The context
It was 2013 when we released our first version of Platform Design Toolkit.
On October 2016, we published the Platform Design Toolkit 2.0 and the companion White Paper “From business modeling to platform design” becoming real pioneers of a new way of thinking organizations and products. The Toolkit and the White Paper have been fundamental since then in instigating and shaping the practice of Platform Design with a community that today counts more than sixty thousand adopters worldwide.
We’ve been active in research and consulting with an impressive range of stakeholders: from Fortune 500s to startups, from organizational transformation pioneers such as Chinese Haier group to United Nations. Such experience puts Boundaryless among the leaders of Platform-Ecosystems thinking worldwide.
After more than three years we’re now aware that the context and scope of platform-ecosystem thinking have changed and have grown widely: New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking are now needed.
This is what this white paper is all about, and this fundamental piece of content is released in Creative Commons like everything else we do, so you join us in the process of building the future of organizations and business models.
The Boundaryless Team
This white paper will help you understand
How scalable strategies are essential to engage with new socio-economic trends and global risk factors characterizing these unpredictable times.
How organizations can keep—or gain— a central position in business ecosystems while embracing governance models that ensure whole-system development.
What opportunities exist for platform thinking as markets become more complex, heavily regulated and investment intensive.
How new frontier technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, AI, biotech and more are opening new possibilities to mobilize and connect ecosystems.
How the boundaries and the shape of a traditional organization are now blurring into interconnected, distributed and collaborative organizing.
The Sensemaking Webinars
We just launched a series of webinars featuring special guests, helping us go further in the exploration of the next wave of platforms and ecosystems that we explore in the Whitepaper.
Leave your email to be promptly informed about upcoming webinars, new releases of tools and various updates related to the Whitepaper research:
Watch the first session we run on December 18th with Dave Snowden. Lisa Gill, Roberto Battaglia and Sergio Caredda on the topic of Organizational Adaptation to the Changing Landscape [watch here]
Our second session exploring Platforms in the 2020s – held on Febraury 3rd – was moderated by Work Futures writer Stowe Boyd, and featured Boundaryless CEO and Platform Design Toolkit creator Simone Cicero and the Platformation Labs founder Sangeet Choudary, who released The State of the Platform Revolution in late 2020, recapping what the peculiar year of 2020 meant for platforms. Together they zoomed out from a micro- to macro perspective on the platform revolution, including what governments have to keep in mind when dealing with tech giants as they start to shape our geopolitical landscape through country-as-a-platform strategies. Watch the recording below!
From our Sponsor
“The competitive arena in the financial and banking industry is going to change much more rapidly that we could ever expect. The resilience and flexibility of our organizational structures face enormous challenges: to adapt from a hyper-regulated world, where most of the products and services are mature, to a new one where Environmental, Social and Governance propositions need to coalesce: every client, sector, activity will be impacted by this evolution.
Change is often accompanied by resistance, bureaucracy, short-termism, and we're often slow to respond to a fast-changing environment: now it's time to embrace a new paradigm and a new approach to design where people in networks can translate big transformative visions into concrete actions.
Intesa Sanpaolo is pleased to support this research initiative, and to collaborate with Boundaryless and its network in envisioning a modern approach to the evolution of the organization that is flexible, outside-in and proactive.”
