Digital platforms are changing the rules of competition in the global
economy. Until recently, it took Fortune 500 companies an average of
20 years to reach billion-dollar market valuations. Successful platforms
now reach that milestone in an average of four years.
In The Platform Paradox: How Digital Businesses Succeed in an
Ever-Changing Global Marketplace, Wharton professor Mauro F.
Guillén highlights a key incongruity in this new world. Most platforms
considered to be successful have triumphed in only some, rather than
all, parts of the world. There are very few truly global digital
platforms.
In more than three decades of studying multinational firms, Guillén has
found they often misunderstand key aspects of what it takes to succeed
globally, from culture and institutions to local competitive dynamics
and pursuing markets in a logical sequence. Seeing multibillion-dollar
companies like Amazon flounder in certain markets has led Guillén to
research what it takes to create a successful global strategy.
In
The Platform Paradox, Guillén details: How the COVID-19 pandemic has
accelerated digitization and forced companies like Airbnb to pivot
and adapt; How platforms like Tinder and Uber have used local
advantages to grow rapidly in different countries; How traditional
companies have transformed themselves into digital platforms, like
Lego undertaking a digital revolution to emerge from bankruptcy and
become the "Apple of toys"; and The possibilities and limits to global
expansion, as illustrated by companies like Zoom and Skype. In
The Platform Paradox, Guillén offers an integrated framework for these
platforms to identify and implement a digital platform strategy on a
truly global scale.
