I have long admired entrepreneur Sangeet Choudhary\u2019s phrase \u201cfrom pipes to platforms\u201d \u2013 it is the key issue confronting almost all organisations in the internet age.
Put simply, the shared plumbing of the internet enables savvy \u201cplatform\u201d businesses to bring together ecosystems of producers and consumers in a multi-sided marketplace. Ecosystem players can focus on one part of a value chain, rather than trying to do everything themselves \u2013 which makes them much more efficient when they all come together to deliver a service.
That is why in 2013, 14 of the top 30 global brands by market worth were platform companies. In fact, platform organisations are so much more efficient in matching demand with supply, and so different from traditionally organised \u201cpipes\u201d organisations, that we talk about them as disrupting entire industries.
As producers and consumers, we are used to thinking about, and even welcoming, such disruption \u2013 most of these new organisations are wildly popular. But when it comes to thinking about how platform organisations will, just as inevitably, disrupt our public services, we behave very inconsistently.
We instinctively realise that no amount of shiny, front-end, accessible tech could ultimately save Blockbuster in the age of YouTube and Netflix; black cabs in the age of Uber; or old department stores in the age of Amazon \u2013 because the conversation has moved on.
Services offered by these platform businesses are simply more intelligent, flexible, convenient, innovative, and cost-effective than those we were offered before. Yet how much further to the bone are we prepared to cut our public services in an era of dwindling funding before we confront the \u201celephant in the room\u201d \u2013 that government is a failing, old pipes organisation in an era of platforms?
In ducking their obligation to understand this fundamental distinction, to communicate it loudly, and to acknowledge the task of transitioning from pipes to platforms as their central mission bar none, those who run our public service organisations are failing us all.<\/p>\n

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