Winning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One

Summary

Digital platforms are no longer for just the tech elite. They’re spreading to every company and industry, powered by the growth of sensors, streaming data, and AI. Platforms are to the 2020s what websites were to the 2000s. Websites let a company watch a prospective customer shop, interact with them as they explore, and add enough value during consideration to earn customer choice. Platforms – enabled by sensors, cloud hosting, and algorithms –light the valuable customer user journey that was formerly dark. They enable the company to watch the customer use what they have acquired, interact with the customer as they and others use, and add enough value to energize customer lifetime value growth.   

Just as companies wouldn’t have been able to thrive without deploying a website, going forward, they won’t be able to thrive without deploying a platform approach to business.   

How will you use platforms to drive your business success? And how will you succeed competitively when your markets get platform-crowded? Learn how to achieve uncommon growth with the help of the first competitive strategy and growth playbook written for current and aspiring platform companies. In the book, Prophet senior partner Ted Moser uses his years of advising many of the world’s leading technology companies, to reveal how to win through platforms.  

“Winning Through Platforms” decodes growth moves from a decade of platform competition, then communicates those moves through a platform playbook. It includes 24 proven platform strategies―such as customer coalition design, in-use enrichment, AI branding, and more.  

These playbook strategies are delivered through engaging stories of over 50 companies, plus proprietary frameworks and workshop-style questions that lead you to act. 

This impactful playbook will teach you how to: 

• Use platforms to recharge your business portfolio 
• Design platforms that are compelling to customers and hard for competitors to match 
• Accelerate in-market growth through brand and demand engagement that spans your customer’s entire Choose and Use platform journey 
• Innovate in high-impact areas that differentiate your platform and drive ROI 
• Elevate your customer’s personalized platform interactions 
• Transform your enterprise, operations and culture to drive superior performance 

CEOs, innovators, go-to-market leaders, and aspiring professionals alike will gain valuable insight from this book. Whether your company is just starting on its first platform journey or is a born platform disruptor, this book will transform your ability to win. 

Learn the platform playbook. Find and apply your plays. 

Take a sneak peek and read an excerpt from the Introduction here. 

Endorsements

“If you value fresh thinking, you’ll love this playbook. I’ve led platform initiatives across multiple industries – architecture, engineering, manufacturing, and trust intelligence – and the book’s platform plays apply insightfully to each one. It’s a thought-provoking guide, supported by compelling business examples, that can help you unleash broad growth opportunities through the power of digital platforms. It seamlessly leads you from strategic business decisions that unlock growth to best-in class-execution that produces tangible results.”

Lisa Campbell
One Trust CMO; former CMO & EVP – Business Strategy and Marketing, Autodesk 

“I wish I’d had Winning Through Platforms while I was at Microsoft evaluating our opportunities to apply AI for business and build ecosystems for platforms like Power BI. Creating shared value through cloud platforms is never accidental; fortunately, the authors systematically explain to readers how to creatively make platforms their catalyst for future growth, across industries. This playbook is an important new tool for leaders as they make strategic choices for the future of their business.”

Greg Nelson
Former Microsoft VP- Partner Ecosystem and General Manager -Business AI

“Winning through Platforms isn’t just any playbook – it’s a conceptual and practical blueprint for creating value in a world that increasingly runs on digital innovation. As a healthcare executive who leads systems transformation, I’ve found the book to be an indispensable strategic ally. It will speak to everyone charged with developing platform approaches to business. The clear and actionable ideas it provides for navigating the human dimensions of platform change are essential for every executive.”

David Grandy
VP-Strategic Innovation, Kaiser Permanente