Platforms and Blockchain Will Transform Logistics

Examples from Maersk, IBM, and TRIP.

by

and

Geoffrey G. Parker

by

and

Geoffrey G. Parker

June 19, 2019

Jorg Greuel/Getty Images

Summary.

Major change is coming to the logistics and shipping industries – a transformation that promises to be even more dramatic than the move to third-party logistics a generation ago. With increasing digitization, platform-based business models will connect new players, wash away inefficient old ones, and harness the cloud. the convergence of rich logistics data streams; new cloud, platform and blockchain technologies; and strong market forces will give rise to new platform business models in the logistics, trade, freight, and maritime industries. New capabilities will be required to leverage the potential these platform systems offer and to manage the threat they pose to existing revenue streams. While any move into platform-based logistics has its risks, the bigger risk would be to ignore the trend.

Major change is coming to the logistics and shipping industries – a transformation that promises to be even more dramatic than the move to third-party logistics a generation ago. With increasing digitization, platform-based business models will connect new players, wash away inefficient old ones, and harness the cloud.

Sangeet Paul Choudary is a C-level advisor to executives globally on platform business models and an entrepreneur-in-residence at INSEAD. He has been ranked among the top 30 emerging business thinkers globally by Thinkers50 and selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is a co-author of Platform Revolution (W.W. Norton & Company, 2016) and the April 2016 HBR article “Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy.” Follow him on Twitter at @sanguit.
Marshall W. Van Alstyne is the Questrom Chaired Professor at Boston University Questrom School of Business. His work has more than 25,000 citations and he received the Thinkers 50 Award for Best Digital Thinking globally. He co-authored Platform Revolution (W.W. Norton & Company, 2016), the April 2016 HBR article “Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy” and the October 2006 HBR article “Strategies for Two-Sided Markets,” an HBR all-time top 50. Follow him on Twitter @InfoEcon.
Geoffrey G. Parker (gparker@dartmouth.edu) is a professor of engineering at Dartmouth College and a research fellow at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy. He co-authored Platform Revolution (W.W. Norton & Company, 2016), the April 2016 HBR article “Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy” and the October 2006 HBR article “Strategies for Two-Sided Markets,” an HBR all time top 50. Follow him on Twitter @g2parker.

Platforms and Blockchain Will Transform Logistics

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