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On Platforms and Ecosystems
Competition is moving beyond industry to ecosystem. Are you ready?
In the shift from pipeline to platform, value is no longer created by your company's product or process alone, it's created through interactions. And the strategy you used to become an industry leader won't help you compete in an evolving and complex ecosystem.
If you read nothing else on platforms and ecosystems, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you address classic challenges such as navigating the shift from controlling resources to orchestrating them, redefining value, thwarting competitive threats, and adapting your strategy.
This book will inspire you to:
- Manage network effects and inspire users to attract more users
- Understand the myriad dynamics at play in a platform business
- Decide whether to be a chief architect or a complementor in your ecosystem
- Consider which of your company's existing products and services can be turned into platforms
- Shift from managing products to managing interactions
- Collaborate with other firms in an ecosystem that spans sectors
- Learn to allocate (and reallocate) resources as conditions change
HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.
In the shift from pipeline to platform, value is no longer created by your company's product or process alone, it's created through interactions. And the strategy you used to become an industry leader won't help you compete in an evolving and complex ecosystem.
If you read nothing else on platforms and ecosystems, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you address classic challenges such as navigating the shift from controlling resources to orchestrating them, redefining value, thwarting competitive threats, and adapting your strategy.
This book will inspire you to:
- Manage network effects and inspire users to attract more users
- Understand the myriad dynamics at play in a platform business
- Decide whether to be a chief architect or a complementor in your ecosystem
- Consider which of your company's existing products and services can be turned into platforms
- Shift from managing products to managing interactions
- Collaborate with other firms in an ecosystem that spans sectors
- Learn to allocate (and reallocate) resources as conditions change
HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.
252 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2020
50 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 25, 2023
This book is a collection of Harvard Business Review articles on subjects relating to platforms and ecosystems. As these collections go, this one is fairly good and worth reading.
I am ambivalent regarding business trade books. On the one hand, they are books and occasionally quite good. Sometimes the informational value alone makes them worth reading. On the other hand, business trades far too often seem overly packaged and even formulaic treatments of straightforward and even “common sense” topics that allow for quick ingestion by busy readers. The leading practitioner presses and their associated journals have a role in this. Harvard Business Review is perhaps the best known of these and it is not uncommon to look for the one or two pieces worth reading in an issue - sort of like the bits on Saturday Night Live, in that there are only a few that are funny in a given week. The typical trade volumes from HBS press sometimes seem to be built around one of two articles, with the other chapters serving to fill out the volume. This is a stereotype, of course, but it comes close to reality more frequently than it should.
… so when you see the collections of greatest hits (or as here “must reads”) you get a topical assembly of fairly recently articles that are the best in a given topic area. Some of these can be good, for example the collection on health care. The volume here on platforms is also good and helps to clarify some of the mysteries of high tech and internet firms.
The important question behind many of the eleven pieces in this collection has to do with “platforms” - by which is meant firms that serve two or more sets of users at the same time and present a technology/business model that requires high volume usage for multiple markets to be successful. The critical idea here is that of “network effects”, where the value of a business is directly related to the number of users, which grows exponentially in internet space. While traditional businesses focus more on scale and scope economies in high volume supply chains, the development of platforms focuses on demand side rather than supply side scale and scope in multiple markets simultaneously. This means that when platform firms succeed, they can quickly more to monopoly and market dominance and easily drive away competitors. The key example of this is Amazon.com although all of the top FAANG firms would qualify (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google). For example, I do lots of shopping at Amazon and found a good exercise to be to ask “Just what is the firm doing that is objectionable? Why should Amazon be vulnerable to antitrust action?” That may seem like a missable or unimportant point but more recently the Federal Trade Commission has been looking more carefully at these issues.
The articles in this collection present different variations on why the Internet firms are so different and why platforms, when successful, represent new business strategies. The collection will raise the key issues and provide some good examples, To cover these ideas requires more depth than one get here, but at least its a start that can aid in explaining why Amazon is different.
The questions that tend to be featured in these pieces are predictable, but it is surprising how competitors either do not pay attention or else presume too much of their incumbency when a strong platform firm comes into their market. The chapters help to identify the issues but also consider what can be done, often in specific detail looking at the case histories of firms who had experienced such challenges and adapted (or failed to adapt).
A related buzzword that comes up in this collection is “ecosystem”. This buzzword in business books does not concern the environment but rather a grouping of firms tied together by complementarities. For example, when the iPhone premiered, it was just a phone. But when Apple opened up the App Store to third parties to provide new apps for the next version of the iPhone, the business stopped being a traditional product and became one of the first of the current wave of platforms, that combine the actions of Apple with the many firms providing supporting software and products for the iPhone — one of the latest being hearing aids.
I am ambivalent regarding business trade books. On the one hand, they are books and occasionally quite good. Sometimes the informational value alone makes them worth reading. On the other hand, business trades far too often seem overly packaged and even formulaic treatments of straightforward and even “common sense” topics that allow for quick ingestion by busy readers. The leading practitioner presses and their associated journals have a role in this. Harvard Business Review is perhaps the best known of these and it is not uncommon to look for the one or two pieces worth reading in an issue - sort of like the bits on Saturday Night Live, in that there are only a few that are funny in a given week. The typical trade volumes from HBS press sometimes seem to be built around one of two articles, with the other chapters serving to fill out the volume. This is a stereotype, of course, but it comes close to reality more frequently than it should.
