When you request a ride from your phone, order groceries online, or share a post on social media, you’re using a platform—and they’re on a rapid rise. Estimates expect the digital platform market to grow from $9 billion in 2023 to $19 billion by the end of 2030. Because of this massive digital transformation trend, you need to know what platforms are and how to work with them.
Harvard Business School Online is announcing Winning with Digital Platforms, an online course for those who want to launch, scale, maintain, or work with a successful platform business. You’ll explore platforms’ unique properties, opportunities, and risks, and learn how to develop scalable strategies that deliver a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
In this course, you’ll learn how to:
- Articulate what platforms are and how they create value
- Understand network effects and how to leverage them to achieve growth
- Launch, scale, and maintain a successful platform business
- Overcome operational challenges associated with developing, overseeing, or interacting with a platform business
- Explore strategies for transitioning a product or service into a platform
- Build offensive and defensive plans to effectively develop or compete against platform companies
“Whether you’re part of a team transforming your organization, planning to launch your own venture, or interacting with platform businesses, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of successful platforms and how they can be applied in various industries,” says Senior Managing Director of HBS Online Simeen Mohsen. “Winning with Digital Platforms, taught by HBS Professor Feng Zhu, will help ensure your business thrives in this competitive market.”
In the course, you’ll be introduced to faculty and industry leaders and study real successes and failures from several industries. You’ll put your learning into practice through a capstone activity about a startup platform, Picabuu. At the end of each module, you’ll be asked to leverage course concepts and “advise” Picabuu on their journey to create a community for parents, children, and service providers.
Through this active and engaging program, you can ask questions, give feedback, and share experiences and expertise to accelerate your learning, broaden your perspective, and challenge your worldview. You’ll also have the opportunity to engage with a global network of business professionals before, during, and after your course.
Enrollment for Winning with Digital Platforms will be accepted through April 22, 2024, and the course will begin on May 1, 2024. For more information or to enroll, visit our Winning with Digital Platforms page.