HBR's 10 Must Reads on Platforms and Ecosystems (with bonus article by "Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don't" By Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti)

In the Ecosystem Economy, What’s Your Strategy?

by Michael G. Jacobides

WHEN NESTLÉ WAS PREPARING to go mainstream with Nespresso, its single-use espresso capsule, it knew that users would need a machine specifically designed to work with the pod. So the company cultivated a network of manufacturers. It didn’t tell customers to buy a Jura, a Krups, or a Braun—it just decided which manufacturers could be on the list. And because the capsule and its interface were patented, other manufacturers could not make Nespresso-compatible machines without permission.

Nespresso was creating—designing—an ecosystem: an orchestrated network spanning multiple sectors. The firms involved work to shared standards, sometimes on a shared platform, to make their ...