Industry platform includes not only one company, technology, or services, but also ecosystem additions to it, which is normally produced by various companies. As a result, becoming a platform leader requires different business strategies and technologies than those that are required to run a successful stand-alone product. Companies need to decide early on whether they want to continue with the platform or product strategy. The authors describe the two main approaches to creating management platform, which they call "core" and "tips." "Drilling" uses a variety of techniques to create a platform, making the technology a "core" to a particular technological system and market. In implementing the strategy of coring, would-be platform leaders should think about these issues, how to make it easy for third parties to provide additions to the technology and how to encourage third parties to create additional innovations. Examples of successful coring includes company Google Inc in Internet search and Qualcomm Inc. in the field of wireless technology. However, the authors note, Qualcomm is facing opposition from some companies in the business ecosystem. The authors provide EMC Corp. 's WideSky initiative in the early 2000's as an attempt to coring was not possible. Competitors EMC, were not eager to accept WideSky as a platform, but instead supports open standards one managed by industry group. "Tipping" is a set of activities that helps the company "tip" of the market to their platform and not the other potential. Examples include Linux tip growth in the market for web-server operating systems, Linux case study, the authors note, demonstrates the power of coalition service providers and users to tip the market, supporting the platform. Another critical strategy for the company to aggregate from the nearby market to an existing platform, ". Overturning the markets, "the authors call it" Hide
by Annabelle Gawer, Michael A. Cusumano Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 10 pages. Publication Date: January 1, 2008. Prod. #: SMR268-PDF-ENG
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