This past week Bose Corporation posted a position for Director Digital Technology Platforms and Data.
This could be an exciting career move. The post states that company is “looking for a leader of digital technology platforms, AI and advanced data analytics.” It is a senior position with responsibility for leading application and infrastructure engineering platform teams, as well as the company’s AI, data enablement, and data analytic services. The role requires a blend of technical and managerial capabilities to provide the company with critical digital technology strategy and operational support for voice and data networks, cloud computing, desktop OS, and productivity solutions.
Bose has a strong reputation as a product company. It sits at the top end of the mass audio speaker industry. It sells directly to consumers but also to other manufacturers, particularly the automotive industry. A spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the company was founded back in the 1960s by Amar G. Bose, a professor of engineering. Over the years, the company has contributed to many significant technical breakthroughs, including direct/reflecting speaker system, noise-canceling headphones.
While the position looks attractive, the platform professional must ask: Is it a good fit? Three areas deserve consideration:
Ecosystem positioning
Data acquisition approach
Product vs platform culture
Ecosystem positioning
While Bose remains a top audio brand, it has faced significant competitive pressures in recent years. It has had to confront new entrants in the connected home market from companies like Sonos, as well as competition arising from the smart speaker craze kicked off by Amazon. Even areas that it once dominated are no longer safe-havens. With the expiration of its noise canceling patents, companies like Sony have come into the market with highly competitive headphone and earbud offerings.
Given these pressures, it is understandable that Bose is seeking senior talent to evolve the company’s “AI and data strategy and capabilities, developing and deploying modern data engineering platforms and solutions, data governance and analytics capabilities to our product divisions and corporate teams.” The role reports directly to the Chief Information Officer.
But is data-enabled learning enough? Leading platform economists Andrei Hagiu and Julian Wright argue that the relationship between data-enabled learning and network effects is not as direct as many believe.
In brief, Hagiu and Wright suggest there is a widespread tendency to assume that data is the primary factor behind the performance propelling network effects created by Airbnb, Alibaba, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and other major platform companies when this may not, in fact, be the case. In their view, regular network effects often play a more important role. For a full account of their argument see: Why data network effects are less valuable than regular network effects.
Bose has faced challenges in positioning within connected ecosystems and leveraging these “regular” network effects. The company introduced its first public APIs and apps in 2015. These moves focused on integration with music streaming services and capturing user data. But evidence of the common transformations associated with building network effects, such as building a robust app store and third-party software developer community, is scarce. In 2019, the company released a SDK (software developer kit) to allow mobile applications to pair with a wearables product called Bose Frames. However, less than 12 months later, the company announced it was shutting this initiative down and limiting further access to the SDKs, documentation, and AR-related forums. See: “RIP, Bose AR, We Hardly Knew Ye,” Gizmodo, June, 16, 2020.
Data Acquisition
A second issue to consider is how a product company collects data and what this means for its relationship with customers. Bose has faced criticism over forced data capture. As one consumer wrote on Bose’s online forum:
I've read online that Bose wireless headphones capture data about what I listen to and send it to Bose or some other company for data mining… I own a pair of Quietcomfort 35s and a pair of Soundsport earbuds. I love both of them, they're among the best devices I've bought in years… Please don't make me choose between these products that I love and my privacy.
The Bose Connect app prompted a class action lawsuit in 2017, which accused the company of “spying” on customers and selling data to third parties without their consent. The lawsuit received wide-spread news coverage. Bose has been able to defeat the most serious accusations that it violated Federal anti-wire-tapping laws, but it has not cleared all claims that it violated consumer fraud and deception laws. See: Bose Headphones Lawsuit Wiretap Claims Trimmed.
Given this history, it is reasonable to wonder what it will mean for the Director for Digital Technology Platforms and Data. One can expect that senior executives will expect every privacy “i” to be dotted and “t” crossed. However, there is also the risk that the Director will find herself not just subject to reasonable prudence but face a leadership team so risk adverse that it impeeds platform innovation.
Product vs platform culture
A final consideration relates to the company’s overall culture. What are the company’s strongly held and widely shared beliefs regarding strategy and structure? Will the new hire find a company open to platform transformation? If so, it could be a terrific career opportunity. A platform professional’s expertise and experience would be highly valued and they could find themselves emerge as an important player in the company’s strategic transformation.
On the other hand, if the company sees the Digital Technology Platforms and Data role more narrowly, as supporting the traditional product centric approach, the role could be isolating. A platform profesisonal may find their platform expertise and experience undervalued. Worse yet, they could face outright resistance up and down the management chain.
So, are product companies a good fit for platform professionals? The answer is they certainly can be, but platform professionals need to approach such roles with eyes wide open. They should carefully investigate the company’s ecosystem positioning, data acquisition history, and, to the extent possible, company’s culture from the perspective of openness and commitment to platfrom transformation.
Not subscribed to Platform Professional? Give it a try!
For a comprehensive analysis of platform professional roles and leadership see: