Scott Brinker takes us on a journey exploring Hubspot’s fascinating platform strategy, where competitive overlaps between Hubspot’s own hubs and products and third-party developers in the ecosystem are treated as a good thing, and where recognizing and serving the “joint customer need” is the real focus.
Scott is VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, helping to grow and nurture the company's community of technology partners. He writes the chiefmartec.com blog, covering marketing technology management, and is the author of the best-selling book “Hacking Marketing”. Previously, he was the co-founder and CTO of Ion Interactive. He holds degrees in computer science from Columbia University and Harvard University and an MBA from MIT.
Serving multiple niche customer needs with modular platforms: is this possible? Hubspot’s success seems to confirm. With Scott we take a closer look at Hubspot's approach at figuring out what makes the collaboration between a platform and its ecosystem work. We see what makes a product portfolio and an organizational structure more keen to meet complex and evolving customer needs through collaboration, all while keeping everything connected as one boundaryless ecosystem.
 
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S04 Ep. 10 Scott Brinker – Serving joint customer needs through a modular Platform at HubSpot

Boundaryless Conversations Podcast is an ongoing exploration of the future of Platforms & Ecosystems. 
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In today’s episode, we have Kelly Sarabyn and Scott Brinker from HubSpot, who take us through their latest report on the State of Platforms in 2024. 
HubSpot has always considered industry education as central to developing its business and brand, and - in combination with some of its partners - released this great report earlier this year. The report profoundly covers how firms now adopt platform strategies to thrive in a digital economy ranging from app ecosystems to services marketplaces. Having spearheaded this, Kelly and Scott shared some insider information with us. 
During the conversation, they highlight the evolution of platforms, from mere technical infrastructures to complex ecosystems, and then further delve into how understanding the intricacies of platform models is crucial for tech companies and all businesses looking to leverage the interconnected nature of modern markets.
This episode has something for everyone, so don’t miss out on hearing from two of the most prominent experts in the field. Tune in. 
Some of our ardent followers will know that this is the 2nd time we have Scott, Vice President of Platform Ecosystem, at HubSpot. Kelly, instead, works as a Platform Ecosystem Advocate, at the same company. 
We are thrilled that they wanted to share the key learnings from co-authoring the “State of Platforms 2024” report - a tremendous piece of work that examines the evolving dynamics of the platform businesses, with a keen focus on the B2B SaaS industry.
In the conversation we explored the implications of evolving platforms for business strategy and operations, emphasizing the necessity for companies to continuously adapt and leverage these opportunities effectively, regardless of the role and business model. Our guests further touch upon how companies need to modulate around proliferation and nichification, integrations across sectors, and even look into these retributions' ethical and social aspects from a community-building perspective. 
This episode is a crucial one and a much-needed dialogue to take platform ecosystems forward, so join in. 
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#99 - The State of Platforms in 2024 with Kelly Sarabyn and Scott Brinker

We have a three-time returning guest on the podcast today, Sangeet Paul Choudary - certainly one of the most influential minds in the world of modern business.
Sangeet, an advisor and best-selling author, known for his work on platform economics and network effects, joins us to take us through the next era of competition in business: Sandwich Economics.
He speaks on the principles of the new phenomenon and shares insights into how organizations are now increasingly  "sandwiching" markets vigorously consolidating profits and power. As this happens, Sangeet argues, it’s not always a driver of quality improvement in services and products.
Sangeet’s episodes are always packed with insights on the future, and this conversation is no different - in the closing, we even walk through AI agents, AGI, societal and ethical considerations, and much more. Tune in, this is not an episode to miss. 
As our close followers and general practitioners of Platform Ecosystems know, Sangeet is not only one of the most distinguished thought leaders, renowned for his pioneering work on platform economics but also someone who can spot the intricacies of the impacts that such phenomena have on society. 
He has authored two bestselling books, "Platform Scale" and "Platform Revolution," and comes with over a decade of expertise in advising global firms and governments on crafting effective platform strategies through his organization, “Platformation Labs”. His work has also been featured on leading platforms such as Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and the World Economic Forum, to name a few.  
Sangeet always has golden insights, and this episode is packed with them. He takes us through the new term he coined to describe dangerous market dynamics that key players use to “sandwich” value across multiple layers of value chains and grounds them on examples from various industries. He further challenges conventional thinking and brings fresh perspectives on the ongoing dynamism and complexity of the market. 
So, if you wish to learn what’s really happening in platforms and ecosystems and how markets are evolving…Tune in!
 
