**These provide a way to fragment the strategy of the company.**
These platforms place big strategic bets.
Platform use is optional. They may provide investment for EMs and EMCs. The investments are accompanied with experience and guidance--not control. The EM is still an autonomous entity--now it has a contract with an Industry Platform. It is not owned or controlled. It has commitments that it made through the contract.
VAM Contracts are used to negotiate and define the targets and the proportion of benefits among participating micro-enterprises, both customer facing and supporting.
These give unity and identity and cohesion to the model. They are not controlling. They are matching functions. There are two types of platforms: Shared Service Platforms made of MEs; and Industry Platforms
# Industry Platforms (IPs) Industry platforms are enablers for the rest of the organization, **allocating capital and directing entrepreneurial initiatives**. **Industry platform owners have a budget to assign to selected Micro-Enterprises and Enterprise Micro-Communities** as strategic guidance and systemic coherence mechanisms. The employer-employee relationship moves towards an **investor/investee** through such a responsibility, with the IP acting similarly to a **Venture Capital** arm for the organization. The key mission of an Industry Platform is to: * Ensure harmonized alignment and collaboration among MEs providing similar products and services. * Deploy the funds in line with the strategic priorities and user-driven scenarios decided by the firm and the field owners. Platform Owners coordinate platforms, usually supported by **tiny teams** with a **“coordination” **more than a “production” responsibility. In Haier, there are circa **40 platforms pertaining to six fields** (e.g., a platform for refrigerators, a platform for Internet of Clothing). Inside them, **4000 Micro-Enterprises** bring forth business initiatives, integrating and interoperating through EMCs.
# Beyond SSP and IP Beyond Shared Service Platforms and Industry ones, sometimes the word platform is also used to describe slightly different artifacts as it happens with "Technological Platforms" referring to software or "Touchpoint Platforms" utilized to point to a subset of the organization that aims at “detaching” and becoming a separate company (**unicorn**).
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