers and thought leaders in the digital age. I followed Sangeet's blog mostly out of curiosity about how the young author weaves his thoughts to write a blog on a complex subject. Later, as one of the book reviewers, I have observed what it takes for a new author to form a hub of his own, enable direct and indirect network effects by the new audience of his blog in the Internet platform age. I also noticed the partnerships the author took time to grow and nurture to form a platform and an ecosystem of his own. Exposing myself to this venture reminded me of all the characteristics of the web as a network in structure as well as architecture one has to understand for conducting one's own business. Chaudary's book is an amalgam of current trends, rich with examples, simple to read and grasp the complex environment. Failures and risks come with experience – the author's work lets startups venture into the new green pastures of platforms with their basics in place along with a lot of enthusiasm.
Much of the platform growth lies in its careful orchestration aligning and not losing sight of the core principles and properties of the web as a network. The authors of today have it simple for starters, yet much more to manage to come to limelight. Chaudary is well known in the circles of platforms enthusiasts as well as followers of the platform world literature. His work recently is more focused on the regulatory and governance issues at the level of policymaking for nations in the area of platforms. The world economic forum reports and the United Nations Development programs rely on the ease of building platforms for their producers and consumers of the developing world. Platforms are becoming symbolic in presenting themselves as representatives of cultures and the souls of nations.
The edX course on platforms strategy is based on the book Platform Revolution by the Initiatives on Digital Economy (IDE) researchers at MIT Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Chaudary of the Media Labs at MIT. Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne are well-known IDE researchers, teachers, and contributors to the platform world and more. Their presence is felt by anyone venturing into the area of complex digital systems and platforms through their talks, articles, and courses they teach in Boston. They have helped initiate and grow the visibility of the digital platform summits at MIT annually. As an aside, major universities in the USA have executive programs and courses on platform strategies fitting into their respective curricula.
Matchmakers by David Evans makes reading and grasping the insights easier. I would put this book as part of the package for the beginner reader along with the above- mentioned books with an emphasis on market place/ transactional platforms. But the pursuits begin after the course/ or reading these books. They seem to cover quite a lot of the fundamentals, yet one comes away with the urge that-- a lot is missing too. For sure, they are material for introductory courses on Platforms. Also, the perspective is mostly from the consumer side, not much for incumbent platform leadership.
Simone Cicero of Platformdesigntoolkit is an active blogger and platform designer from Europe on platforms. His extensive efforts are focused on the design of platform ecosystems, societal as well as geographical ecosystems. He certainly seems to take the platform world to unlimited boundaries along with much- grounded design tips with his regular workshops and courses around Europe and North America. His work on explaining market networks, innovation, and digital value chains through his extensive blog posts has brought clarity to the digital design thinking and tools for the platform ecosystems world. Cicero's platform design team continues to provide valuable insights and patterns for platform design on their website in addition to their courses and webinars.
Linked by Barabasi makes Network Science research easy to grasp and fun to read. Carefully written by a scientist on the properties of networks highlighting both the seriousness and understanding networks. As a student of computer science, understanding layered architectures and networks has been a part of my academic pursuits. I started reading Linked with the confidence that I knew a bit about networks already. I would think Linked is the best way to reach the semi-educated Business and Computer science students and practitioners as the first book to read about the power of the networks. Without the grasp of hubs and communities, there is not much anyone can venture into the world of platforms.
Michael Wade's Digital Vortex
Velcro hooking is a catch-all used to organize around the architectures of the web. Everything is a link away – appearing to be strong and versatile, yet so fragile. Maneuvering through the links and entanglements of the web is not an easy feat for the frail.
When you decide to get to the digital train of thought, the train would have left the station. The path to digital is neither a line nor is it circular. Getting in and out of the train, at several stations requires buying new tickets and embracing new destinations faster, being aware of the arrival time of the destination. Michael Wade aptly used the term vortex. Vortex reminds us of nature's whirlpools explains Wade where everything is drawn to the center. The digital center of a Digital vortex is where the maximum amount of disruption takes place. While the theme is not about being drained in or engulfed by changes, but to get a grasp of the extent of disruption, navigate along with the chaos, collisions, and combinations that happen to lead to both convergence as well as emergence.
IMD Wade's article on strategies for responding to digital disruption around four themes - harvest, retreat, disrupt, and occupy. This skeletal content is expanded as a chapter in the author's book "Digital Vortex" with case studies, examples and questions for leaders. Emphasis is on the Occupy strategy seeing value vacancies as contested market opportunities. The author's LinkedIn article @https://lnkd.in/gcjUTTB is a good read on this.
Mark Skilton's Building the digital enterprise covers the essentials of thinking digital.
The 25 case studies cross-cutting all industries, the well worked out diagrams and notes give pointers to embark the journey of starting anywhere with a clear compass for digital. In the chapter on techniques for building effective digital business models, useful approaches are provided with the digital workspace model notation that Skilton developed. Skilton discusses the evolution of capabilities and strategies in industry contexts. Exploring mechanisms to derive value with new thinking is the challenge that Skilton takes on with an extensive discussion on industry-wide examples.
A sequel to this book is his work on Building digital ecosystems. I wrote a review of Mark Skilton's Building digital ecosystems architectures here
Here are a few URLs to online courses related to platforms and Digital business ecosystems:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/bcg-uva-darden-digital-transformation
https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-competition-financial-services
A few related and relevant courses to understand the theories behind digital models in depth.
An Introduction to complexity course bridges the discoveries and history of sciences to computing. It is a relevant course to envision the digital capabilities, providing the background to what it is about going digital in any industry. Melanie Mitchell's book titled Complexity, a guided tour is a sincere effort to bring the several core principles behind complex systems in easy to navigate and confront the world of complexity.
https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/27-introduction-to-complexity-summer-2015
A many model thinker is both wise and practical to set his compass to confront and solve problems of a gigantic scale with unique and robust tools that meet the purpose. Scott Page's "The Model Thinker" provides the theoretical background introducing the models behind complex systems. When taking up complex challenges, systemic and complexity thinking becomes a necessity. Prof Page gives a solid explanation of why we need many models in his introduction to model thinking. To achieve a basis for realistic decisions in the world of business and policy, to be comprehensive in making statements. As models cover a broad spectrum of disciplines, they are useful to predict and act on complex phenomena.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-thinking
Research web sites:
SSRN
ResearchGate
MIT CISR
World wide initiatives, symposiums, and summits are beginning to happen in the platforms and ecosystems world. Stay tuned as the theories and practices evolve.