… so when you see the collections of greatest hits (or as here “must reads”) you get a topical assembly of fairly recently articles that are the best in a given topic area. Some of these can be good, for example the collection on health care. The volume here on platforms is also good and helps to clarify some of the mysteries of high tech and internet firms.
The important question behind many of the eleven pieces in this collection has to do with “platforms” - by which is meant firms that serve two or more sets of users at the same time and present a technology/business model that requires high volume usage for multiple markets to be successful. The critical idea here is that of “network effects”, where the value of a business is directly related to the number of users, which grows exponentially in internet space. While traditional businesses focus more on scale and scope economies in high volume supply chains, the development of platforms focuses on demand side rather than supply side scale and scope in multiple markets simultaneously. This means that when platform firms succeed, they can quickly more to monopoly and market dominance and easily drive away competitors. The key example of this is Amazon.com although all of the top FAANG firms would qualify (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google). For example, I do lots of shopping at Amazon and found a good exercise to be to ask “Just what is the firm doing that is objectionable? Why should Amazon be vulnerable to antitrust action?” That may seem like a missable or unimportant point but more recently the Federal Trade Commission has been looking more carefully at these issues.
The articles in this collection present different variations on why the Internet firms are so different and why platforms, when successful, represent new business strategies. The collection will raise the key issues and provide some good examples, To cover these ideas requires more depth than one get here, but at least its a start that can aid in explaining why Amazon is different.
The questions that tend to be featured in these pieces are predictable, but it is surprising how competitors either do not pay attention or else presume too much of their incumbency when a strong platform firm comes into their market. The chapters help to identify the issues but also consider what can be done, often in specific detail looking at the case histories of firms who had experienced such challenges and adapted (or failed to adapt).
A related buzzword that comes up in this collection is “ecosystem”. This buzzword in business books does not concern the environment but rather a grouping of firms tied together by complementarities. For example, when the iPhone premiered, it was just a phone. But when Apple opened up the App Store to third parties to provide new apps for the next version of the iPhone, the business stopped being a traditional product and became one of the first of the current wave of platforms, that combine the actions of Apple with the many firms providing supporting software and products for the iPhone — one of the latest being hearing aids.
May 26, 2023
Did I understand everything in this book? No, definitely not. Do I understand and know more than I did before I read this book, absolutely! My key takeaway from this book is that no one way of doing something is correct, but the most success is delivered when there is value for multiple parties and that value is balanced with cost, convenience, and even more value.
Business strategy and success has always been an interest of mine. As someone that has primarily studied and worked in the non-profit and health industries, I like to see what else is going on in the world. It's interesting to learn about the patterns in other industries and the trends of the world, especially as it relates back to people (and dare I say, psychology and sociology).
Business strategy and success has always been an interest of mine. As someone that has primarily studied and worked in the non-profit and health industries, I like to see what else is going on in the world. It's interesting to learn about the patterns in other industries and the trends of the world, especially as it relates back to people (and dare I say, psychology and sociology).
January 2, 2022
A good introduction to Platform business and ecosystems, it's highly recommended to incumbent players in an industry that is being digitized. For entrepreneurs, the book offers several useful frameworks to include in designing their business models and expansion strategy. But the book has a conservative take on platform business startups, hence any entrepreneurs reading this must keep that bias in mind. Overall, the book can benefit from the inclusion of short exercises or food for thought.
April 25, 2022
This book was not as enlightening as I expected by itself, but was also an easy read. Probably because I knew some of the concepts reading Stratecherry. But there is a lot of food for thoughtful strategy. Will be exciting to discuss applications of concepts once a few friends have read it.
September 9, 2023
Business strategy that felt atypical when first presented, until realizing that several of the most successful businesses of the day have built empires via platform creation. I docked two stars for the rating due to the repetitiveness of the articles.
March 7, 2021
Excellent insights in a time starved world. Would be even more helpful for skimming readers if each article has a fuller summary than “Ideas in Brief”.
April 8, 2021
4.5 for a very good collection, if not the very best on platforms and ecosystems.
May 2, 2021
Required reading for those interested in building online platforms, investing in tech, or simply understanding the business models that influence us.
January 15, 2023
Good book for entrepreneurs
Good book for entrepreneurs. I enjoyed most of the articles about how to understand some startups and new business’ platforms.
Good book for entrepreneurs. I enjoyed most of the articles about how to understand some startups and new business’ platforms.
September 19, 2025
Some good content, but would benefit from an overarching structure to pull together the main themes. I realize this is the style of these anthologies, though.
October 3, 2021
A primer on business platforms and ecosystems. Although the business cases and examples are a bit outdated, the books offers a great foundations about players, strategies, interactions, value stream flows and risks of developing and evolving a platform.
April 5, 2022
Excellent overview on MSP
May 29, 2021
It is an interesting book for those who seek to implement a platform. Despite some utterly boring articles, there are others rather interesting covering the whole gamut of strategies patterns, from disintermediation to multi-home.
It is definitely worth reading
It is definitely worth reading
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews