Design Studio Website
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Inventive Services
The value of inventive services from BusinessWeek's Innovation and Design Portal

"It's the biggest part of the economy these days, but many companies' innovation remain focused on products. Here's why that needs to change.

Ask most executives how innovation can spur their growth, and they'll immediately think about changes in their product lineup. Wrong. They should be thinking "services."

First of all, there just isn't a lot of information or rigor around the topic. While reams of books and articles abound on the topic of product innovation and product development, very few focus specifically on services and the distinctions therein.

And you would be hard pressed to find a course on service development or innovation on any B-school campus, reflecting the dearth of academic concentration in the area. Today, few universities even teach service management, and if they do, the emphasis falls to quality management and the operational excellence associated with existing service environments, never the invention and nurture of new service concepts. Further, there are few public forums where professionals involved in service innovation can learn from exemplars.

Second, although we have found that the best service innovators draw on the conventional wisdom associated with product development, most aren't using the latest tools, such as ethnographic research and rapid development techniques, to drive innovation. Just as important, they don't understand the basic distinctions between product- and service-innovation environments. Before rushing off to innovate in services, managers would do well to understand their uniqueness.

Finally, research and development groups don't tend to exist in most service companies. This makes it more difficult for innovation expertise to find a home. By comparison, product-based companies regularly invest billions to understand where their future revenue streams will come from.
"
posted by Naina @ Permalink 7/30/2005 06:08:00 PM   0 comments  --- Google It! ---
0 Comments:
Post a Comment

blog navigation
recent entries
monthly archive
innovation links
changethis manifestos
design links
other links
   
RSS and XML Feed Subscribe to Innovation with Bloglines
Listed on BlogShares I'm on orkut
My profile on LinkedIn My profile on Ecademy
Skype Me! Blogger Profile
Innovation Challenge Judge Blogstreet Profile

directions for using the blog
all links are in green: when you take your mouse-pointer over a link, it turns blue with a dashed gray underline. links in the post-body are also dash-underlined.

all links to useful information within the blog are under the *blog navigation* sidebar on the top-right.

the topmost right-corner advertises the yellow pages service provided by my parent organization, InnovationNetwork.

the ASIDE Innovation Blog does not advertise for third-parties and there are no pop-ups associated with the blog.

for any complaints kindly e-mail me at asideblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Naina Redhu has no liability for the contents on the pages of the weblinks under the *innovation*, *design* and *other* categories.

the *ideas@aside* logo is the sole-property of ASIDE and Naina Redhu and is copyrighted under the Creative Commons like the rest of the graphics and writing existing on the ASIDE Innovation Blog.

the blog has been optimized for Internet Explorer and uses websafe colors. the color scheme has been extensively researched for eye-safety for on-screen viewing as well as for the impact of colors on the brain. the colors on this weblog are suitable for a stress-free read and will relax all five senses.

comments relating to subject-matter under innovation / creativity and design / colors are welcome.
All comments, ideas and thoughts on the ASIDE Innovation Blog
are property of their authors unless otherwise stated
Copyright Naina Redhu, 2004
ASIDE is powered by Blogger