S2 Ep. 8 Adrien Nussenbaum – Becoming Anything you want in the Platform Value Chain

In this episode we are speaking Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and U.S. CEO of Mirakl, a global leader in online marketplace solutions. Since graduating from HEC in Paris in 2001, Adrien's career has been focused on innovation, entrepreneurship and disruption. His background in corporate finance and management consulting has allowed him to support top Fortune 1000 companies in their strategic growth and transformation initiatives, including creating and leading FNAC's marketplace from 2008 to 2011.

A serial digital entrepreneur, Adrien has always been driven by the desire to invent tomorrow's economy: All Instant, a NY-based Instant Messaging platform sold in 2003, and SplitGames, an online video games marketplace, sold to FNAC in 2008. Along with co-founder Philippe Corrot, Adrien has built and led winning teams across the globe, created hundreds of jobs, and generated billions in sales for customers.

In our boundaryless conversation, we cover the platform revolution from many angles, from how companies tackle digitalisation to how platforms contribute to breaking boundaries in space and time in an age of full information transparency. We also explore the necessary mindshifts, for example transcending the idea of competition, and realising that as a platform you need to "earn the right" to serve an ecosystem, turning competition into partnership.We also explore more generally what it means for brands to find a place in an API first, modularized economy, where suppliers and customers are aggregated and explain why the future of commerce may be in niches that require brands to meddle with the economy profoundly, leaving an opportunity space for incumbents that can transform as he cannot remotely shape everything directly from San Francisco.

Adrien talks about some exciting examples among Mirakl's own clients, including members of the "platform pioneer club", where peer learning, opportunities to "plug in" to the ecosystem, and creating a sense of belonging are key. As a platform player, you can essentially choose to be "anything in the value chain", and that's an exciting future outlook.

Remember that you can find the show notes and transcripts from all our episodes on our Medium publication: https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast-S2E8-Adrien-Nussenbaum

To find out more about Adrien's work:

> Website: https://www.mirakl.com/ 

> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anussenbaum 

> Twitter: https://twitter.com/adriennus 

Other references and mentions:

> Mirakl Connect: https://www.mirakl.com/mirakl-connect/ 

> Stop Covid-19 Marketplace: https://stopcovid19.fr/ 

> Companies with platform businesses cases mentioned: AB InBev, Maison du Monde, 3M, Madewell

> Aurora James' 15% pledge: https://www.forbes.com/sites/morgansimon/2020/12/21/aurora-james-is-helping-companies-invest-in-accountability-with-the-15-percent-pledge/?sh=2a56e3d78216 

Find out more about the show and the research at Boundaryless at www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/podcast 

Thanks for the ad-hoc music to Liosound / Walter Mobilio. Find his portfolio here: www.platformdesigntoolkit.com/music 

Recorded on 11 December 2020.