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Product platforming-using technology subsystems or components that are shared within and across product lines-is a proven way to increase the effectiveness of innovation processes in established companies and startups alike. Yet, embracing the product platforming strategy turns out to be difficult in practice, particularly within the context of global, diversified companies. In this article, we examine the strategies and challenges of implementing product platforms across multiple business segments and multiple geographies. Using the experience of global LED industry leader Signify, we explore the challenges of global platforming and the technological, organizational, management process transformations needed for success. We also examine how platforming strategies change as manufacturers enter the world of connected things.

Modern economies are characterized by the rising role of nonmarket actors (e.g., regulatory agencies, social activists, labor unions, media) that are gaining influence over the behavior of for-profit firms. These nonmarket stakeholders use their clout over industry players to impose innovations that require costly changes in business practices or technological trajectories while lacking firm-level economic justification. How should a company respond when it is pressured to adopt a new practice or change its products, while the economic calculations suggest that this is going to be a pure cost? Our study suggests alternative strategic responses to imposed innovation pressures and explores the factors determining the choice of an optimal strategy. Grounding the argument on the outside-in approach to pursuing imposed innovations, we propose a framework of organizational responses to external pressures to innovate, with varying degrees of firm engagement and different levels of cooperation with other industry actors. We also present a decision tree approach, allowing organizational decision makers to analyze the contextual determinants and ultimately arrive at the most appropriate, context-determined strategy.