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#98 - Sandwich Economics: a New Era of Competition with Sangeet Paul Choudary

On today’s podcast, we host someone who - has been at the forefront of the Agile revolution, and, at the same time, became one of Agile movement's most vocal critics, to the extent, that he dared to say: “R.I.P Agile”.
Cliff Berg, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Agile 2 Academy, and a leading figure in Agile and DevOps advising joins our podcast bringing his fresh perspectives on the decline of Agile. He also gives us a peek into the story of a book he recently co-authored, ‘Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile’.
Cliff takes us through what it means to re-imagine organizational practices and challenges the conventional framework-oriented approach, that often needs more contextualization and grounded action-based research.
Join us, as we discuss balancing leadership and self-organizing, and explore pragmatic approaches to operating successful businesses with agility and accountability. 
This episode goes through a journey - we talk about Cliff’s viral post on the demise of Agile, and what he and a team of co-authors have done to consciously course-correct it, and publish a whole set of new ideas on how to approach Agile with a more contemporary and less ideological stance: Agile 2. 
Cliff dismisses the narrative of “You don’t need managers”, and challenges why it’s important to reel our thoughts back in when it comes to decentralization of organizations. 
He lays it out as it is: structure is not a bad thing per se, and the conversation goes through healthy ways of administering structure in organizations.
Tune in, if you’re interested in non-ideological ways to embrace agile practices, mixed with some of Boundaryless's staple topics: building optionality, entrepreneurial organizations that go big with skin in the game, and more.
 
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#97 - R.I.P. Agile, Long Live Agile 2 with Cliff Berg

We rarely (if ever) get to host a cyborg anthropologist on our podcast, so we are thrilled to have Amber Case join us as a special guest for this episode. 
Amber, who works at the intersection of human and technology interactions, shares her journey into envisioning what a calm technology is. Calm Technology is a design philosophy that advocates for technology to integrate into our lives, enhancing our ability to focus rather than distracting us. She takes us through everyday objects that have been designed this way and leaves us challenging what’s really “transparent technology”?
We stretch the boundaries to include a conversation on organizations and governance: a leading thread is that of keeping asking questions and not drinking the kool-aid of truthiness in how we think about tech and organizing. 
Tune in to this provocation that leaps into the future of technology, its impact on society, and how you can navigate these landscapes with mindful intent.
This podcast started on a personal note - Amber shared her experience being a child of engineers, and also having early exposure to the natural world - both of which she believes set the precedence for what she does today. 
She takes us through a wealth of experience she gained in her multifaceted career - having been a renowned book author, TED speaker, serial startup founder, advisor, co-founder of DAOs, Research Director at the Meta Governance Project, and most recently the founder of the Calm Tech Institute.
Amber advocates for a future where technology "gets out of your way and lets you live your life."
This episode will elicit new questions for you and your career.
 
This episode has been occasionally recorded as “sound only”.
 
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#96 - Building Calm Technology and Organizations with Amber Case

In today’s episode, we are joined by João Rosa and Trond Hjorteland, two organizational consultants with a unique point of view, who take us through the depth of Open Systems Theory, and what it means to be socio-technical practitioners, passionate about transitioning democratic organizations to fast-flowing operational models. 
With many years of experience in large and complex contexts, they delve into what it means to create a collaborative and democratic organization, and how to balance mission, business outcomes, and cognitive load.
Join us on this episode, as we debate the role of “purpose”, entrepreneurship, and autonomy and learn how to avoid the creation of agile bureaucracies.
Tune in, and get inspired.
In the conversation with Rosa and Hjorteland we started from an original question that Simone threw out at a small conference recently: how do we avoid building Agile Bureaucracies? 
What does it mean to develop a business that achieves agility without having to exert total control on flows and processes?
With increasingly complex and dynamic environments, it becomes pivotal for organizations to recognize and adapt to change, if not stay ahead of it and rigidities are more than dangerous - even the cultural ones.
Emphasizing learnings from different methodologies like Open Systems Theory, Domain Driven Design, and Team Topologies; our guests advocate a team-centered, and democratic approach over industrial and hierarchical practices. A unique episode to look out for. Tune in.
 
Key Highlights


S04 Ep. 10 Scott Brinker – Serving joint customer needs through a modular Platform at HubSpot

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