MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Three Lessons From Germany's Platform Economy

Platform markets are suddenly all the rage with B2B companies. And for good reason.

The rise of disruptive platforms like Alibaba, Airbnb, and Uber — coupled with Beijing’s Made in China 2025 plan to transform its manufacturing sector into a global high-tech leader — has forced industrial companies to rethink longstanding business models. In B2B markets across the world, companies are now looking beyond just selling products and are building platforms that enable others — including their customers, suppliers, and partners — to create value.

This shift in strategic thinking is significant, especially for companies with 100-year legacies making a product and then controlling the pipeline that delivers that product. But as B2B offerings become ever more commoditized, platforms offer a way to diversify and avoid becoming obsolete. Platforms can generate new revenue streams even after a product is sold, in the form of data-fueled “smart” services.

About the Author

Svenja Falk (@falk_hawk) is a managing director with Accenture Research. She chairs the working group on digital business models for the organization Plattform Industrie 4.0. Svenja is an honorary professor at the Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen and a fellow at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Frank Riemensperger (@riemenspergerf) is chairman of Accenture Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Russia. He holds a seat in the acatech Senate, the German Academy for Engineering Sciences. He is also a member of the supervisory board of the DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence).

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