Akamai technologies : an analysis of product and platform growth strategies
Name
890946576-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
21.1 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b7141720e5d3a70a89400802878ec4e2
Author(s)
Piper, Victor L. (Victor Lawrence)
Advisor(s)
Michael Cusumano.
Date Issued
2013
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Akamai Technologies has achieved market leadership in content delivery and application acceleration services and is pursuing aggressive growth. Akamai has advised the market that growth to $5B by 2020 is achievable by exploiting opportunity within its key markets. However, the internal consensus is that Akamai's legacy business practices are incapable of scaling at the rate of market growth. What must Akamai do to execute on its revenue goals and, more broadly, how can Akamai maintain a leadership position within a dynamic and rapidly expanding market? The goal of this thesis is to discover the elements of Akamai's legacy and emerging growth strategies and to identify strategic options that Akamai may pursue. To gain perspective into evolution of the business and the rationale for current strategic initiatives, a series of interviews with Akamai managers was conducted and a review of an Akamai case study and corporate quarterly earnings was completed. This information yielded insights on the challenges of growth, actions for overcoming these challenges, and motivations for selecting those actions. To gain insight into best practices in growth strategy, a survey of the business strategy literature and case studies of successful technology platform companies was conducted. The literature differentiated between product-based business strategies and platform-based business strategies. Analysis of the differences between these strategies provided insights into Akamai's current challenges.
Description
Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-108).
Subjects
Engineering Systems Division.
System Design and Management Program.
MIT Department
System Design and Management Program.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division
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