SERVICE THINKING

The Seven Principles to Discover Innovative Opportunities

Hunter Hastings and Jeff Saperstein

Business Expert Press

A Book Review by Professor Alan Barrell DBA., FRSA – Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Judge Business School, Cambridge, England. February 2014.

Two years ago I was invited to give a keynote presentation at the Annual Conference of the Institute for Customer Service in London. Although at that time I was convinced I understood the meaning of the word “service” and how important it was to satisfy customers to stay in business, my understanding and perception of what service has really come to mean was transformed by the experience of doing some deep thinking and having exposure to new thinking about a world in which so much has been transformed by the development of the worldwide web and social media. I had believed before that mind changing experience that probably the two greatest inventions in history in terms of aiding human progress were indeed Guttenberg’s moving type press and the worldwide web given to us by Tim Berners Lee (great inventions separated by almost five hundred years), I had not travelled as far in my thinking as Douglass Engelbart – in whose memory the authors dedicate this book, and who they quote in chapter one as included here – “The digital revolution is far more significant than the inventing of writing or even the printing press”

The authors base the propositions and provide supportive case material to demonstrate and bring to life that believing service thinking can be transformative is no longer for dreamers. Twenty first Century Business is already largely “post digital revolution” and the smarter corporations and executives are at least aware. In the past two decades, as Hunter and Jeff point out early in the text, in the West, economies have become 80% and more dependent for sustaining and growing GDP and in some cases, such as Hong Kong – remarkable for the speed and scale of transformation, the number stands at 93%. Employment in the Western world is very largely employment in service category companies. And in a world of great general convergence of technology and peoples, the distinction between “product” and “service” has become meaningless. And trends in the East are following the pattern. So when the authors assert “We propose and support a prodigious claim: Service Thinking is a new approach to business that will change virtually every aspect of creating and sustaining enterprises”, and then go on to list details I have no space for here (please read the book !) they have my attention as a businessman entirely. The book proceeds to explore and articulate what all this might mean in ways of enormous importance and value to those who would start businesses, run them, grow and sustain them in this brave new world. “Service Thinking is the framework for this new approach to value creation in the digital economy, with transformative implications for the future of business, work careers, and creation of wealth in the 21st Century. Importantly, the transformation will enable both great economic growth and improved quality of life”

I have given you some very tasty morsels to savour in introducing this book. I proceed to tell you that the development of the arguments through chapters which deal in depth with co-creation, service systems, specialisation and integration and organisational considerations together with positioning thoughts relating to Glo-Mo-Soc (Global, Mobile, Social – I love it!) and aspects of continuous improvement, innovation and transformation, maybe you are ready to order the main course and dig deep into this most thought provoking book.

I quote again from the authors text – “Service Thinking hinges on two overarching changes in the digital economy – 1 – the relationship between Provider and Customer has changed dramatically and continues to evolve; 2 – the design of enterprise operations to serve this new customer relationship is dramatically different from previous business architecture”

Some of the illustrations of how profound some of the changes in customer behaviour have been illustrate the shift from basic decision making about, for instance, buying a cup of coffee. Is Starbucks a global success because it operated coffee shops where coffee is bought and consumed? Or is the Starbucks service and competitive positioning seen by customers as much more than that ? Only one of many examples that support the primary propositions of the book.

For the business practitioner, there is a lot to grab here to get the grey cells racing. Lots of stimulus and specifics on ways we in business might reconsider, re-evaluate, reposition. It struck me that a lot of the urgings given us here to think about those “Seven Principles to Discover Innovative Opportunities” might also make us think about whether we have choices in making changes and adjusting our outlook and actions. In this sense I felt at times a Darwinesque discomfort – contemplating the unchanging realities of evolution and thoughts that only those able to adjust to a changing world and a changing environment survive in the longer term. Perhaps that is a nice thought to leave you with. The book will give you lots of ideas about how to transform and evolve as a surviving species.

Highly recommended