Leveraging a platform strategy to enhance business performance is not a novel idea. Companies like Amazon, LinkedIn, and Salesforce have long anchored their success on the value of connecting customers, suppliers, or peers. What is emerging now is the realization that even non-digitally native companies can reap the benefits of platform business models by delivering unique and hard-to-replicate services or experiences.

In our recent analysis of 375 of the world’s largest 2,000 companies across 12 industries, we identified 152 as “platform adopters.” Unlike the 39 companies whose entire business models are built around a platform strategy, these adopters use platform strategies for specific purposes—such as launching new business opportunities or offering entirely new customer experiences.

Is this approach making a difference? Our analysis found that the 152 platform adopters generated, on average, 2.1 percentage points higher margins between 2019 and 2022 compared to non-platform companies. This increase in profitability, however, is only the beginning.

Platforms deliver holistic value

If non-platform companies had matched the margins of platform adopters from 2019 to 2022, they could have generated an additional $231 billion in EBITDA. Moreover, they would have achieved higher valuations, with platform adopters enjoying an average market premium of 2.4x in enterprise value to invested capital, compared to just 1.5x for non-platform companies.

Nike is one platform adopter experiencing significant performance gains. The US-based footwear and apparel giant employs a platform strategy to aggregate customer offerings and create a hub for athletes through its Training Club and Run Club apps. This unique community provides Nike customers with a more sophisticated experience. Additionally, the platform strategy allows Nike to capture valuable data insights, offer personalized products and services, and even unbundle existing capabilities to offer them to business partners as individual services, such as inventory visibility. Since embracing its platform strategy, Nike has seen the share of its overall brand revenue attributed to digital business grow from 10% to 24%.

Power up your resilience

Beyond improving margins, platform strategies offer companies a way to accelerate transformation and build resilience. Accenture’s Pulse of Change: 2024 Index reveals that business leaders experienced an unprecedented rate of change in 2023, with 88% of C-suite leaders expecting an even faster pace in 2024. In such a volatile environment, resilience is crucial yet elusive—only 15% of companies manage to achieve it. Our analysis shows that platform adopters consistently demonstrate higher resilience across nearly every metric in Accenture’s research, including financial discipline, technology, sustainability, sales, and supply chain operations. This resilience leads to sustainable gains in areas like operating efficiency, speed to market, and customer loyalty.

Strategy development is no longer an annual task; leaders must now adapt their strategies in real time. Delivering strategy at the speed of technology is only possible when strategy development and decision-making are both informed and executed through technology. This is where platform strategies excel—they connect business strategies with real-time insights, empowering leaders to think more boldly and act more swiftly.

Unlock the full potential of your business. Continue reading to explore how platform strategies can drive transformation and resilience, and download the complete report for actionable insights.

The Table of Contents of “Level up: Elevate your business with a platform strategy” Report:

• Platforms deliver holistic value
• Power up your resilience
• Platforms create ecosystem value
• Learn from the best: what platform adopters get right
• Three steps to make the jump to a platform business
  1. Identify the value
  2. Determine what sets you apart from the competition
  3. Reimagine your business and technology capabilities
• It’s game time for platforms

Number of Pages:

• 22 pages

Pricing: 

• Free

Methodology

In this study, Accenture Research focused on assessing the value of platform business models and a better understanding of the characteristics
of platform adopters. To conduct the analysis, we used a combination of generative AI and publicly available information to compile a list of
companies that are adopting platform business models.

We started with the list of Global 2000 (G2K) companies and selected the top 30 companies by revenue for each of the 12 major industries. We used ChatGPT to categorize companies into non-platform, platform-adopter, and platform companies. We then manually validated the ChatGPT results using company-level research and sought input from industry researchers to further validate our classification. Following
these steps, we categorized 375 companies into 184 non-platform companies, 152 platform adopters, and 39 platform companies. Based on
this list, we compared the characteristics and performance of non-platform companies and platform adopters.