From products to services

From products to services: insights and experience from companies which have embraced the service economy
Young, Laurie
2008
Chichester, England, John Wiley & Sons. 353 p.
Resumen: Included are some of the most famous business names in the western world: Unisys, Ericsson, Michelin, Nokia and HP. For IBM it was Lou Gerstener’s ‘big bet’; at GE it was one of former CEO Jack Welch’s ‘four major strategies’ and, at General Motors, the financial services arm was its most profitable business for many years. Yet very little has been published on this profound transition. As a result, myths and idiocies abound. Some routinely claim that the ‘evolution from products through services to solutions’ is inevitable. Others think that manufacturing is being outsourced to China and India while American or European teenagers face a career in hamburger stalls. The truth is much more fascinating. To succeed in a service business, most functions of a product company need to change. Operations, management, recruitment, finance, sales, new product development and marketing must all be adjusted. So the move into service therefore involves huge risk caused by disruptive and radical change. What has pushed realistic business people in such widely different industrial sectors to take so large a risk? Does their experience contain lessons or warnings for others? Is the trend likely to continue and affect other parts of the world as their economies develop? Will India, China or other developing economies need to learn how to export service once their manufacturing industries mature? Written by a successful businessman who has been at the heart of these changes in several companies and, with case studies from companies like IBM, Unilever, BT, Michelin, Ericsson and Nokia, this book explores the experience of those who have made the transition; and some who have resisted it. It covers in depth subjects such as: strategic focus, change management, service operations, branding a service business, service sales and service marketing. It is the first major work on this subject.
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The service innovation handbook

The service innovation handbook: action-oriented creative thinking toolkit for service organizations
Kimbell, Lucy
2014
Amsterdam, Bis Publishers, 240 p.
Resumen: This is an action-oriented book for managers and entrepreneurs searching ways to tackle issues they face in terms of developing and delivering services. The book focuses on service organizations, but has a broad interpretation of what services are. Directed to the business world and combines inspirational text that is full of examples, with the features of a useful handbook of practical methods with associated templates. The central argument is that managers and entrepreneurs designing service offerings will benefit from using approaches and methods from design and the arts, especially at the early stages of projects. Sometimes called “design thinking” or “design innovation”, such approaches help organizations explore and create new configurations of people and things that support users, customers, staff and partners in creating value together. In short, this book argues that design and arts-based approaches are valuable to managers and entrepreneurs designing services, when uncertainty and ambiguity are high. It shows when and how to use these approaches, introduces specific methods, reviews their strengths and limitations, and finally helps managers think through what it takes to start using them in projects and within teams and develop the culture and behaviours that access the creativity they support.
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The service economy

The service economy: a geographical approach
Illeris, Sven
1996
Chichester, England, John Wiley & Sons. 236 p.
Resumen:Services dominate the modern economy. This controversial and important book reviews research into the development and future of the service economy. Professor Illeris synthesises not only English language research on the nature and function of services, but also introduces the lesser-known but equally important work done on services by researchers in other languages which often reaches surprising and challenging conclusions. While the emphasis is on producer services in the western world, due consideration is also given to the role and significance of personal and household services which have been frequently ignored in the literature. The approach adopted is geographical and macro-economic and among the topics discussed are the nature and classification of service activities, the role and importance of services in the overall economy and the increasing importance of services in regional development and international trade. The overall theme of the book is how our society has been transformed into a service economy and what this implies for individuals, institutions and states as both producers and consumers of services. This is a key text for students and researchers of economics, economic geography, planning, regional science and applied social science as well as of interest to planners, consultants and managers in service industries and government. 
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