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Platforms & Crowds

With the power to transform established industries, capture untapped value, and materialize new business models, perhaps no aspect of the digital economy is as transformative as the possibilities presented by the platform economy and the utilization of crowds.
Robin Chase, 2015 Summit keynote

Robin Chase on peer to peer networks

In November 2015, Zipcar Co-Founder Robin Chase inspired the crowd at the Harvard Business School Digital Transformation Summit by challenging them to use platforms and peers to build exponential solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems.

"The World's Ours" people in co-working space on laptops

Ned Gulley on crowdsourcing to identify talent

Presented at the Digital Initiative 2017 Future Assembly, in this flash talk, Ned Gulley from Mathworks explains how crowd-based programming contests can serve as a way to identify talent and skills.

John Windsor and Mike Tushman

Mike Tushman on impact of crowds on incumbent firms

In this talk from our 2017 Digital Transformation Summit, Mike Tushman the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration from Harvard Business School digs into the impact of crowds on incumbent firms.

Beyond Chicken & Egg

In this talk from our 2017 Digital Transformation Summit, Chiara Farronato an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Andrei Hagiu a visiting Associate Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at MIT Sloan School of Management moderated the panel.

Retail shopping on a tablet

Monetization in a mobile world

During the 2015 Digital Transformation Summit, HBS Professor Sunil Gupta, Ernst & Young’s Janet Balis, and Twitter’s Glenn Otis Brown shared their thoughts on mobile commerce is effecting markets, business strategy and what people think of as money.

Woman drawing a design on paper with ink pen

Christoph Riedl on design myopia and vicarious learning

On April 6th, 2016 the Digital Seminar series hosted Christoph Riedl from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.

kid-in-colourful-clothes-watching-other-children-drawings-of-a-rainbow

CV Harquail on generative business practice

On November 5th, 2014 the Digital Seminar series hosted CV Harquail from FeministsAtWork. CV gave a talk called “Generative Business Practice: How Digital Technologies, a Network Orientation, and an Ethos of Generosity Combine to Transform How Businesses Work Together.”

Andrei Hagiu on turning products and services into platforms

In this flash talk from our 2017 Future Assembly, Professor Andrei Hagiu from MIT Sloan School of Management highlights how companies can tap in to one of the most promising and profitable aspects of business today: the platform economy.

happy business women holding the smartphone with a checked box on

Chiara Farronato on online reviews as a substitute for regulation

Presented at the Digital Initiative 2017 Future Assembly, in this flash talk, Professor Chiara Farronato from Harvard Business School discusses how technology has facilitated the diffusion of online review systems and how online review systems can be an effective way to ensure consumer protection.

People jumping for joy in grass field

Shane Greenstein on Wikipedia and the internet

In this flash talk from our 2017 Future Assembly conference, Shane Greenstein the MBA Class of 1957, Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, explores how communities work together on platforms, and “why Wikipedia is the best place on the internet.”

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