Ahh, my first love. My first job was working for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG taught me that business is a competitive game. And what better game to play in than multi-sided platforms? Platform strategy is the equivalent of multi-dimensional chess!

A B2B platform must determine:

• which sides of the platform to engage, in what order
• how to engage competitors in an industry to cooperate in using the platform
• how to become a “middleman” without being disintermediated, while disintermediating others
• how to compete against other platforms in a market with “winner-take-all” dynamics

B2B platforms are a wonk’s dream. I try to bring to bear for my clients everything I have learned from:

• classic corporate strategy
• game theory
• the latest research on multi-sided markets and platform strategy, as well as
• the bumps and bruises of 35 years competing in tough B2B markets