049: B2B companies navigate platforms and portals

There are many differences between B2B and B2C platforms. Can the former ever be as successful as the latter? If so, what are some of the obstacles business models and strategies must overcome?

These are just a few of the issues we explore in the latest episode of the Future Sight podcast.

Geoffrey Parker, Leonardo Serra, and Leonardo Weiss join host Liz Lugnier to discuss key considerations for the four main types of B2B platforms: IP&S, IoT, Data Aggregation and Collaboration, and Marketplace. They tackle the difficulty of identifying a sound platform strategy, examine Platform Natives and Product to Platform models, and list several common pitfalls.

Geoffrey Parker
Professor of Engineering Innovation, Dartmouth College, Research Fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Initiative for the Digital Economy
Geoff is the Charles E. Hutchinson ‘68A Professor of Engineering Innovation at Dartmouth College, where he also serves as Director of the Master of Engineering Management Program. In addition, he is a visiting scholar and research fellow at the MIT Sloan School’s Initiative for the Digital Economy, where he leads platform industry research studies and co-chairs the annual MIT Platform Strategy Summit. His ambition is to understand the economics and strategy of network “platform” industries. He also co-developed the theory of “two sided networks,” which provides a mechanism to explain pricing in network markets. He is coauthor of the book “Platform Revolution.”

Leonardo Serra
Senior Consultant, Capgemini Invent, Visiting Scientist at MIT Sloan School
Leonardo is a Senior Consultant at Capgemini Invent, focusing on platform economics and digital services. He worked on helping companies' ramp-up digital projects, adopt digital technologies, and implement platform strategies and new digital services. He’s passionate about new technologies, their implementation into our everyday lives, and synergies between big companies and smaller innovative providers. He is currently a visiting scientist at MIT Sloan School of Management and conducting research on B2B platforms and their road to success. He holds a master’s degree in Information Systems from the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Dr. Leonardo Weiss Ferreira Chaves
Global Head of Intelligent Products & Services, Capgemini Invent
Leonardo is a Vice President at Capgemini Invent, leading the global activities around Intelligent Products and Services. His focus lies in helping companies to transform traditional products and services into green, intelligent ones to create new services and business models. He supports his clients from strategy, through product design, and into implementation, unlocking top line growth and process efficiency. Before joining Capgemini Invent, he worked at SAP Research, exploring how IoT can be used to transform companies’ business models and processes. He holds a diploma in Computer Science and a PhD from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

You can listen back to some our previous episodes of Future Sight episodes below:

Sustainability in Automotive https://www.capgemini.com/insights/research-library/all-roads-lead-to-sustainability/
Sustainable IT https://www.capgemini.com/insights/research-library/future-sight-it-takes-ctrl-the-sustainable-way/

Future Sight podcast is brought to you by Capgemini Invent and lead by Afashan Sayyed.
This episode was hosted by Liz Lugnier and produced by Thomas O’Mahony.
You can find out more about them at https://www.capgemini.com/service/invent/ and follow them on Twitter https://twitter.com/CapgeminiInvent.