With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*
Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
People have become used to getting things free on the internet. The common thinking is that ‘if it’s on the internet, it ought to be free’. So, while they pay for everything from soaps to sanitary ware, and from detergent to dish TV in the real world, they expect non-tangible products for free in the virtual world.
Since its beginning, people have considered the internet as a platform for information dissemination, information exchange, and aggregation. Think of the 1.86 billion monthly active Facebook users (as of February 2017)— what would this number shrink to if they were shift to be a paid platform? Similar would be the case with Whatsapp.
But neo platform entrepreneurs were ingenious enough to make provisions for ways to monetize to make them profitable businesses.
how to monetize?
Pricing in the last 100 years has not witnessed as much change as it is going through today. The last fifteen years of businesses in the internet environment have faced immense challenges to find ways to make the business proposition viable. Creative seekers have found out plethora of ways to monetize internet-based businesses thus giving rise to different types of monetization strategies.
This is the era of startups—many have been successful, but some had to shut shop soon. All these businesses are creating value by bridging the gaps or have been successful in creating an information highway between the seller and the buyer through an internet portal. A few in the business fumbled because of the lack of a right monetization strategy, but many are now making waves, with their hands on the right monetization model. Case in point: Zomato, Uber, Facebook, Foursquare, OLX, Dropbox, and Redbus. The list is endless and lessons to learn are lot.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March/April 2017-Ausgabe von The Smart Manager.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March/April 2017-Ausgabe von The Smart Manager.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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A Mandarin Narrative
“Understanding the China effect on global innovation will be essential for companies that wish to compete in China, take advantage of China’s innovation capacity, and adopt Chinese approaches to innovation to improve their own performance. The overall effect is that more innovation will originate in China—from both Chinese and global companies—and more companies would adopt the Chinese style of innovation.”*What has helped many Chinese firms make remarkable strides—not just in the realm of innovation—is their swiftness in reformulating themselves, eschewing hierarchical structures, and adopting a customer-centric approach
A Positive Delay
According to Professor Adam Grant, Wharton School of Business, “We shouldn’t be afraid to start early, but equally we shouldn’t be afraid to be slow to finish… procrastination might just improve the end result.”* When used sensibly by leaders, procrastination is a powerful management strategy.
What Is Your Script?
While Freud and most other psychotherapists took the rather simplistic approach of asking the patient about themselves, Berne took an alternate approach to therapy. Berne felt that a therapist could learn what the problem was by simply observing what was communicated (words, body language, facial expressions) in a transaction. So instead of directly asking the patient questions, Berne would frequently observe the patient in a group setting, noting all of the transactions that occurred between the patient and other individuals.Although rooted in psycho therapy, Transactional Analysis has a profound role to play wherever interactions constitute the core. In an organizational setting, it can help build strong cultures.
Be A Change Leader
In an interview with The Smart Manager, John Knights, author of Leading Beyond The Ego said that adopting a style beyond the traditional is more suitable in a world of continuous transformation.* The hierarchical, managerial, male-dominated, and authoritarian leadership style of the 20th century has to undergo a drastic change as organizations are becoming more democratic, inclusive, employee-centric, and open to feedback from all ‘rungs of the ladder’.
A Measured Step
Employee turnover is expensive. Replacing an employee who quits costs, on average, 21% of their annual pay. While it’s tempting to dismiss turnover as a fact of life in today’s fast-moving job market, new research shows otherwise.* Compensation could be a strategic tool for talent retention, especially when the going is tough.
Bridging The Gap
Pam Didner, author of Effective Sales Enablement, shares her perspective on how sales needs to treat marketing as a hidden sales force, while marketing can leverage sales as another marketing channel.
Become Leadership Fit
Leadership is a concept shrouded in misconceptions. Timothy J Tobin, author of Peak Leadership Fitness: Elevating Your Leadership Game and Vice President, Franchisee Onboarding and Learning at Choice Hotels International, unveils a clearer picture.
Purposeful Mission, Profitable Opportunities
In his book, Master Opportunity and Make it Big, Richard M Rothman says, “The success of your career, your business, or any other important aspect of your life, is enormously influenced by the opportunities you choose to pursue. In fact, these decisions are among the most important you will ever make in your life. In choosing these, you choose your fate.” Enabling innovation and growth in an organization comes from choosing the right, lucrative opportunities that are compatible with its vision and mission.
Power Of Data
When it comes to using data to drive business, organizations such as Google or Facebook are iconic… When they started in 2007, big data was not what it is today. All four Vs that define big data—volume, variety, velocity, and veracity—were at lower levels. But perhaps more importantly, there was not much previous experience of working with big data and using it to drive decision making in organizations. At that time, the question was still out as to whether having all that data is useful. Today, the feeling is that the value of data has been proven, and it’s more of a question of how to get it.1Diligent businesses are those that ensure data privacy and security while leveraging its multiple advantages.
Create Not Pools, But An Ocean
Innovation is a relentless pursuit for every successful organization, cutting across geographies and industries. And many are driving disruptions by promoting intrepreneur teams too. Doug Hall argues this is a flawed approach, benefitting only a select few. Innovation needs to operate in a broader realm—one that encompasses all and promises a level playing field.
