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Jul
23

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Build Business as a Platform Not a Destination, and “Kick ass”.

Category: Business Strategy, customer relationship, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , , Leave a Comment

After I’ve published the post “Are you a destination or a platform? Part I” some of you have asked me to give some examples or make some analogies to help further understand the difference between a business built “as a destination” versus a business built “as a platform”.

Let begin with an Great illustration I’ve seen on this Great blog “Creating Passionate Users” edited by Kathy Sierra and Dan Russell:

The first man is in a business built “as a destination”. The old time style. The Heroic kind of business.

The second man is in a business built “as a platform”, he is there to help YOU shine. This is a Servant kind of business.

Seth Godin listed very succinctly the major advantages of a Business built as a platform in  a great post on his blog Pivots for change.

In troubled times if you built your business as a platform you could:

  • Keep the machines in your factory, but change what they make.
  • Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them.
  • Keep your providers, but change the profit structure.
  • Keep your industry but change where the money comes from.
  • Keep your staff, but change what you do.
  • Keep your mission, but change your scale.
  • Keep your products, but change the way you market it.
  • Keep your customers, but change how much you sell each one.
  • Keep your technology, but use it to do something else.
  • Keep your reputation, but apply it to a different industry or problem.

When you are building a company as a destination you are obsessed by product or service innovation.

But when you are building a company as a platform you are obsessed by users, clients EXPERIENCE and you design your business as a simple tool, just a tool. No emotional connection to a tool, but emotional connection to the people by giving them the power to “kick ass”.

Mar
21

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Are you a destination or a platform? Part II

Category: Business Strategy, Conversation, leadership, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

After I’ve published the post “Are you a destination or a platform? Part I” some of you have asked me to give some examples or make some analogies to help further understand the difference between a business built “as a destination” vs a business built “as a platform”.

Let begin with an Great illustration I’ve seen on this Great blog “Creating Passionate Users” edited by Kathy Sierra and Dan Russell:

The first man is in a business built “as a destination”. The old time style. The Heroic kind of business.

The second man is in a business built “as a platform”, he is there to help YOU shine. This is a Servant kind of business.

Seth Godin listed very succinctly the major advantages of a Business built as a platform in  a great post on his blog Pivots for change.

In troubled times if you built your business as a platform you could:

  • Keep the machines in your factory, but change what they make.
  • Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them.
  • Keep your providers, but change the profit structure.
  • Keep your industry but change where the money comes from.
  • Keep your staff, but change what you do.
  • Keep your mission, but change your scale.
  • Keep your products, but change the way you market it.
  • Keep your customers, but change how much you sell each one.
  • Keep your technology, but use it to do something else.
  • Keep your reputation, but apply it to a different industry or problem.

When you are building a company as a destination you are obsessed by product or service innovation.

But when you are building a company as a platform you are obsessed by users, clients EXPERIENCE and you design your business as a simple tool, just a tool. No emotional connection to a tool, but emotional connection to the people by giving them the power to “kick ass”.

Mar
11

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Are you a destination or a platform? Part I

Category: News Tags: , , 2 Comments

“Do you see your business as a destination or as a platform?”

What is a destination and what is a platform?

A simple and visual way to make it clear is to to see New York city as a destination for a traveler from abroad and the Heathrow Airport in London as the platform to get to that destination.

When you reach a destination (and you have your trip purpose accomplished) you are done.

But when you reach a platform you know that you only reach a facility, an utility that might perform in way to help you reach your destination.

Your expectations from a destination and your  expectations from a platform are completely different.

In business vocabulary, you may understand destination as what customer wants, and a platform as what could help the customer to have what he wants.

There is two questions to answer to check where do you stand:

  1. Do you design your business with the intention to fulfill your customers needs? in this case you built your business like a destination.
  2. Do you design your business to help your customer fulfill their needs? in this case you built your business like a platform, an utility or a facility.

These two kinds of businesses exist. Both kind had prospered. Both kind continue to coexist. But the future of one is precarious and the future of the other one is very promising.

The “destination” entrepreneur works with a certitude that he knows the need of his target customers and will create solution tailored to this need. This type of business has no future (as customers knows more what they want, have access to more information and are living in a world crowded with choices). Basically, this patriarchal kind of business does not suit the new world. Customers own destination choice. They just need the best facilities to get there.