New Sloan Executive Course Finds Ways To Maximize Your Platform Strategy
The MIT Sloan Newsroom recently dove into a new Sloan executive course that gives platform entrepreneurs strategies and tools to effectively “tackle the challenges of value creation and capture.”
Professor Catherine Tucker says, “’Platform Strategy’ is one of our few courses where participants can spend an hour debating on what they are learning about is.” Simply put: Platform Strategy is a constellation of tactics that should ideally answer two major questions, according to the article: “How will you attract customers? How will you make your technology the core of an ecosystem?”
Tucker advocates for a shift from a feature mindset—“how cool the app’s going to be”—to a seeding mindset. She says the platform needs to be the core of an ecosystem, “where users meet and make connections, where commerce happens.” Professor Pierre Azoulay says, “You’re designing a new way for these participants to interact.” And those new modes of interaction will inevitably require some governance.
Tucker points to Apple’s strict app developer guidelines and Airbnb’s reward system as key examples. But eBay, particularly in its nascent form, is an excellent example of a platform that required policing to create predictability and reliability. “eBay used to see] itself as a matchmaker, not responsible for the quality of the products or the transactions. Today, the company offers disagreement resolution, buyer protection plans, and occasionally will refund wronged users directly.”
Azoulay compare the role of a platform strategist to that of an orchestra conductor: “Platform strategy is, in some sense, one of the most ambitious ways of entering a market you could have, because it requires coordinating the behaviors of multiple parties that might not know each other, that might not even want to know each other.”
Azoulay warns those looking at other successful companies, however, that envy can be an enemy. “You’re right to be platform-curious, but you shouldn’t necessarily be platform-envious,” he adds.
Click here to read more of about the brand new Sloan executive course.
About the Author
Jonathan Pfeffer
Jonathan Pfeffer joined the Clear Admit and MetroMBA teams in 2015 after spending several years as an arts/culture writer, editor, and radio producer. In addition to his role as contributing writer at MetroMBA and contributing editor at Clear Admit, he is co-founder and lead producer of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. He holds a BA in Film/Video, Ethnomusicology, and Media Studies from Oberlin College.
