Platformit — Part Four: Unpacking the Platform Universe — Platform Canvas

10 min readOct 26, 2018

A Quick recap.

Ten years ago (at the heart of the global financial crisis), my close friend and brother MB and I (both being central bankers at that time) engaged in a brutal discussion on the future of investment banking. He concluded his remark by stating that “the concept of investment banking doesn’t make any sense anymore.” Following this conversation, during the same month, I moved to the private sector. Guess where? Yes, investment banking industry. It almost took me a decade to understand his remark.

After a decade, I feel obliged to leverage my friend’s concluding remark: the investment banking industry in the GCC is facing the fate of extinction. Accordingly, the industry is in an urgent need of the infusion of an up-to-date and well-thought business model. I am reluctant to say it, but I must: even this remedy (i.e., using a new business model will only delay the fate and will not prevent it), but it is a step that must be taken immediately. The ultimate solution is embodied in a holistic transformation, which is a tough pill to swallow by the industry’s leaders. We will see throughout this white paper whether or not the industry will be able to consume such a pill.

Investment banks must deeply investigate how they can harness new methods to create, deliver and capture value. They need a model that enables them to see themselves not only as competitors, but as potential partners or collaborators. A model that can help the investment banking industry to transform itself in an innovative way to enable investment banks to:

Communicate and transfer their value propositions to their targeted investors;
Explore and capture new demand, rather than fighting over existing investors base; and
Strengthen the relationship with their investors base as well as with the regulator.

We will start this surgical operation with a strong antidote injection in one of investment banking industry’s building block (the Channel building block), as in the Business Model Canvas. As we stated in part two, the healing process will start from here.

So, let’s start from where we ended in part three: unpacking the keyword “platformize.”

Platform Universe

Unpacking the keyword “platformize” requires us to dig deeper into six essential dimensions of platform thinking. The below Platform Universe Canvas will navigate us toward a better understanding of how platform thinking can allow the key players identified in part one to create, deliver, and capture value innovatively.

The platform universe canvas provides a comprehensive framework in a step-by-step process toward understanding each dimension of the platform thinking and design. Each dimension will be accompanied by a standalone strategy canvas or framework towards codifying the process and developing a clear roadmap for the implementation phase.

We will see how key players within each layer will be mapped and how they will interact with each other based on a well-structured and governed set of experiences, interaction, and relationships. The canvases will enable a more in-depth analysis of the key players and their context, motivations, incentives, and assess the potentials for value exchanges between them.

The platform universe canvas acts as a compass that can navigate us to deliberately articulate and nurture experiences, interactions, and relationships so that with every transaction a new value gets created. The experiences, interactions, and relationships must be built based on a balanced reciprocal value exchange between the key players. A successful platform must act as an enabler of value co-generation through well-structured channels and governing protocols, supported by appropriate services and tools. With every completed canvas/framework, we will transfer the result as easy-to-understand icons and lines into the Platform Universe Canvas.

Platform Canvas

The platform canvas will provide a holistic view (i.e., a visual map) of how the key players and influencer along with the third parties and stakeholders might interact on the platform, within the ecosystem and beyond (i.e., how to attract a universe of non-stakeholders).

As explained earlier, this is a story-telling white paper. And when you tell a story, you don’t pose to define technical terms and concepts; instead, the context of the story explains itself with the progress of the events. As a result, I will not lay out a technical explanation of the terminology; instead I will embed the meaning within the context of the story. You can visit the below appendix, if you wish to be familiar with the key terminology.

So how can we explain the above platform canvas for a seven-year-old kid? Let’s assume that you want to make a cheese sandwich for your kid.

You are the producer of value (the one who will make the cheese sandwich).
Your kid is the consumer of value (the one who is going to eat the sandwich).
The sandwich is the core value.
The kitchen is the platform with its infrastructure and services, such as the toaster to create the value (cheese sandwich), plates to consume the value, the fridge to customize the value, etc.
Your wife can be considered the influencer (since she can decide how many sandwiches can be produced).
Your house is the ecosystem, including the electricity grid, air-conditioning and ventilation system, plumbing system, etc.
Your neighborhood is your universe (i.e., your neighbors, their kids, their pets, etc.).

As you can see from the above example, we don’t need fancy definitions. Our daily activities are taking place within mini platforms: never-ending loops of value productions and consumptions. Moreover, we continuously interact with our ecosystem and universe. So, let’s agree on keeping things simple.

In part one, we identified key players (i.e., regulators, investment banks, and investors), so let us invite them to be represented on the platform canvas.

The producers and consumers of value (i.e., investment banks & investors) are always on the platform. They are the two key players who interact and create the key experiences on the platform. The influencer (Regulatory Body) resides within the ecosystem, but it can interact directly with the platform at its discretion and when necessary.

