Gartner: firms shift growth to monetisation & platforms

Companies are shifting their growth efforts toward monetisation and platform strategies, according to Gartner, based on an analysis of 1,180 growth initiatives across more than 500 large enterprises.

About 70% of recent growth initiatives focused primarily on monetisation and platformisation, while 21% centred on new products and service innovation. Gartner examined companies across 10 industry sectors to identify which approaches were most closely associated with efficient revenue growth.

The results suggest a change in how large companies are pursuing expansion. Rather than relying mainly on launching new products or entering new markets, many are trying to generate more revenue from existing assets, customer relationships and operating models.

That shift has implications for finance leaders, as capital allocation decisions increasingly depend on whether an organisation can turn existing assets into more reliable sources of income. The study suggests chief financial officers are placing greater weight on pricing, subscriptions, personalisation and platform models when assessing growth plans.

Gartner described this as a shift from value creation to value capture. In practice, businesses are placing greater emphasis on commercialising what they already own or control, rather than assuming product development alone will sustain growth.

Innovation plateau

Central to the analysis is what Gartner called the product innovation plateau: a declining ability for new products alone to deliver lasting competitive advantage, particularly as digital tools make it easier for rivals to copy features and bring alternatives to market more quickly.

Gartner also said advances in artificial intelligence, data and analytics are changing the equation. These technologies are creating more routes to growth through pricing models, customer targeting, subscriptions and platform structures that support repeat transactions and stronger customer retention.

"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 at Gartner.

Archer said the strongest performers are finding ways to generate more value from what they already have.

"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," Archer said.

Sector split

The analysis also highlighted differences between industries. In mature, asset-intensive sectors such as financial services, real estate and utilities, companies are more likely to seek growth by monetising existing assets, including data, internal expertise and established customer relationships.

In technology and digital markets, platform strategies appear more prominent. These models aim to build ecosystems that keep customers engaged longer and can create network effects, where a service becomes more useful as more users participate.

That divergence matters for finance teams because the type of growth investment most likely to deliver returns may vary sharply by sector. Businesses with large installed asset bases may focus on generating additional revenue streams from those holdings, while digital firms may concentrate on building platforms that support recurring interaction between users, partners and services.

"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," Archer said.

He added that companies are already adjusting their approach.

"Companies are now more commonly seeking growth from monetizing and scaling existing assets and customer relationships rather than by product innovation alone," Archer said.

Gartner's findings come as large companies face continued pressure to deliver revenue growth under tighter scrutiny of investment efficiency. For finance leaders, the analysis suggests growth strategies are becoming less about creating entirely new offerings and more about extracting additional value from assets and relationships already in place.

"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," Archer said.