A New Lens for Today’s CEOs
In today’s hyper‑connected economy, CEOs face a dual challenge: capturing market opportunity and safeguarding against systemic risk. For executive leaders, championing innovation isn’t enough firms must embed frameworks of fairness, accountability and resilience. Legal scholar and corporate strategist Tim Wu offers a timely vantage point. His latest work reveals how dominant platforms extract value in ways that send alarm bells through finance, regulatory and boardrooms alike. This article explores Wu’s thinking and draws out three key take‑aways for executive leadership: strategic antitrust readiness, financial resilience in platform markets, and governance for the age of extraction.
Early Life & Career Highlights
Tim Wu grew up in a multicultural setting born in Washington DC to a Taiwanese father and a British-Canadian mother, and later spending time in Switzerland and Canada.
He earned a B.Sc. in Biophysics from McGill University in 1995, followed by a JD from Harvard Law School in 1998.
After clerking for Judge Richard Posner (7th Circuit) and Justice Stephen Breyer (Supreme Court), Wu moved into academe. He became a full professor at Columbia Law School in 2006, where he holds the Julius Silver Chair in Law, Science & Technology.
He has served in public service roles, including as Special Assistant to President Joe Biden for Technology and Competition Policy.
Signature Contributions
Net Neutrality & Open Platforms
Wu coined the term “net neutrality” and arguments for non‑discriminatory access to broadband networks in his 2003 paper “Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination.”
His 2010 book The Master Switch traced how communication industries cycle between openness and control.
Attention Economy & Media Power
In The Attention Merchants (2016) he explored how media and platforms commodify human attention a concept now integral to understanding social‑media business models.
Antitrust & Corporate Concentration
In The Curse of Bigness (2018) Wu presented a legal, economic and historical critique of corporate concentration and called for renewed antitrust enforcement.
His Latest Thesis: The Age of Extraction
Wu’s newest book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (2025) offers a sharp warning. He argues that today’s leading tech platforms have transitioned from serving users and markets to extracting value — through data, attention, ecosystem control and supplier entanglements.
He notes:
“It started a few years ago when I started asking myself, ‘Whatever happened to that promise that the internet was going to make everyone rich?’”
Wu warns that the extraction model now risks not just economic distortion, but democratic erosion. Financial Times
Financial & Corporate Governance Implications for CEOs
1. Strategic Antitrust Readiness
CEOs must view antitrust not as a sidebar, but as an emerging strategic dimension. With Wu’s insights:
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Platform firms may face regulatory scrutiny not just over price‑fixing, but for ecosystem control, data bottlenecks, supplier dependence and “rent‑taking.”
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M&A and platform‑adjacency strategies should be stress‑tested for this extraction‑risk dimension. As Wu observes: “No one should be allowed to buy the AI companies… These giants are very powerful and I think they should be fighting each other.”
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From a governance angle, boards must ask: Does our business model lean towards value creation or value extraction? And what regulatory/reputational risks does that pose?
2. Financial Resilience in Platform Markets
In the age of extraction, financial models shift:
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Firms that dominate platforms achieve high margins not solely from innovation, but from capturing ecosystem value — eg, data, supplier fees, attention monetization. Wu highlights how platforms “host economic activity and extract value, including the harvesting of specialized assets like data and human attention.” Boardroom
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For incumbents and challengers alike, investors are increasingly sensitive to signs of extraction vs sustainable value creation. Financial risk emerges when extraction becomes politically or regulatoryly contested.
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CEOs should build scenario planning: What happens if regulation forces us to unbundle? What if supplier backlash or antitrust action diminishes platform fees? This should inform valuation, capital allocation and M&A decisions.
3. Governance for the Age of Extraction
Governance frameworks must evolve:
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Boards need to incorporate extraction risk into oversight: not just financial compliance, but ecosystem dynamics, data governance, supplier bargaining power, monopoly tensions.
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Leadership narrative matters: If the company is perceived as extractive (taking value disproportionately), it can undermine employee engagement, brand equity and regulatory goodwill. Wu warns of “mass resentment” when extraction drives inequality. Financial Times
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CEOs and boards should adopt transparency on how their platform or business model interacts with users, suppliers, data flows and regulatory boundaries.
Why Tim Wu’s Work Matters for CEOs Today
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Decision‑making lens: Wu offers a framework for interpreting the platform economy’s hidden risks — beyond the obvious technology disruption.
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Legal‑strategic bridge: His insights link law (antitrust, regulatory policy) with business strategy and finance — critical for executive leaders navigating complexity.
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Narrative foresight: Firms that ignore extraction dynamics risk reputational, regulatory and financial shocks. As Wu frames it, the consequences extend markets beyond to democracy itself.
Final Thought & Call-to-Action for CEOs
Tim Wu’s scholarship is more than academic — it is a strategic provocation for leadership. He urges firms to ask: Are we creating value broadly, or extracting value narrowly? Are we building sustainable ecosystems, or leveraging platform power for rent‑taking? In an era where regulation, public sentiment and investor scrutiny are shifting, CEOs must move fast: embed antitrust awareness into strategy, model financial resilience with extracting stress‑tests, and lead with governance that aligns intent, structure and purpose.