Important note: The flexibility of the platform business model enables for an interchangeable role play (i.e., investors as a consumer of value may at a point in time become a producer of value). The same applies to the producers of value as well as the influencer.

To kickstart this journey, we need to jump from the non-fiction domain to a fiction domain for a moment. So, let’s assume that you are the CEO of an investment bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and you want to start this revolutionary journey. You discussed the idea with your executive team. Next, you contacted the Central Bank to explain the concept and to explore the possibility of conducting an experimental project within the regulatory sandbox. After obtaining the regulatory approval, you invited key selected investors to participate in this experiment (30 to 40 HNWI & Institutional Investors). Other CEOs heard of your experiment and decided to join (e.g., Banks B, C, and D). They started to transfer relevant data as well as created dummy investment opportunity to test and experiment the flow of interactions and the emergence of experiences.

Now let’s examine the skeleton of this idea. Let us explore the experiences, interactions, and relationships for each key player. See the below illustration.

Have you thought of making an MVP to crystalize the idea? Why not? Let’s do it.

Important note: When using the platform canvas as a visual mapping tool, always focus on one core value unit and one core interaction. In our case, the core value unit is listing of investment opportunities and the core interaction is the set of actions that enables investment banks and investors to exchange values.

Now let’s move into the ecosystem and universe layers to envision other candidates whom collectively will participate in enriching and growing the experiences within the platform.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are all other players within the platform’s ecosystem (i.e., investment firms, third party professionals, other governmental bodies, private sector, third party merchants, etc.). In general, they can have contractual relationships with the key players as well as the participant. They originally reside within the ecosystem but can be granted direct access on the platform at the discretion of the key players and/or influencer.

Third party professionals — Institutional: (i.e., audit firm, consultancy firm, legal firm, etc.)

Third party Professionals — Individuals: The proposed industry-wide platform will enable an unprecedented opportunity of mobilizing a large number of professional individuals, with the aim of elevating investors’ decision-making process as well as generating greater economic value for the professional individuals, in a competitive and transparent cost/benefit structure. These third parties will provide a range of ancillary services capable of delivering greater value to investors, banks as well as the regulator (i.e., strengthening the core value unit and core interaction on the platform).

The proposed industry-wide platform will allow all key players on the platform to engage with the third party’s professionals under an entirely new set of economic fundamentals. They will be viewed as trusted partners in the value creation process under a robust and inclusive governance framework.

The platform will create lucrative job opportunities for a vast array of professionals (e.g. CPA, CFA, ACCA, PRM, CIPA, CSAA, etc.). The platform will provide these professionals with unprecedented opportunity to work directly with all key players.

So, how those third-party professionals will participate in the value creation process? Here, we will need the influencer (regulator) to curate the process. All third-party professionals must first be approved by the regulator. They only will be granted access to provide their services on the platform, after submitting (e.g., Approved third Party Professional-Individual Form) as well as going through an online interview process.

Let us explore a visual representation of the on-boarding process. A hypothetical scenario of a Bahraini professional risk manager and holder of PRM certificate with seven years of experience;

For the first time, third party’s individual professionals will be given secure and highly curated access to a community of accredited, professional, HNWI and Institutional investors. They will be immediately contributing to enriching the socio-investment discussion (will elaborate on this one at future posts) as well as the experiences of the investors with their independent feedbacks and advises.

The platform will create secure channels to enable investors (e.g., accredited investors) and third party professionals to engage in assessing the viability of new investment opportunities.

An accredited investor can select the investment opportunity and then select a professional risk manager to establish a socio-investment conversation. The platform will allow the investor to appoint the risk manager on a task-specific basis. The temporary appointment terms and conditions will be governed by the platform. Automatic termination will take place once the services are rendered and fees are paid. The platform can even provide ancillary services such as secure video communication channel. Third party professionals can enhance their services and be upgraded to “trusted advisor” who can get greater access to the investment profile of investors (with their permission).

Non-Players, and Non-Stakeholders

The third category is known as non-players and non-stakeholders (i.e., non-participating banks, investors, and stakeholders) — primarily because they either choose not to interact with the platform or they are not eligible by law or regulation to join the platform. They can become, under certain conditions, a lucrative potential for the platform’s growth and ecosystem’s expansions. They exist within the universe layers.

In the coming parts, we will dig deeper into all these possible interactions and relationships. This journey is going to be an exciting one. See you soon in part V. if you reached this far, don’t forget to show a few claps. Yes, they mean a lot.

Appendix

The platform thinking and design is evolving, and the population of interested individuals in this domain is expanding. My journey in this domain was tremendously influenced by the works and teaching of Sangeet Paul Choudary and Simone Cicero. Working with them was a transformative and life-changing experience. With the utmost respect, I salute these two Plat-Fu masters.

In the below appendix, you will find that their teaching are cross referenced whenever it is relevant to provide you with a comprehensive and more in-depth understanding of the context of the above story-telling white paper.