Employees as Customers in a Multi-Sided Market | Geoffrey Parker

Two-sided markets are revolutionizing the way we do business, and in time, it may revolutionize the way we think about employees as well.

Dartmouth Professor Geoffrey Parker has spent years researching and writing about platform business strategies that leverage two-sided markets like eBay, Airbnb, and Uber.

Geoffery is the co-developer of the theory of two-sided markets, the co-author of Platform Revolution, and has made significant contributions to the field of network economics and strategy. 

In this episode, Dart and Geoffrey talk about employees as outside producers at one end of a multi-sided market, how to optimize choice and non-monetary micro-economies in the workplace, the pros and cons of salary-based work, how to attract employees beyond money and benefits, and much more.

Topics Include:
- The history of multi-sided markets
- How to attract the kind of work you want within a company 
- Calculating lifetime value and churn
- Improving employee retention
- What people really want from work
- Building the kind of work people want
- Pros and cons of online work vs on-premises 
- The unintended consequences of viewing employees as inputs to production
- And other topics…

Geoffrey Parker is a professor of engineering at the Thayer School of Dartmouth College, where he also serves as director of the Master of Engineering Management Program. Before joining Dartmouth, Geoffrey was a professor of management science at the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University and served as Director of the Tulane Energy Institute.

Geoffrey is also a visiting scholar and fellow at the MIT Initiative for the Digital Economy where he co-chairs the annual MIT Platform Summit and the annual BU Platform Research Symposium, and he is a fellow at the Luohan Academy and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. As well as co-authoring the book Platform Revolution, Geoff is the co-developer of the theory of two-sided markets and has made significant contributions to the field of network economics and strategy.

Resources Mentioned:
Geoffrey’s Website: ​​https://ggparker.net/
Barry Schwartz on Work For Humans: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1949517/11170487

Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.