Fireside Chat with Platform Leader and Start-up (From left to right: Dr. Toa Charm, Associate Professor of Practice in Management, CUHK Business School, Mr. Norman Tam, General Manager - International Business, Tencent & Mr. Samuel Wan, Co-founder and Chairman, StockViva)

What is a platform?

What do these top companies like Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Tencent and Ctrip have in common? Apart from being the world's highest valuated businesses, they are the world's most influential platforms.

By operating as open ecosystems, companies match suppliers of products, services, or content to consumers, and gain enormous value and market share.  These companies, known as multilateral platforms, act as intermediaries, connecting service providers and users to serve users of different needs.

Why is a platform so critical for the success of large and small-to-medium traditional businesses in the decade of 2020?  

The next generation of Fortune 500 companies in the decade of 2020 will be mostly platform-based business.  Platforms, a near-monopolistic business model, are quietly taking over the global economy.  Today's more than $1 billion "unicorn" start-ups, such as Airbnb, Grab, Robinhood, Spotify and more, are mostly platforms.  These platforms make much of their money not by what they sell but by facilitating the interactions or transactions of others.  More importantly, they are experts in delivering great customer experience and monetising the data captured in their platforms.

Traditional product manufacturers, brands and intermediaries (or “the middleman”) in all major industries are being seriously disrupted by these platforms.  Their competitiveness and even survival are highly questionable if they don’t act now in the right way.  Platform owner is on the driver seat while the rest are just the passengers with not much bargaining power on their pockets.

Why do business leaders have an urgency to formulate a winning platform strategy for their companies?

Building a successful platform like Alibaba, Amazon, Uber, Ctrip, have lots of challenges. There are countless ways to fail it.  While there are many ways to seed users into a platform, the strategies all have the potential to backfire.

Rather than having a feature mindset in traditional product or middleman businesses, business leaders in digital economy need to have a seeding mindset.  However, recruiting a popular user to kick start the platform and draw other users can backfire if that user violates the platform’s governance.  For instance, how well a driver in Uber’s platform behaves on that Uber ride may cause a big impact on Uber’s success.  Focusing on low prices or free services can backfire when users become accustomed to and anchored at that low price in the long run.  The list of challenges goes on.  Business leaders need to overcome these challenges or the platform will fail.  Every business leader today, no matter they are in traditional companies or existing platforms, has an urgency to formulate a winning and sustainable platform strategy for their company.

Learning Outcomes

The programme will prepare the participants to lead their organisation’s platform strategy.  The participants will learn about where their company fits best within a platform ecosystem and formulate a winning strategy for their companies.  The learning outcomes of the programme are as follows:

1. Understand the disruptiveness and dominance of platform in the new economy
2. Leverage on a platform to co-create values for customers and its ecosystems
3. Design platform strategies to compete effectively with other major platforms
4. Transform from a traditional product/service company to a leading platform
5. Set up right governance to manage and sustain a platform
6. Master the key underlying technologies of a platform

Key Benefits

• Certificate of Attendance will be awarded to participant upon completion of the programme
• Special offer on Self-Paced Programmes for Executives subscription
• Consultation session at special rate is available upon request
• Becoming an Associate Member of CUHK Business School Alumni

Who Should Attend

This programme is designed for leaders in platform organisations or in the traditional firms that must compete with them.  C-suite, to operations managers, technology officers and R&D in all industries are welcome.  No pre-requisite is required.

Programme Curriculum

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Duration : 2 days (Total 12 hours)

Programme Dates: 27 & 28 Jul 2023

Venue: CUHK Business School Town Centre (Central) or Live virtual class (Zoom)

Programme Fee:

HK$16,500

RTTP Rate*: After reimbursement, the programme fee per eligible participant is HK$5,500 / HK$5,167 / HK$4,675 for the programme fee HK$16,500 / HK$15,500 / HK$14,025, respectively.

*The programme has been applied to be included in the list of registered public courses under the “Reindustrialisation and Technology Training Programme” (RTTP) - funding scheme under the Innovation and Technology Fund.

Programme Dates: 27 & 28 Jul 2023

Application Deadline: 13 Jul 2023

Medium of Instruction: English / Chinese

Duration: 2 days (6 hours per day)

Venue: CUHK Business School Town Centre (Central) or Live virtual class (Zoom)

Programme Fee:

HK$16,500

RTTP Rate*: After reimbursement, the programme fee per eligible participant is HK$5,500 / HK$5,167 / HK$4,675 for the programme fee HK$16,500 / HK$15,500 / HK$14,025, respectively.

*The programme has been applied to be included in the list of registered public courses under the “Reindustrialisation and Technology Training Programme” (RTTP) - funding scheme under the Innovation and Technology Fund. Companies interested in applying for RTTP training grant (two-thirds of programme fee for each eligible participant) for their employee(s) to attend this programme should apply via the online system at least two weeks before the commencement of the programme.

• Early Bird offer: HK$15,500 (register by 15 Jun 2023)
• "Learn together” offer: HK$15,500 (enroll in the same programme with friends)

Remarks: Two applicants must enroll together at the same time in the same programme. Therefore, this offer does not apply when enrollment of two participants at different times or for different programmes.

• Alumni rate: CUHK/CUSCS/APIB Alumni can enjoy a 15% discount on the programme fee
• Corporate rate: please contact our education professionals for details
• Continuous Learning Offer: Additional 5%, 10% and 15% discount will be offered to applicant who has previously completed 1, 2 and 3 programme(s) of the Digital Leadership Series for Executives within 24-month period, respectively. This offer can be used in conjunction with other promotional privileges.

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