By Sara Brown | August 3, 2020 | MIT Ideas Made to Matter
The rise of platforms is by now well-documented — the most valuable companies in the world are platforms, and even long-established businesses are starting to build platform ecosystems. Well-known platform industries have also fared better than others in the recent economic downturn.
Platforms don’t run themselves, though, and increased demand has put the spotlight on how companies can build a robust platform team, according to Peter Evans, PhD ’05, and managing partner at the Platform Strategy Institute. Evans was co-host of the recent 2020 MIT Platform Strategy Summit, where he gave an overview of a platform talent survey he conducted with platform summit co-hosts Geoffrey Parker, ‘SM 93 and PhD ’98, and Marshall Van Alstyne, SM ’91 and PhD ’98.
For all the focus on business models and technology, “a key component to successfully launch and run platforms is the talent that you bring on board to exercise and execute on those strategies,” Evans said.
Through tracking platform companies and hiring trends, Evans, Parker, and Van Alstyne identified: a high demand for platform talent — even during the COVID-19 pandemic; six types of platform jobs companies are looking to fill; and suggestions for the future, including platform hiring firms.
