[CAnet - news] More on Platform Architect as a Network-centric Strategy

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http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/
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 [More comments From David Reed on platform architects -- BSA

Interesting.   But it's mostly been said before, quite coherently - read 
the book by Annabelle Gawer and Michael Cusumano entitled Platform 
Leadership, from Harvard Business School Press.

As vp and chief scientist at Lotus, I was lucky to be involved directly 
in most of the cases discussed in that book - Intel, for example, early 
recognized that its value proposition was intimately entangled with a 
network of other companies, many of whom were linked only indirectly to 
Intel (e.g. Lotus, which had *zero* customer or supplier contracts with 
Intel, and little need to talk to them).   Thus taking a leadership role 
in shaping that network's evolution was going to be crucial, and Intel 
stepped into the role - very actively working with people with 
responsibilities like mine in distant parts of the network to define the 
evolution of the PC platform.   (e.g. Intel led a variety of software 
architecture standards efforts that increased the success of PC's their 
OS's and their applications - often acting as Switzerland between 
tensely competing companies that also had to cooperate - IBM and Compaq, 
Lotus and MicrosoftApplications).  This contrasted directly with Apple's 
very constrained notion of a vertically integrated stack, and no network 
to speak of (if you also did apps or hadrware for PCs, Apple basically 
told you, e.g. us at Lotus,  to go to hell, presuming that they could 
dictate their platform's direction alone).

The failure to grasp that one's platform was embedded in a network of 
relationships that had non-trivial network effects was a failing 
strategy, over the long run.  IMO, it explains a lot of what has 
happened in the computing industry.   It's not a full explanation, but 
ignore it at your peril.   That said, the more macho and self-centered 
CEOs and management teams ignore it all the time.  The more the CEO (or 
POTUS, for that matter) is surrounded by glorifying sycophants, the more 
likely the value of the network is discounted by that person. 

This, by the way, is part of where the inspiration for Reed's Law came from.


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