Gartner Says CFOs Must Prioritize Platformization and Monetization as Growth Drivers

CFOs and executive leaders must embrace efficient revenue growth by monetizing existing assets and strengthening customer engagement through platformization, rather than by new product innovation or market expansion alone, according to Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company.

Gartner analysts examined the 1,180 growth-related investments, from more than 500 large enterprise firms across 10 industry sectors to understand the main drivers of efficient revenue growth. The analysis revealed a marked shift in the strategies driving revenue growth, with monetization and platformization leading this transition, followed by new product and service innovation, and market expansion (see Figure 1).

“CFOs and executive leaders must adapt to a world where product innovation alone, especially without clear monetization and customer retention pathways, is no longer sufficient,” said Vaughan Archer, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Finance practice. “The companies demonstrating efficient growth are those that have most effectively monetized their existing assets and capabilities, while developing platforms that drive broader, deeper, more sustained customer engagement.

“To keep their companies sustainably profitable in today’s world, CFOs need to understand the ongoing shift from value creation to value capture, where their industry sits in the innovation plateau and ensure capital is directed to a mix of growth drivers that is best aligned to how growth is generated in their business.” 

The product innovation plateau describes the declining ability of new products alone to create sustainable competitive advantage (see Figure 2).

“Digital technologies are making new products easier to replicate, just as advances in AI, data and analytics offer organizations more opportunity to generate growth through pricing, personalization, subscriptions and platform-based business models,” said Archer. “Companies are now more commonly seeking growth from monetizing and scaling existing assets and customer relationships rather than by product innovation alone.”

The analysis found that just 21% of recent growth initiatives were primarily focused on new product and service innovation, whereas approximately 70% were centered on monetization and platformization strategies.

“In mature, asset-intensive sectors such as financial services, real estate and utilities, growth is increasingly driven by monetizing existing assets, such as data, capabilities and customer relationships. By contrast, technology and digital sectors are more likely to generate growth through platform strategies that create network effects and deepen customer engagement,” said Archer.