From Aaron De Smet, from HBR:
Agility is the ability of an organization to renew itself,
adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing,
ambiguous, turbulent environment.
When you adopt a "platform" model for knowledge your primary
role changes from purely knowledge creation to knowledge curation.
Every employee, partner, supplier, and even customer becomes a
potential source of knowledge that can be captured and shared
throughout the ecosystem. There are many benefits of adopting this
model:
- Higher Production: With more contributors, you are able to
capture much more information than you could produce alone with
internal resources
- Lower Cost: By collecting information from across your
stakeholder ecosystem, you do not have the burden of increased
staff or internal costs.
- Higher Engagement: Partners that invest in your "platform" are
much more likely to use, promote, and continue to invest in your
organization.
- Industry Leadership: As your stakeholders contribute to your
platform the "switching costs" of going to a competitor or leaving
your organization are much lower.
- Innovation & Growth: By adopting best practices and having
access to emerging information from all stakeholders empower your
employees and partners to make better decisions and seek innovative
ways to improve your organization.
Understanding your business ecosystem is critical to
implementing a platform model. In evaluating your ecosystem, there
are three areas of consideration: shared mission, shared resources , and shared stakeholders .