Publications

March 2020
Module Note

Scaling and Sustaining Platform Businesses

By: Feng Zhu

Keywords: Platform Businesses; Platform Disruption; Platforms; Digital Platforms; Technology Industry

Spring 2020
Article

The Future of Platforms

By: Michael A. Cusumano, David B. Yoffie and Annabelle Gawer

Platforms power the world’s most valuable companies, but it will get harder and harder to capture and monetize their disruptive potential. View Details

Keywords: Platform Businesses; Platform; Strategy; Digital Platforms

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November 2020
Article

Disrupting the Disruptors or Enhancing Them? How Blockchain Re‐Shapes Two‐Sided Platforms

By: Daniel Trabucchi, Antonella Moretto, Tommaso Buganza and Alan MacCormack

The importance of platform‐based businesses in the modern economy is growing continuously and becoming increasingly relevant. Specifically, the deployment of digital technologies has enhanced the applicability of two‐sided business models, enabling companies to act not... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Two-Sided Platforms; Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation

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9 Jun 2019 - 11 Jun 2019
Conference Presentation

Disrupting the Disruptors or Enhancing Them? How Blockchain Re-Shapes Two-Sided Platforms

By: Daniel Trabucchi, Antonella Moretto, Tommaso Buganza and Alan MacCormack

18 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

How Disruptive Innovation Changes Education

theory of disruptive innovation, often applied to a variety of other industries, such as technology and health care. Christensen's theory was first explored in his two New York Times bestsellers, The Innovator's Dilemma (1997) and The... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

25 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

How Software Platforms Revolutionize Business

You can't see them, but we've all used "software platforms" over the last few decades, whether they are embedded in the Windows operating system, a cell phone, or game machine. In a new book, the authors term software platforms... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

15 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

The Lessons of New-Market Disruption

In the early 1990s, both Teradyne and Hewlett-Packard identified new technologies that had enormous potential to cause new-market disruptions. As with most disruptive innovations, these technologies offered to provide smaller and less... View Details

Keywords: by Clark Gilbert; Technology

04 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

Jumpstarting Innovation: Using Disruption to Your Advantage

also teaches courses on innovation and building new ventures to seasoned executives in the School's Executive Education Program. This excerpt from a recent presentation encourages executives to leverage disruptive change as a View Details

Keywords: by Lynda M. Applegate

June 2024
Case

Aidoc: Building a Hospital-Centric AI Platform

By: Ariel D. Stern and Susan Pinckney

In 2023, Israel-based AI health care company Aidoc evaluated its future. The company, founded in 2016, had grown from commercializing a single AI product for radiologists to a software platform that could detect 20 conditions and immediately notify care teams of... View Details

September 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy at Carl Zeiss: Managing Disruption

By: Willy Shih

Ulrich Simon, the head of the Microscopy business group at Carl Zeiss AG knew that his unit was facing a disruptive threat, so he chartered a special team to tackle the industrial segment. Given a high degree of autonomy, the project team developed an understanding of... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; High Technology Products; Emergent Strategy; Product Lines; Corporate Strategy; Digital Platforms; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Industry; Germany

14 Aug 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

The Manager's Guide to Leveraging Disruption

one of the forces that threatens established companies can also be a source of salvation: disruptive change. How to Be a Digital Platform Leader The most valuable companies in the world have one thing in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

11 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

How Hackathons Help Decide Platform Winners and Losers

tremendous way for developers to learn quickly, and for both developers and technology companies to reap real benefits.” About the author Michael Blanding is a writer based in Boston. [Image: gorodenkoff] Related Reading 6 Ways That Emerging Technology Is View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

10 Feb 2020
In Practice

6 Ways That Emerging Technology Is Disrupting Business Strategy

Alexander J. MacKay, an assistant professor of business administration who studies the economics of competition. 4. Platforms are upending traditional business models “Emerging technologies of all types and forms are helping companies... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

April 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Moderna: Pioneering a People Platform to Accelerate Science Innovation

By: Tatiana Sandino, Emil Dy and Samuel Grad

Moderna was founded in 2010 to explore how messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) could be used to create breakthrough medicines by encoding instructions for the body to create antibodies. When Stéphane Bancel (HBS 2000) took over in 2011, he bet on the potential of this... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Talent and Talent Management; Selection and Staffing; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Strategy; Innovation and Management; Leadership Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Alignment; Employee Relationship Management; Science-Based Business; Expansion; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

September 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Marriott International: The Next 90 Years

By: Chiara Farronato and Gary Pisano

The case examines how Marriott should respond to the potential threats from new home-sharing platforms and the rise of online travel agencies. In 2017 Marriott was the largest hotel chain, with more than one million rooms and 7% of worldwide room supply. In the... View Details

February 2018
Teaching Plan

Tesla in 2015

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Olivia Hull and Sarah Mehta

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-081. View Details

2014
Case

Yonyou 2013

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

The case describes how a leading Chinese management software provider Yonyou (formerly known as "UFIDA") disrupted its value chain-based business model to transform itself into a platform provider. The case describes Yonyou's past success, the market forces and... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; ERP; Platforms; Strategy; Transformations; China; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; China

2014
Teaching Note

Yonyou 2013 (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Zheng Xiaoming and Ziqian Zhao

The case describes how a leading Chinese management software provider Yonyou (formerly known as "UFIDA") disrupted its value chain-based business model to transform itself into a platform provider. The case describes Yonyou's past success, the market forces and... View Details

Keywords: Business Models; ERP; Platforms; Strategy; Transformations; China; Information Technology; China