Gian Marco Salcioli
Head of Strategic Marketing
Corporate & Investment Banking
Research Updates
Read all the updates
Latest update
Boundaryless 2020 White Paper Research Update #7
Boundaryless 2020 White Paper Research Update #6
Boundaryless 2020 White Paper Research Update #5
Boundaryless 2020 White Paper Research Update #4
Boundaryless 2020 White Paper Research Update #3
See Older Posts
Support the research plan for a new whitepaper from the Platform Design Toolkit team
Boundaryless 2020 White Paper Research Update #1
Podcast Interviews
Listen to all episodes
Latest episodes
Season 2 EP #14
Bottom-Up and Top-Down Transformation
with Bill Baue and Ralph Thurm
Season 2 EP #13
Trans-contextual Organizing: Shifting Perceptions
with Nora Bateson
Season 2 EP #12
Leadership and Legitimacy through Consent and Coherence
with Aaron Dignan
Season 2 EP #11
Mapping, Doctrine, and Culture in the Future of Organizing
with Simon Wardley
Season 2 EP #10
Control and Coherence in the New Strategy Playbook
with Rita McGrath
Season 2 EP #9
The Present (Future) of Work: Beyond Platforms
with Albert Cañigueral and Laëtitia Vitaud
Season 2 EP #8
Becoming Anything you want in the Platform Value Chain
with Adrien Nussenbaum
with Robyn Scott
with Juho Makkonen
with Dave Snowden
with B. Joseph Pine II
Season 2 EP #3
Platform Talent: Jobs & Skills for the Age of Networks
with Peter C. Evans
with Alicia Hennig
Season 2 EP #1
Re-bundling the Firm around Problems to Be Solved
with Sangeet Paul Choudary
with Bill Fischer and Lisa Gansky
Zappos — with John Bunch
with Jeremiah Owyang
with Marshall Van Alstyne and Geoffrey Parker
with Nicolas Colin
with Joe Norman
with Martin Reeves
with Alex Osterwalder
with Joost Minnaar
with Indy Johar
with Stowe Boyd
with Michel Bauwens
with Ana Andjielic
with Tomás Diez
with James Currier
with Arthur Brock
with Simone Cicero & Stina Heikkilä
Check out all episodes on your favorite podcast player
Timeline
2020
Launching the research plan for the new Whitepaper
On 20 January, we launched the research plan for our new Whitepaper, aware that – after more than three years – the context and scope of platform-ecosystem thinking have changed and grown widely.
Read the inaugural post: New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking.
Kicking off the Whitepaper Community Sense-Making Calls
On 18 March, we kicked off our Whitepaper Community Calls, where we explored the latest research findings together with the community. In the calls, we provided space for reflection and deep conversations, seeking to build a collective sense-making practice.
Watch all the sessions on our Youtube channel:
LAUNCH of Boundaryless Conversations Podcast
On 7 April, we launched the Boundaryless Conversations Podcast, a vital part of the research project where we speak to amazing thought leaders from the world of organizational and societal transformation, including names like John Robb, James Currier, Alex Osterwalder, Bill Fischer, Michel Bauwens, Ana Andjelic and many more. Don’t miss to subscribe to it on your favorite platform!
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, CastBox, RadioPublic, and other major podcasting platforms.
We also provide our key insights, show notes and interview transcripts on our Medium stories: https://stories.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast/home
Revamp of the Early Adopters Kit and Explorer Packages
On 11 May, we launched the revamped versions of the Early Adopters Kit and Explorer Packages, for those interested in supporting our research, and keep all our contents and tools in the Creative Commons. A BIG thank you to our almost 50 supporters – without you, the journey would not have been the same!
Checkpoint episode: between the “no more” and “not yet”
On 15 May, we released a checkpoint episode with Boundaryless’ long-term advisor Lisa Gansky, where she offers an interesting framing of the “No More” and “Not Yet”: a sweet spot for innovators and builders of new ways of organising and enterprising in the 21st century. We're drawing on this framework throughout the whitepaper.
Check out the key insights, show notes and transcript on our Medium publication.
23 July 2020: the Future of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking: A Sense-Making session
On 23 July, we hosted a one-day online event to collectively understand the emerging challenges and new possibilities of building scalable platform strategies and ecosystemic organizations for a rapidly changing world.
In this event, based on the research leading to our upcoming Whitepaper New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking, we shared insights into the evolving landscape of organizing and how to play the right role in the business ecosystems unfolding, while embracing governance and value-creation models that ensure whole-system development.
Check out all the video recordings here: platformdesigntoolkit.com/event-july23
Final release: New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking Whitepaper
Our whitepaper was released on November 2020! To stay tuned for future updates on new tools, events and more, sign up for news in the further up on this page: platformdesigntoolkit.com/new-whitepaper
