Sangeet Paul Choudary

Choudary is the author of several books, including Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You.[1][2][3][4] Platform Revolution was ranked an international best-seller by 800CEOREAD[9] and a must-read business book for 2016 by Forbes.[10] In 2015, Choudary wrote the book Platform Scale: How an emerging business model helps startups build large empires with minimum investment.[11][12][13]

Choudary is appointed as an external expert on several Fortune 500 advisory boards, including the ING Bank's Global Innovation Council.[14] He is also appointed to the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Platforms and Systems.[15] He has also been retained as an industry thought leader by technology brands including Microsoft,[16][17][18] Huawei[19] and AT&T.[20]

Choudary has addressed high-level political delegations at various UN bodies, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)[21] and the International Labor Organization (ILO).[22] He has also addressed leading industry summits, including the Australian Financial Review Summit, where he was one of four keynotes alongside two heads of state and the chairman of the IMF.[23][24] Choudary addressed the G20 Summit in Brisbane in November 2014[25][26] and is a frequent speaker at the events of the World Economic Forum.[27] He also frequently addresses the board meetings of Fortune 500 firms, like ANZ Bank.[28]

Choudary co-authored the article "Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy" in the April 2016 edition of the Harvard Business Review.[29] This article was subsequently selected as one of the top 10 management ideas for the year 2017.[6] In 2019, it was selected as one of the top 10 articles on the topic of business model innovation, ever published in the Harvard Business Review.[7]

Choudary is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the INSEAD Business School[30] and the co-chair of the MIT Platform Strategy Summit at the MIT Media Lab.[31][32][33] He is a research fellow at the Centre for Global Enterprise, a New York - based think tank.[34] In 2017, Choudary was also selected as one of the 50 thinkers included in the compilation Dear CEO by Thinkers50.[35][36]

Choudary is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore.[37] At the 2016 annual convocation at his alma mater, IIM Bangalore, Choudary received special mention during the convocation speech by chief guest Nandan Nilekani, for his work on platform models.[38][39][40]

In 2020, Choudary became the youngest ever recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore.[41]

Choudary is best known for his work on the transition of business models from pipelines to platforms. He first proposed this idea in a 2013 article for WIRED magazine.[45] The idea, gained widespread adoption[13][24] after his 2016 article on this topic was selected by Harvard Business Review among its top 10 ideas of the year.[46][6] Choudary is also credited with proposing the idea of the core interaction as the central focus of value creation on platform business models, presented in his books Platform Scale and Platform Revolution.[1] Choudary's work on the transformation of incumbent businesses to platform business models has been widely quoted in media.[47] His recent work explains the importance of platform economics in manufacturing, heavy industry, healthcare, and financial services.[48] Choudary credits game design theory as one of the inspirations for his work on platform design.[49]

Choudary has been a sought after expert for research outlets including the International Labor Organization,[50] the MIT Technology Review,[51] the World Economic Forum,[52][53] the Economist,[54] McKinsey & Company,[55] and the European Parliament.[56][57]

For his work on platform economics, Choudary has been hailed as a 'global thought leader on the platform business model' by Forbes,[47] a 'top global thinker' by the Huffington Post[58] and a 'leading expert on the so-called platform economy' by the United Nations' WIPO.[59]

Choudary has worked with several governments and policy makers in Europe to help them develop competitive and regulatory responses to global platforms entering Europe.[58][60][61]

Choudary's work champions the use of digital public goods for societal and national development. He is currently appointed to the five-member national advisory committee to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) by the Government of India, to implement a digital public goods strategy for urban innovation in India. He is also appointed to the board of directors of the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network which is building a platform for financial innovation as a public good for financial institutions and fintechs.[62]

Choudary has been a prominent advocate of individual rights in the platform economy and has worked extensively with several international bodies, including the United Nations, on this topic. His research on worker exploitation by labor platforms was released by the International Labor Organization[63] as part of their Future of Work Research Paper Series.[50] In November 2017, Choudary addressed a high-level seminar by the Permanent Mission of Belgium in Geneva, highlighting the factors that lead to exploitation of workers on digital platforms.[64]

In February 2018, Choudary addressed the Parliament of Denmark on labor policy for the platform economy, stressing on the need for a new data-driven regulation paradigm for platforms.[65] His recommendations for regulating platforms through open data sharing were instrumental in informing the Danish government's decision to implement open data regulation for Airbnb in May 2018.[66] In September 2018, Choudary's framework also informed the set up of the world's first collective agreement between a platform company and a trade union, again in Denmark.[65][67]

Choudary's research on the adverse impact of platforms on the creative economy was featured as a keynote at the annual global conference of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).[68] His recommendations advocated the role of the WIPO as a standards setting organization in a platform economy, for protection of creator interests.[59]

Choudary's work on digital trade includes a future positioning paper for countries like Singapore that is widely considered a blueprint for Singapore's strategy for digital trade.[69] The paper suggests that countries can adopt a platform strategy and establish free data ports to harness digital trade flows.