The third day of the Resolution Series brings with it a market focus and a look at customer needs. Tim Attinger of Market Platform Dynamics vows to be more open [with his platforms] in 2011.
I will design with the customer in mind
- In the past I have built my products by looking around my business at things I can produce, producing them, and then driving those product into the market. I have used my costs as a given and priced to the market from them. This year I will pay attention to what the market needs, what customers are willing to pay, and then build my services and fees for them from there.
I will remember that growing participants is job #1 for my platform business, everything (especially revenue growth) flows from that
- This year I will focus on growth. In the past perhaps I have trimmed my portfolio, closed accounts, adjusted my fees to discourage certain customers, and I have reduced the number of products and services I offer. This year I will try to remember that it is very hard to shrink your way to greatness. I will work to grow the number of participants in my network, driving more valuable interactions between them, and helping them to attract even more.
I will work to achieve balance…in value between participants in my two-sided platform business
- I will invest my time and energy in ensuring that participants on both sides of my platform continue to see value from their engagement with it. Just because some people came to my platform in the past and were happy to pay the freight for the other side of the business doesn’t mean that they will always be willing to do so. My payments business needs both consumers and merchants to thrive. I will strive to show increasing value to both of them, and to better manage the balance of costs and benefits to both sides. (Related Article: Blast Off! How Two-Sided Platforms Ignited)
I will try to be more open…with my platform by inviting and facilitating outside development
- I understand that the payments business has evolved to become a strategic core component of commerce for a host of other industries, including social media, online advertising, mobile telephony, and especially retailing. While I knew payments were always important, I know now that these industries want to embed payments capabilities into their own processes and programs, making my core business a kernel of a larger commerce exchange for them. This year I will accept that I can not build and control for every single customized application of my payments business. I will embrace the marketplace move to open platforms. I will partner with developers and industry specialists to make my payments capabilities a useful, embedded, and customized component of other industries’ business models. I will remember Charles Darwin’s core tenet of evolution, that “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” I will be open to change… (Related Article: Driving Network Effects with Platforms)
Payments New Year’s Resolutions
- Educating, Learning and Innovating: A New Year, A New Start
- Payments Resolutions Worth Keeping
