In Unleashing the Killer App, Larry Downes and I helped popularize the notion of a “killer app.” We defined a killer app as “a new good or service that establishes an entirely new category and, by being first, dominates it, returning several hundred percent on the initial investment.” We predicted that the Internet and its related technologies would be the driving force behind a wide range of killer apps in almost every industry. Even with the hindsight of the Internet bubble, it is safe to say that we were mostly right about the significance of the Internet. Yet we were wrong in at least several respects. First, we were wrong to define killer apps as necessarily being first. As the contrast between Alta Vista and Google demonstrates, better design often trumps being first. But perhaps the more subtle and significant mistake we made was to focus on killer apps at all. That problem is that killer apps, as even the name implies, are single applications.
It is not just generals that fight the last war. Business writers do it too. We focused on killer apps because that was the traditional quest of Silicon Valley technologists and venture capitalists. And, there’s not doubt that numerous individual applications, including the Netscape web browser, PayPal, and Google, have made billions for entrepreneurs and investors. Any company that has a guaranteed killer app should probably divest itself of the rest of its business and focus on capturing the value of that killer app. But the effect of the Internet has been broader and deeper than just the unleashing of individual killer apps. More significant has been the wholesale transformation of commerce, communications, and culture. And the task of most other organizations, i.e., those without sure-fired killer apps, is to adapt their existing businesses as that market transformation demands.
Rather than launching killer apps, companies focused on their existing businesses should strive to create killer platforms. Each organization’s business platform is comprised of the knowledge, skills, processes and information technology necessary to operate the business. Killer platforms are business platforms that effectively and efficiently leverage the assets of the organization today and allow for rapid adaptation and innovation. Ideally, rather than force companies into all-or-nothing mindsets, killer platforms position companies to unleash a whole series of killer apps. Killer platforms, in essence, are modular platforms that facilitate continuous innovation--both incremental and transformational.
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