Let’s say again, let’s take Amazon or even non-supply chain platforms like Uber or Airbnb, generally is looking at the sort of a producer or provider of the service and the user of the service. KASRA FERDOWS: The typical ones, let’s say, if you take the platforms that essentially are working, if I may be a little technical in here, only on one stage of the supply chain. And probably, it got into a high gear after 2005, 2010, and most companies felt that they had to do it.ĬURT NICKISCH: Are these platforms typically pretty open or closed systems? How hard is it to be part of one of these systems, if you’re somewhere else in the company or maybe at an outside partner? So, digitization of the supply chain transactions had been going on for a long, long time. Supply chain platforms have been mostly focusing on traditional supply chain transactions like orderings and inventory and fulfillments and arranging the logistics, and sometimes also pickup. Digital platforms have been really expanding very rapidly in the management of global supply chains. But every company – take Home Depot, Walmart, Estee Lauder – all of them also have developed digital platforms. KASRA FERDOWS: One that everyone knows, of course, would be Amazon and Taobao from China. What are some examples of these online platforms and how companies currently use them? You focused on supply chains for this work, but it could apply to a lot of other functions. KASRA FERDOWS: It’s a pleasure, and thank you very much, Curt, for this opportunity.ĬURT NICKISCH: You’ve studied how dozens of companies use digital platforms internally. To tell the story, we’re joined today by Kasra Ferdows, a professor at Georgetown University, with Hau Lee of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Xiande Zhao at China Europe International Business School, Ferdows wrote the HBR article, “How to Turn a Supply Chain Platform into an Innovation Engine: Lessons From Haier.” It has lessons for anyone trying to collaborate quickly and effectively with partners. That story has lessons for any organization that wants to leverage its digital platforms for new business opportunities, but you don’t have to work at Siemens or GE, or another company with a global supply chain for this to apply to you. Haier used a remarkable in-house digital platform. It wasn’t just the emergency situation that kicked things into top gear. It teamed up with a Chinese home furnishings company to prototype, build and deliver these mobile isolation wards, and they did it in record time, in a matter of weeks. Haier is a global leader in appliance manufacturing. Officials put out a call, the China-based company Haier Group answered. ![]() It was 2019, at the site of the first outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The Chinese city of Wuhan was urgently in need of mobile isolation wards. Ferdows is a coauthor of the HBR article “ How to Turn a Supply Chain Platform into an Innovation Engine.”ĬURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. ![]() He breaks down how Haier capitalizes on the expertise and resources of its ecosystem and rapidly exploits new business opportunities. Georgetown Professor Kasra Ferdows says more companies can unlock innovations by extending their platforms to facilitate a broader range of collaborations. Unlike Haier, many companies have tightly regulated, siloed platforms. ![]() Haier Group partnered with suppliers to design and construct units quickly, thanks to the openness of the leading manufacturer’s digital platforms. As the novel coronavirus surfaced in Wuhan in 2019, Chinese officials called for mobile isolation wards.
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