Make Platform Innovation Drive Enterprise Growth

Abstract

OVERVIEW:Most corporations lack a precise, operational definition of their product platforms, without which progress is difficult to achieve. With that definition, new product strategy must be recast to capture the degree to which common architectures and subsystems will be leveraged across existing and new market applications, as well as the timing of product introductions. Managers must also reconsider the financial model of the business, including investments in the development of platforms versus products, and the changes that are possible in the margins and contribution of platform-based products to profits. Perhaps most pressing are the organizational questions: How can the R&D executive best structure the organization and the processes by which groups plan and interact so as to facilitate platform development and platform-based product development? Recent efforts of IBM and other corporations to embrace platforms provide both a management and a technology paradigm.