The Platform Thinking Era

This is where we live now.

When you think about “old-school elements of business that went away, subsequently scaring executives,” you’re really talking about platform thinking. Business used to be about resources you controlled and market power/position. That’s almost entirely not the case anymore. Business was once dominated by asset-builders; now it’s dominated by a group some have called “network orchestrators.” Consider the case of what marketers need to do, too: for decades, it was about “power branding.” Now it’s much more about developing customer relationships and stories. Most CMOs and marketing middle managers still operate in the “power branding” mindset and worry about “their campaign assets.” Meanwhile, someone is tweeting at the company’s Twitter account about an issue and that’s going unresolved. In 2017, that stuff is how you lose business. A campaign will probably get lost in the ether, in all honesty.

This business shift is tied to the idea of platform thinking. Instead of viewing your company as a group of tangible + intangible assets, now you need to think of it as a platform. That’s really hard for a lot of seasoned executives. If you came up one way and that made you and your company successful, pivoting to a completely new way of thinking is a challenge. It honestly terrifies many of these guys. As a result, they kick it to HR, where it usually dies a relatively-lengthy death at the hands of process, forms, and compliance. Whenever Sally from HR begins to “own” a change management process, you immediately know 74% of the company will never care. People listen to Sally re: compensation and potentially getting fired. They do not want Sally owning strategy. We’ve been talking about empowering HR (and Sally!) for decades now. Still hasn’t happened. Why? Because to be completely honest, no one cares. People are comfortable vaguely understanding who “owns” what, and HR doesn’t own “revenue-driven strategy plays.” The COO or CEO needs to “own” that, right?

This all creates a giant loop. Companies and leaders maybe kinda sorta understand they need to change, but they go about the process all wrong. Ever had a CEO stand up at an all-hands and basically completely change the direction of the company in a single speech? I’ve seen this happen three times in my life. “We are a data-driven company now,” he squeals. Everyone returns to their desks. Is everyone now working on data projects? Of course not. They’re doing exactly what they did before that meeting. You can breathlessly set “strategy” until the cows come home, but unless it’s aligned with execution, not an iota will change day-to-day.

Platform thinking straight-up terrifies a lot of high achiever executives, because now “control” — which is what most people really want from work — is out the window, and somehow it’s about platforms and ecosystems. What?

Platform thinking and ecosystems

Greg Satell lays this out nicely in an article called “Today, Every Business Must Transform Itself Into A Platform.” He sets it up as three ecosystems:

• Talent

• Technology

• Information

Seems logical. You need good people to win these days. Definitely need the right tools. And if those tools are getting you good information for those aforementioned good people, well, that business should drive some revenue. Right?

Right!

Unfortunately, almost no companies really think this way. As it becomes increasingly more common to embrace ecosystems and platform thinking, those companies will hopefully come to dominate markets. Then others will copy them, because that’s what companies do! (The principle behind it is called “loss aversion.”) Let’s go one-by-one.

Ecosystems of talent